US stocks tumble as Brent oil tops $100

Wall Street stocks tumbled early Thursday as oil prices shot higher on worsening effects of the US-Iran war while Tesla and Google parent Alphabet fell sharply after earnings reports.

International oil benchmark Brent North Sea crude topped $100 a barrel after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck oil tankers in the Red Sea. The attack brought the war roiling the Middle East to a new front.

Alphabet dropped about six percent while Tesla slid more than 10 percent, reflecting investor angst over hefty capital spending investments on new technologies.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.8 percent to 51,783.21.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.8 percent to 7,441.90, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.5 percent to 25,310.00.
Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital described the latest jump in oil prices as a growing concern, saying "investors worry that there's no end in sight right now to the conflict and the potential for high oil prices to hang over our heads for months."

Regarding tech industry earnings, "there's this balance between optimism and skepticism, and it is tilting a little more towards skepticism," Ablin said.

AFP

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