Closing Bell: Iran Uncertainty Weighs on Oil and Equities

U.S. Stocks fell modestly on Monday as oil prices rose, and investors weighed rising tensions in the Middle East. 

The S&P 500 (SPX) was down 0.52%, while the Nasdaq-100 (NDX) fell 0.17%. The Dow Industrials Index ($DJI) was down or 0.51% on Monday while the small-cap Russell 2000 (RUT) fell 0.35%. 

Crude rose more than 3% Monday and was near $84 per barrel after hours as traders contemplated the potential for stalled oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz. The memorandum of understanding, potentially ceasing greater hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, was set to expire Monday. Negotiations between the two sides have stalled. Iran has ruled out talks to extend the memorandum of understanding, state news agency Tasnim reported. President Donald Trump made comments Monday about Oman and back door Iran negotiation channels, according to media reports. See $90 to $110 Oil to Hit Market? David McAlvany's Bull Case for Crude 

Rising yields also created headwinds for stocks: the benchmark 10-Year yield rose 3 basis points to 4.72%. The 30-Year Yield was above 5.3% to hit its highest level since early 2007. 

Memory Chip stocks were a bright spot in the session. Sandisk (SNDK) rallied 8.9%, Micron (MU) rose 4.13%, and Western Digital (WDC) finished Monday up 5.35%. The PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 1.6%. 

Four nuggets of interesting news from Monday’s market action: 

Nvidia (NVDA) shares were flat Monday after news that it agreed to provide a guarantee of up to $105 billion help OpenAI lease a data center in Ohio being developed by SoftBank-owned SB Energy with the first 800 megawatts expected in 2028, and up to 8 gigawatts in potential capacity, according to Reuters. This would be one of the chipmaker’s largest infrastructure financing commitments, the report said. Nvidia also said it would invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy. See Stock Market Today: NVDA Backs OpenAI Data Center, MU Above $1,000, BRK/B Exits STZ 

Morgan Stanley said that annual revenue from the Amazon.com (AMZN) business unit Amazon Web Services could reach $1 trillion over the next 8 to 10 years, from $170 billion in annualized sales today. That would mean a stock price near $500 by the end of 2027, according to the Morgan Stanley analysis, parsed by MarketWatch/Dow Jones and published by Morningstar.com. Amazon shares closed Monday down 0.51% to $261.31. 

Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded Apple (AAPL) from Neutral to Buy and raised its price target from $260 to $400. Apple shares were down fractionally to $305.59 Monday. See Example Trades: AMZN, GOOGL, AAPL | Fast Market 

The Qwen family of large language models developed by Alibaba (BABA) Cloud, with an estimated 3 billion global downloads over the past six months, has surpassed rivals Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL) in downloads, according to The Straits Times, an English-language publication based in Singapore. Shares of Alphabet slipped 0.6% Monday, while shares of Meta tumbled 3.5%. Alibaba’s American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) were up 0.73%. Monday's Final Takeaways: BABA Sells Gaming Unit, Social Media's 'Big Tobacco Moment' 

This week brings quarterly results from Home Depot (HD), Lowe's (LOW), Target (TGT), and Walmart (WMT). See Retail Earnings and Consumer Take Center Stage This Week 

For this week’s economic and earnings calendar, see Week Ahead: Retail Earnings, FOMC Minutes, Housing Data in Focus 

Angrej Singh and Tom White contributed to this article 

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