#stock-markets

#stock-markets

The markets are under pressure to start the session, with all three of the major stock market averages trading in the red. The U.S. is preparing for potential airstrikes on Iran amid escalating tensions, drawing comparisons to the situation leading up to the Iraq invasion in the early 2000s, though President Trump is hopeful for a deal. The uncertainty has sent the Brent oil price soaring to above the $71 per barrel threshold, while Exxon Mobil ( NYSE: XOM) is tacking on 1% today.

The markets are retreating today after a two-day rally in which technology stocks were out front. Today, tech is a drag, with stalwart chipmaker Intel ( Nasdaq: INTC) down by a double digit percentage as worries around chip demand resurface. All three of the major stock market averages are seeing red, including a fractional decline in the Nasdaq Composite. Nvidia ( Nasdaq: NVDA) is a rare gainer today, tacking on 1.6% and preventing the markets from further declines.

Why the relative calm? Well, markets have learned to live with Trumpian tariff adventures. They know the attention-grabbing initial threats do not always translate into action, at least not at the advertised level. With hindsight, Trump's liberation day last April, which did shake markets, created one of the best buying opportunities in years and 2025 as a whole was a bumper year for stock markets almost everywhere.

The markets are posting a dizzying performance after clinching record highs earlier this week. Technology deals and AI advancements are bullish catalysts, but that sentiment is failing to show up in the three of the major stock market indices today, which are mixed out of the gate. Most of the sectors of the economy are trading in the green today with the exception of tech stocks, which are down 1%, weighed down by the likes of Nvidia ( Nasdaq: NVDA), Apple ( Nasdaq: AAPL)

More than $1tn (760bn) has been wiped off the value of the cryptocurrency market in the past six weeks amid fears of a tech bubble and fading expectations for a US rate cut next month. Tracking more than 18,500 coins, the value of the crypto market has fallen by a quarter since a high in early October, according to the data company CoinGecko.

If you dial the clock back [to] two decades ago, if you had money and wanted to invest, you would call up your brokers and talk about what stocks there are available,

Seeing again the flexing of the administration to use industrial policy as a tool to drive its wider economic and trade agenda. Bessent it wouldn't consider stock market volatility when dealing with China on trade. Those kinds of comments have in the past left markets on edge - no Trump put. But not yesterday - the S&P 500 rallied 0.4% as it climbed not just the wall of worry but also its 20-day SMA.