US: Stocks fall as investors pare risk on Middle East clash

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks finished sharply lower Friday (Jun 13) as Iran launched counterstrikes in response to an Israeli siege, leaving most non-petroleum equities lower.

While oil producers and service companies rallied with oil prices, major indices spent the entire session in the red as investors shunned risk ahead of the weekend.

“After having a pretty solid run in May and the first part of June, markets found an excuse to take some profits,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist of B Riley Wealth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.8 per cent at 42,197.79.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.1 per cent to 5,976.97, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.3 per cent to 19,406.83.

Analysts described Friday’s selling as orderly.

Investors “are paring back some risk, but this is hardly a panicky sell-off,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

The market is partially in “a wait and see approach to what happens over the weekend because it’s obviously a very fluid volatile situation,” Sosnick added.

Credit card and payment companies were under pressure following a Wall Street Journal report that Walmart and Amazon are exploring the issuance of stablecoins, potentially threatening conventional payment methods.

Visa and PayPal both dropped around 5 per cent, while American Express lost 3.4 per cent.

Adobe sank 5.3 per cent despite reporting higher than expected profits as analysts pointed to disappointment that the company’s artificial intelligence investments have not resulted in more revenue growth so far.

But a more than seven percent rise in crude prices in the wake of the Iran-Israel conflict lifted Halliburton by 5.5 per cent and ConocoPhillips 2.4 per cent. AFP