[New York Stock Market] Full-Scale War Drives Oil Prices Higher... Major Indexes Plunge

Oil Prices Surge as Middle East Energy Facilities Attacked

Iran War Escalates to Full-Scale Conflict

Investor Sentiment Weakens, Markets Decline Again

As Israel and Iran attacked energy facilities in the Middle East, escalating the conflict to a full-scale war, the three major U.S. stock indexes opened lower on March 19 (local time). The previous day, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) emphasized the uncertainty surrounding the Iran war, and with the full-scale war atmosphere driving up international oil prices, market anxiety appeared to intensify.

At 10:39 a.m. on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 314.30 points (0.68%) at 45,910.85 from the previous session. The large-cap S&P 500 index was down 39.86 points (0.60%) at 6,584.84, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index was down 187.38 points (0.84%) at 21,965.04.

According to Investing.com, Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil prices, was trading at $111.72 per barrel, up 4.06% from the previous session at this time. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $96.50 per barrel, up 1.09% from the previous session.

The sharp rise in international oil prices was due to Israel's attack on the South Pars gas field the previous day. South Pars, the world's largest gas field, is jointly operated by Iran and Qatar. After Israel attacked Iran's energy facilities, Iran responded by attacking energy facilities in the Qatar region, signaling its intent to further expand the conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned that if additional attacks continued, he would "blow up the entire South Pars gas field on a large scale." As the Iran war escalated in the form of attacks on energy facilities in the Middle East, investor sentiment appeared to weaken.

Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge pointed out, "The core dilemma of this situation remains the same," adding, "The U.S. and Israel have 'won' in conventional warfare, but there appears to be no military solution to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without the deployment of ground troops." In other words, without a diplomatic solution, the likelihood of the strait returning to normal remains low.

The energy sector as a whole is on the rise. Occidental Petroleum is up 3.60%, Diamondback Energy is up 1.51%, and APA is surging by 6.28%. Among refiners, Chevron is up 1.58%, while Exxon Mobil remains nearly flat at -0.03%.

Airline stocks are all weakening as the conflict expands. Delta is down 0.81%, American Airlines is down 1.48%, and United Airlines has fallen 2.32%.

Micron Technology, which drew attention for its strong results, is currently down 1.03%. Citibank analysts attributed this to "some profit-taking," as the company's recent quarterly output nearly tripled due to a memory supply shortage.

Most large-cap stocks are also declining. Nvidia is down 1.08%, Microsoft 0.52%, Amazon 1.11%, Alphabet 0.98%, and Meta 1.12%. Only Apple is barely holding onto gains, up 0.24%.

CNBC analyzed that this selling pressure stemmed from growing concerns that the U.S. economy could face prolonged stagflation due to a higher-than-expected Producer Price Index (PPI) report, the Federal Reserve's upward revision of inflation expectations, and the ongoing Iran war.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.