[New York Stock Exchange] U.S. Counter-Blockade of Hormuz Strait... All Major Indexes Open Lower

International Oil Prices Surpass $100 per Barrel

New York Stock Exchange. New York, USA – Special Correspondent Yoonju Hwang

After the breakdown of ceasefire negotiations between the United States and Iran, the U.S. moved to counter-blockade the Strait of Hormuz, causing international oil prices to rise. As a result, on April 13 (local time), all three major U.S. stock indexes fell simultaneously.

According to the Home Trading System (HTS), as of 9:33 a.m. on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 397.46 points (0.83%) from the previous trading day at 47,519.10. The S&P 500 Index, which focuses on large-cap stocks, dropped 19.34 points (0.28%) to 6,797.55. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Index fell 60.71 points (0.26%) to 22,842.19.

The U.S. military announced that starting at 10 a.m. (11 p.m. KST on April 13), it would intercept, turn back, or seize any vessel entering the restricted zone without authorization.

This measure follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement on the social networking service Truth Social, in which he announced, “The U.S. Navy will immediately begin to blockade all vessels entering and exiting the Strait of Hormuz,” after the breakdown of ceasefire negotiations between the United States and Iran.

With growing expectations that the ceasefire will take longer than anticipated, and as oil prices rise, concerns are mounting that this will cause a sustained burden on the global economy, leading to a decline in investor sentiment.

At this time, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery was trading at USD 103.54 per barrel, up 7.24% from the previous session. Brent crude for June delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange was trading at USD 101.88 per barrel, up 7.02% from the previous session.

Oil and energy stocks surged on expectations of rising oil prices. The gains were notable for ExxonMobil (+1.21%), Chevron (+1.95%), Occidental Petroleum (+1.79%), Diamondback Energy (+1.83%), and APA (+2.25%).

Malcolm Melville, a commodity fund manager at Schroders, pointed out, “For the oil market to be convinced the crisis is over, the number of ships passing through the strait must surge in the next two weeks.”

He added, “If the number of ships jumps to 75% of pre-war levels, given that pipelines which had not previously operated at full capacity are now in use, this would indicate that flows have almost returned to normal.”

Most of the top market capitalization stocks were down. Nvidia fell by 1.28%, Apple by 0.88%, Microsoft rose 0.26%, Amazon dropped 0.45%, Alphabet fell 0.37%, and Meta lost 0.31%.

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