Wall Street falls as US-Iran peace optimism fades

By Noel Randewich and Purvi Agarwal

Aug 11 (Reuters) - ‌Wall Street fell ​on Tuesday, ​with Amazon and Alphabet dipping, as investors became more pessimistic about a potential deal to bring stability to the Middle East.

The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the U.S. ‌does not change its behavior and accept Iran's conditions to end the war, the newly ⁠appointed secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said.

Brent crude futures held near one-week highs in choppy trading, while the S&P 500 energy ‌sector index jumped 0.9%, leading the ‌11 sector indexes.

"As has been the case for months, it's just really hard to come to an agreement that works for everyone. Oil is a little higher, pricing in more uncertainty around that," said Ross Mayfield, ​investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky.

"The market has obviously gyrated around this conflict at times, but it hasn't been the big headwind that a lot of people imagined it might be."

Amazon and Alphabet each ⁠fell more than 2%, while SpaceX dipped 5.2%.

Alternative asset managers rose, with Apollo Global jumping 6.1% and Blackstone rallying 4.4%. They were among financial institutions ​that recently partnered with Nvidia to establish compute-financing platforms aimed at mobilizing more than $500 billion.

Nvidia was trading near flat.

The S&P 500 was down 0.35% at 7,725.72 points.

The Nasdaq declined ​0.74% to 26,409.73 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ‌down 0.22% at 53,854.61 points.

Strong quarterly earnings helped lift the S&P 500 to all-time highs last week, while the Nasdaq was down about 2% from its record high close ⁠on June 2.

Signs that heavy investments by Microsoft and Amazon in AI data centers are paying off have also lifted sentiment.

Consumer and producer price inflation readings, due over the next two days, will be crucial in shaping market expectations on the Federal Reserve's ⁠policy path, given Chair Kevin Warsh's goal of reducing guidance on monetary policy.

Traders are split over the likelihood of an interest rate ​hike at the central bank's September meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Rising energy costs, stemming from the Iran conflict, have spurred inflation concerns and complicated the paths of central banks globally.

Jabil added 5% after UBS upgraded the electronics firm's stock to "buy" from "neutral."

Rocket ‌Lab slipped 1% after appearing to push back the timeline for the first flight of its Neutron rocket.

U.S.-listed shares of On dropped 21% after the sportswear brand missed ‌sales estimates.

LNG company Venture Global fell 7.2% after its second-quarter revenue slightly missed estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P ⁠500 by a 1.5-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted ‌21 new highs and one new ​low; the Nasdaq recorded 97 new highs and 68 new lows.

(Reporting by Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Joyjeet Das and ‌Rod Nickel)

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• First Solar raised at Baird as Section 232 clears path for bookings
• BTIG’s Krinsky says risk/reward for equities looks ‘quite poor’
• Coya Therapeutics, Inc. (COYA) Tops Q2 EPS by 42c