The S&P 500 declined 0.58% to close at 7,673.52, with health care pacing eight of eleven sectors lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.18% to 52,786.07, dragged down by a 10%-plus slide in Amgen following Novartis clinical trial setbacks. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.32% to 26,421.41, though semiconductor names bucked the trend. Volume was heavy at 15.7 billion shares, above the 20-session average of 14.9 billion.

Software stocks bore the brunt of selling after OpenAI’s launch of its GPT-6 Astra model reignited fears of AI disruption. Salesforce and Intuit both fell about 4%, while ServiceNow dropped 5%. The S&P 500 software and services index declined 1.4% for a second straight day. “Astra has kind of reignited the software disruption fears and it’s resumed that old trend that we got used to for a while, where semiconductor stocks and data center capex beneficiaries do well, while software stocks do poorly,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management.

On the positive side, Intel jumped 9% on a DigiTimes report of expected price increases and a Northland Securities upgrade to outperform. Qualcomm rose 3.2% on its landmark Amazon AI chip deal. The S&P 500 energy index gained 1%, with Marathon Petroleum up 2.4% and Occidental Petroleum adding 1%. The benchmark index is now valued at 19 times expected earnings, down from 21 in early June, reflecting increased earnings expectations but also persistent geopolitical overhang. Apple fell 1.2% ahead of Wednesday’s event where new CEO John Ternus is expected to unveil the company’s first foldable iPhone, priced as high as $2,199.

Global Stock Indices — 8 September 2026. All three major U.S. indices declined; ASX 200 fell 1% to a six-week low.

The U.S.-Iran conflict deepened over the weekend and into Tuesday, with kinetic action on multiple fronts. U.S. Central Command on Saturday struck three Iranian crude oil carriers in retaliation for what it said were IRGC missile attacks on two U.S. Navy warships. Iran’s state media responded by claiming Tehran targeted six ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, including three tankers and three U.S. vessels. The Wall Street Journal reported a second wave of Iranian attacks on U.S. Navy ships on Monday that the military had yet to acknowledge, though no American ships were struck.

The rhetoric escalated sharply. Mohsen Rezaee, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Washington had “received a clear warning from Iran’s new missiles” and threatened to meet U.S. economic warfare with a “maritime exclusion zone across the Persian Gulf.” Separately, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned: “It’s simple: the oil and gas production chain here is sprawling, accessible, and exposed. American oil and gas companies across these waters and facilities share that exposure. Strike our assets and you get struck.”

Iran-backed Houthi militants launched fresh strikes on Saudi Arabia’s 400,000-barrel-per-day Jazan refinery near the Red Sea, forcing Saudi Arabia to halt operations at several energy facilities. Saudi officials called the attacks a “dangerous escalation” threatening export resilience. According to TankerTrackers.com, crude oil exports from the Middle East in August were down 39% from a January–February baseline of 18.5 million barrels per day. Vitol Group CEO Russell Hardy estimated that oil flows through Hormuz are now roughly 10 million barrels a day — about half of pre-war levels.

Brent crude surged 2.1% intraday to touch $99.45 a barrel before settling near $98 — a six-week high — after Houthi strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure and reported explosions near Iran’s Kharg Island, the country’s main oil export facility. WTI crude rose 2.8% to settle at $94.08 a barrel. Brent is up more than 60% year-to-date, while Europe’s diesel benchmark is closing in on $200 a barrel. “Energy prices can’t keep rising without impacting the market, and at some point even a tame inflation report later this week may not mean much if crude oil prices remain in the mid-90s, approaching triple digits,” warned Bespoke Investment Group strategists.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered a brief reprieve, telling his Japanese counterpart that “significant progress” had been made in talks with Oman over a temporary transit route through the Strait of Hormuz. But the broader picture remains bleak, with global inventories declining at a rapid pace and refined fuel markets flashing signs of acute tightness. Vitol’s Hardy estimated the loss of about 2 million barrels a day of Middle East exports and a further 2 million from Russia due to Ukraine drone attacks.

Copper hit a record LME high at $14,728 a ton, up 1.5%, driven by tightening global supply and U.S.-bound flows ahead of possible tariffs. Gold fell 1% to $4,360.27 an ounce despite geopolitical stress, suggesting positioning-driven selling as rising real yields compete for safe-haven flows. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield held near 4.79%, not far from November 2023 highs. The dollar index was little changed at 98.86. The yen surged nearly 4% over the past week to 154.23 per dollar — its strongest rally in two years — raising fears of a carry trade unwind ahead of an expected Bank of Japan rate hike. The ECB is all but certain to raise euro zone rates by a quarter point on Thursday.

S&P 500 Forward P/E Ratio — Down to 19x from 21x in June, reflecting higher earnings expectations and geopolitical overhang. Source: LSEG.

Brent crude advanced to a six-week high as strikes on Middle East energy infrastructure stoked supply fears. Source: ICE.

The macro backdrop shifted decisively hawkish following Friday’s August employment report, which showed 162,000 nonfarm payrolls added — nearly triple the anticipated 55,000 — with the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1%. June and July payrolls were revised upward by a combined 55,000. The data, combined with stubbornly high inflation, pointed to an overheating economy and prompted traders to boost the odds of a 25bp Fed rate hike at the September 15–16 meeting to roughly 60%, per the CME FedWatch tool.

Mixed messaging from Fed officials added to uncertainty. Chair Kevin Warsh struck a hawkish tone at Jackson Hole in late August, while FOMC voting members John Williams and Christopher Waller pushed back with dovish remarks last week. Attention now turns to Thursday’s PPI report and Friday’s CPI, with economists projecting a headline CPI rise of 0.4% in August and a core figure of 0.2% — which would bring the annual core gauge down to 2.4%, the smallest year-over-year increase since 2021.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his expanded buyback program for older government securities was aimed at quelling a “fever” in the bond market, disputing claims that Treasury weakness reflects fiscal sustainability concerns. “If everyone was worried about the credit of the US, you would sell US bonds and buy German bonds — and it’s the opposite,” Bessent said. He rejected comparisons to quantitative easing, describing the initiative instead as a version of the Fed’s old “Operation Twist.” President Trump on Friday called on the Fed to lower interest rates, threatening to stop trading with countries running a U.S. surplus — his most vocal pressure on the central bank since Warsh took over.

Australian shares are set to open cautiously higher, with ASX 200 futures up 24 points (0.3%) to 8,931 near 6am AEST, though gains pared from earlier as Wall Street selling intensified into the close. The benchmark slumped 1% to a six-week low below 9,000 yesterday, with 10 of 11 sectors in the red and the Australian 10-year yield climbing to 5.21% — its highest since 2011.

RBA Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser identified inflation as the “one big problem” facing the economy and warned the bank stands ready to raise rates, with Westpac pencilling in a November hike. The Australian dollar was steady at 0.7218 despite the risk sell-off, trading more on global sentiment than domestic catalysts. Santos got a boost from stronger oil, with Citi bumping its price target to $9.20 after a Papua LNG stake increase.