Wall Street slips as Middle East escalations lifts oil; Trump-Xi talks in focus
Wall Street's main indexes dropped on Thursday, with the blue-chip Dow hitting a more than three-month low, as escalating tensions in the Middle East lifted oil prices and Treasury yields while investors monitored a US-China summit. Crude prices shot up $4 a barrel, with Brent futures hitting $107 after Yemen's Houthis said they attacked Saudi military sites in Jazan, days after US and Iran leaders exchanged barbs at the UN General Assembly. The developments stoked inflation concerns, with the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond reaching its highest since 2004. Bond prices move inversely to yields. Technology stocks led declines on the S&P 500, with Nvidia, Broadcom and Microsoft slipping over 1 percent each. Analysts, however, said faith in the AI trade, which powered the Nasdaq to record highs earlier this week, helped limit losses. "People were maybe less willing to chase stocks, but they didn't seem particularly eager to sell them," said Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers. Oracle dropped 5 percent after a report said it sent a "force majeure" notice to protect i
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