Update: US Equity Indexes Rise With Tech While Treasury Yields, Crude Oil Slide as Process to Tighten Noose Around Iran Begins
(Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data, analyst comments and company/geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)US equity indexes rose as technology topped sector charts while government bond yields and crude oil extended declines after the Treasury Department began a campaign to tighten sanctions on Iran.The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.5% to 26,151.30, the S&P 500 climbed 0.3% to 7,677.28, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.3% to 53,577.40 on Tuesday. Communication services was one of the biggest gainers, while energy and consumer staples led decliners at the close. Nvidia's (NVDA) quarterly earnings are due after the bell on Wednesday.The Treasury Department is targeting aviation, shipping, technology, gold and digital assets such as cryptocurrency to choke off Iran's economy, CNN reported. The US is also threatening to impose damaging new sanctions on countries that refuse to cut economic ties with Tehran.Iran pledged to fight back against expanded US sanctions, expressing confidence that major trading partners would resist the pressure campaign and saying that Washington was keen to revive talks, Reuters reported.Hours after the US sanctioned dozens of Chinese entities and threatened to target an unspecified "major financial institution" for its dealings with Tehran, Beijing responded by saying its relationship with Iran "should not be disrupted or undermined," Bloomberg reported. China will take "all necessary measures" to safeguard its interests, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian was cited as saying.China is the number one buyer of Iranian oil and has insisted it will keep buying about 1.4 million barrels per day, or more than 80% of Iran's crude it currently imports despite US sanctions, according to a Stifel note.The front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract sank 5.5% to $80.34 per barrel, and global benchmark North Sea Brent plunged 6.5% to $86.18 per barrel.US Treasury yields fell on Tuesday. The 30-year slumped 7.4 basis points to 5.16%, the 10-year dropped 8.1 basis points to 4.62%, and the two-year retreated six basis points to 4.19%.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's surprise plan to tamp down US borrowing costs by expanding bond buybacks is having an impact as Treasuries have outperformed equivalent-maturity swaps, narrowing the 30-year spread between the two to the smallest since February, Bloomberg reported.The US administration may be trying to create space for more corporate bond issuance in H2, with the specific goal of helping accelerate the AI infrastructure build-out, bringing the benefits of that build-out sooner and at a lower financial cost than otherwise would have been possible, a Macquarie note said.Meanwhile, the Conference Board's measure of consumer confidence fell to 89.4 in August from 90.2 in July, compared with expectations for no change in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. New home sales fell to a 607,000 annual rate in July from an upwardly revised 678,000 in June, below the 620,000 expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. Home sales were down 6.3% from a year ago.July's personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, a key data point in monetary policy formulation, is due Wednesday.Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) lowered its full-year outlook amid a challenging athletic footwear and apparel marketplace while fiscal Q2 results missed market estimates. Shares sank 31%. Among the steepest decliners on the Dow and the S&P 500 were sports goods retailers Nike (NKE) and Lululemon Athletics (LULU).
