Brent closes above $100 for the first time since July and…

Brent closes above $100 for the first time since July and the 10-year hits 4.86%: Wall Street falls a third day while Cloudflare +10%, Datadog +7% and Meta +7% catch the money the chip leaders gave back

Wall Street fell for a third day on Wednesday, and for the third day the reason was two prices, not a company. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 405 points, or 0.8%, to 52,380.66; the S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 7,636.36; the Nasdaq Composite 0.6% to 26,253.34; the Russell 2000 1.4%. Brent crude settled at $100.71, up 2.9%, its first close in triple figures since July, after Iran said it had attacked ten ships near the Strait of Hormuz in answer to the United States sinking five Iranian tankers — the biggest declared exchange of attacks on shipping since the war began in February — and warned it was ready for a more intense war; the British maritime agency UKMTO reported several merchant ships struck on both sides of the strait. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.857%, its highest since November 2023, after the Treasury said it would buy back up to $6 billion of 10- to 20-year debt today, triple its normal operation but smaller than the market had come to expect; the afternoon’s 10-year auction cleared at 4.834% with strong demand and pulled yields off their highs. Energy was the only one of the eleven sectors to rise, +0.8%; industrials −1.5%, consumer discretionary −1.3%, utilities and staples −1.2% did the damage, and the VIX rose about 5% to around 16.6.

The Morning 10

1 Third day down: Dow −0.8% to 52,381, S&P −0.5% to 7,636, Nasdaq −0.6%, Russell −1.4% — energy the only sector up, Alphabet −2.3%, Amazon −1.8%, Apple −0.3% after its event
2 The flip held to the bell: Cloudflare +10.5%, Datadog +7.2%, Meta +6.6%, Marvell +4.3%, Astera +4.0% — while the software ETF still fell 0.8% with Shopify −5.5%, CoreWeave −4.9%, IonQ −5.8%
3 Chips: the fund beat the index for a third day, but the leaders faded — Nvidia −0.9%, Broadcom −1.1%, TSMC −0.8%, ASML −2.0% against AMD +3.0%, Micron +2.8%, Intel +1.7%, Corning +1.5%
4 Oil: Brent settles at $100.71, the first close above $100 since July, after the biggest exchange of attacks on tankers since the war began — Booking −3.8%, SpaceX −3.9%, airlines and cruise lines lower
5 Bonds: 10-year 4.857%, highest since November 2023 — the Treasury triples its buyback to $6 billion and the market wanted more; the auction clears at 4.834% with strong demand; TLT below $82
6 Asia sells the oil, not the chips: Kospi 7,043 after a morning drop to 6,961, SK hynix +0.2%, Advantest +2.7%, Tokyo Electron −2.3%, Hong Kong −1.3% with Alibaba −3.2%, Australia −1.4%
7 Our indices on Wednesday’s closes: Rubin +0.1% (Systems +3.4%, Substrates +2.4%, Memory +2.0% against Thermal −3.1%), Agentic Winners −1.9%, HALO −1.8%, Euro-AI −1.8%, AEI +0.1%
8 Print record: Zscaler graded sold at −6.6%, Samsara flat at −0.3% — Oracle reports tonight from $161.70 with an 11% move priced, Adobe from $254.86 after falling on ten of its last twelve reports
9 Gold $4,463 after GLD +0.9%, silver +2.3%, bitcoin $78,500 holds the $78,000 line, dollar 98.7 — S&P futures +0.2%, Nasdaq futures +0.1%
10 Thursday’s clock: ECB decision with a quarter-point to 2.50% priced, US producer prices and jobless claims at 12:30 UTC, the $6 billion Treasury buyback, Oracle and Adobe after the close — then CPI Friday, the Fed on Tuesday and Wednesday, the BoJ next Thursday and Friday

The full Morning 10 →

On the tape

The permanent record of one trading day on Closelooknet — an investment research diary, not advice. Today's live view is the homepage.