The Nasdaq fell 2% during trading. Brent crude surpassed $109 per barrel for the first time in a month

The Nasdaq Composite, an index of U.S. technology companies, fell more than 2% during trading on October 16, while the broad-market S&P 500 index lost about 1%, and the blue-chip index fell 0.3%.

At the same time, the price of Brent crude rose sharply: according to data from the Intercontinental Exchange, the price of December futures climbed from less than $106 per barrel to more than $109 in about two hours. The price of crude oil exceeded $109 for the first time since September. Prices for U.S. WTI crude rose 3.3% to more than $101 per barrel.

Oil prices rose more than 3% ahead of the weekend amid ongoing uncertainty over supplies from the Middle East due to the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, and as investors sought to assess how much diesel fuel Russia is capable of supplying to global markets, Reuters reports. Since the start of the week, the price of Brent has risen by more than 4%, while WTI has risen by nearly 9%.

“The conflict in the Middle East keeps coming back [onto the agenda], and I think it remains to be seen how much diesel fuel Russia can actually supply to the market. These two factors are forcing traders to remain buyers,” said Dennis Kistler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial (as quoted by Reuters).

In addition, concerns about supplies have intensified due to the rapid increase in the number of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, Reuters reports. “The intensified Iranian attacks have led to a sharp decline in the flow of raw materials from the [Persian] Gulf,” the agency quoted analysts at Kpler as saying. They expect a slower and more uneven recovery in shipments through the Strait of Hormuz without a comprehensive political deal, Reuters added.

On the stock market, chipmakers’ shares remain in the spotlight: the VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell 2.8% during Friday’s trading session. This week could be its worst since July: it has lost 8% over five trading days, CNBC noted. On October 16, Micron shares fell more than 4%, while Advanced Micro Devices and SanDisk shares each dropped 5%. Among the reasons are investor concerns about intensifying competition from Chinese companies, as well as discussions about when the market might become oversaturated, CNBC reported.

Investors are also concerned about non-cloud companies that provide computing power for artificial intelligence. CoreWeave’s stock fell by about 13% on Friday, while Nebius’s stock fell by 12%.

For the Nasdaq index, this week could be its worst since June: it has lost more than 4% over this period, CNBC reported. The S&P 500 has lost 2% over the past five days. The Dow, on the other hand, is up—albeit by less than 1%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor