NYSE
S&P 500 futures lost 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.5%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 75 points, or 0.2%.
Shares of Oracle dropped more than 7% in extended trading after the software giant announced plans to raise an additional $20 billion in equity and debt to pay for its artificial intelligence buildout.
U.S. Central Command forces launched more “self-defense strikes” against Iran late Wednesday, according to Centcom’s post on social media platform X. The attacks came at the direction of President Donald Trump, according to the post. West Texas Intermediate crude futures advanced 2% to trade around $92 a barrel.
Stocks fell during Wednesday’s regular trading session, thanks to another rout in the chip sector and a ramp-up in tensions with Iran. The Dow tumbled 953.33 points, or 1.87%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.62%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.98%.
Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, said that many investors are now buying into what they believe to be the opposite of the artificial intelligence trade that drove stocks for much of this year.
“I think what people are saying are, where can we go that kind of hedges that tech trade? What would be the antithesis of the momentum and the beta?” she said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re seeing that rotation out of tech into some things that have been beaten down a little bit over the past months.”
Fernandez added that she’s seen her clients increasingly put money into other areas such as pharmaceuticals and biotech within healthcare, as well as the financials and energy sectors.
The fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was further threatened on Wednesday, after Trump signaled that Tehran was taking “too long” to agree to a potential deal and would “pay the price.” He also pledged more strikes against the country, saying that the U.S. will be “attacking them very hard.”
Investors will be keeping a close eye on May’s producer price index reading, which will be released on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the wholesale inflation reading to have risen 0.7% on a monthly basis, while core inflation — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — is forecast to have added 0.5%. This is below the respective 1.4% and 1% headline and core increases in April.
Traders will also watch for initial jobless claims from the week ended June 6 on Thursday morning.
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