Markets still struggling as Middle East shooting expands

02 Oct 2024, 11:36 by Charley Blaine · The Fresno Bee

When the missiles started to fly over Israel, stocks in the United States tanked.

As oil prices moved higher, tech stocks swooned as investors tried to gauge whether the shelling of Israel by Iran meant an all-out war was erupting in the Middle East.

And that was just the start of a very bad day.

A dock strike erupted at ports from Houston to Portland, Maine. That could produce a price surge for fruits and vegetables. Most of the bananas Americans consume come into the United States at the Port of Wilmington in Delaware.

It could disrupt the arrival of Holiday toys at stores, although companies like Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST) had been bringing in foreign-made goods earlier than usual.

A long strike could affect the November elections.

It wasn't really what market expects had expected after the third quarter ended on Monday and fourth quarter began. And there wasn't a clear answer to many of the issues raised by the missiles and the strike by the end of trading in New York.

The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 0.9%. Its year-to-date change dropped from 20.81% on Monday to 19.7% on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrials were off 173 points, or 0.4%, at 42,157 after tumbling 385 points soon after the open, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 279 points, or 1.5%, to 17,910.

Interest rates moved lower. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 3.737 on Tuesday from Monday's 3.787%. Mortgage News Daily's estimate of mortgage rates fell to 6.2% from 6.24% on Monday.

A worker unloads bananas from a truck, at a market in Colombo, Sri Lanka IDREES MOHAMMED/Getty ImagesIDREES MOHAMMED/Getty Images

Stocks may be pressured again

Stocks are likely to move lower again on Wednesday as well.

Futures trading has the Dow moving down more than 100 points at the open. The S&P 500 was showing a 10-point decline ahead of the open. The Nasdaq-100 Index was looking at a 26-point loss on top of its own 287-point loss on Tuesday.

Crude oil was moving up again, but gasoline prices were at least holding steady, with the national average prices of gasoline at $3.20 a gallon and many states seeing prices below $3 a gallon.

The one saving grace is there are few important economic reports due on Wednesday, and only a earnings reports of note: Conagra (CAG) , the big food company, and Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI) , famed for its denim ware.

But things get more exciting Thursday when the Labor Department's weekly report on jobless claims comes out. And Friday's jobs report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is the most important economic report of the month.

Fund manager buys and sells:

The Middle East: always on investors' minds

If you ask money managers and investment managers about their worst fears, turmoil in the Middle East is always cited. Ed Yardeni wrote Tuesday morning that a "widening Middle East war has been our number one risk scenario over the past year for the bull market in stocks."

For good reason. Disruptions in oil supplies means economic disruptions around the world. The only winners, really are oil producing countries not at war with Israel and oil companies.

Chevron (CVX) added 1.7% to $149.70 on Tuesday. Exxon Mobil (XOM) jumped 2.% to $119.93.

You'd think Tesla (TSLA) , which doesn't make gas-powered vehicles. would be up. You'd be wrong. The shares dropped 1.4% to $258.02. General Motors (GM) was up 4 cents to $44.88. Ford Motor (F) added 19 cents to $10.75.

Tech stocks overall had a mediocre day. Nvidia (NVDA) fell 3.7% to $117. Apple (AAPL) dropped 2.9% to $226.21.

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