Update: Equities Fall as US-Iran Conflict Flares Up; Wall Street Logs Gains for August
(Updates with market moves at the end of the day, and other changes, if any.)Stocks on Wall Street fell on the last trading day of August as oil prices jumped following an escalation in the US-Iran conflict, though equity benchmarks posted monthly gains.The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Monday trading 0.7% lower at 53,185.90. The S&P 500 declined 0.3% to 7,686.14, while the Nasdaq Composite edged down 0.1% to 26,370.89. Except energy and technology, all sectors were in the red, led by communication services.For the month August, the Nasdaq climbed 3.9%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.6%, following two straight monthly losses for both indexes. The Dow added 1.3%, recording its fifth consecutive monthly rise.West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 3.1% at $85.97 a barrel in Monday late-afternoon trade, while Brent advanced 2.7% to $90.45. Both benchmarks were on track to post their second monthly gains in a row.The US and Iran reportedly traded strikes for the first time in a month, with American forces attacking two Iranian rocket launchers on Iran's Larak Island, multiple media outlets reported. A spokesperson for US Central Command said that Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reported.The attack is the first confirmed US military strike against Iran since late July and comes after Washington launched an economic campaign last week to cut off financial channels that support Iran.Iran said it retaliated by attacking US bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, according to a CNN report."These developments have once again reduced the prospects of bringing the conflict to an end," Saxo Bank said Monday in a report. "However, with an estimated (6 million to 8) million barrels per day of crude flowing through the strait, the upside risk is for now being capped."US Treasury yields were mixed, with the two-year yield little changed at 4.35% while the 10-year yield rose 3.8 basis points to 4.76%.Fresh labor market data are scheduled to be released later this week, beginning with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for July on Tuesday, followed by August's ADP employment report on Wednesday. The Challenger, Gray & Christmas job cut and the government's nonfarm payrolls data, both for August, are due on Thursday and Friday, respectively.US nonfarm payrolls are projected to rebound stronger than expected in August, Oxford Economics said in a note Monday, describing labor market conditions as balanced. The brokerage expects nonfarm payrolls to have increased by 95,000 this month, compared with the Bloomberg-polled consensus of a 55,000 increase.The odds of a quarter-point rate hike next month rose to 66% on Monday from 57% on Friday, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The probability that the Fed will keep the benchmark rate steady fell to 34% from 43%.In company news, shares of Edison International (EIX) sank 23%, the worst performer on the S&P 500, followed by PG&E's (PCG) 20% slide. The state of California amended legislation to protect wildfire survivors' right to sue utilities for equipment-caused blazes, ABC7 reported Sunday. Sempra (SRE) fell 3.1%.Aon (AON) has agreed to acquire insurance brokerage USI Insurance Services from KKR (KKR) and other shareholders in an all-cash deal worth roughly $17 billion. Aon shares slumped 9.5%, the third-steepest decline on the S&P 500.Nvidia (NVDA) expanded its partnership with chip designer MediaTek, including a $3.5 billion investment, to support adoption of the company's proprietary interconnect technology for custom rack-scale artificial intelligence chips. Shares of the tech bellwether rose 1.5%, the third-biggest gain on the Dow.Broadcom (AVGO), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Dell Technologies (DELL) and Snowflake (SNOW) are among the companies expected to release their latest financial results this week.Spot gold was little changed at $4,454.05 per troy ounce, while silver lost 0.8% to $67.25 per ounce.
