Global sell-off in stocks slams Wall Street as oil prices leap even higher on war woes
Oil prices made the leap as Iran struck the US embassy in Saudi Arabia
A worldwide sell-off for stocks is slamming onto Wall Street on Tuesday, and oil prices are leaping even higher as worries rise that the war with Iran is widening and may do more sustained damage to the global economy than feared.
The S&P 500 dropped by 1.8 per cent in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 907 points, or 1.9 per cent, as of 9.35am Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.1 per cent lower.
It was just a day ago that US stocks opened with sharp losses, only to recover all of them and end the day with slight gains. But that was with the caveat that oil prices did not jump too high, like to more than US$100 per barrel.
On Tuesday, oil prices got closer to that mark and raised more alarms. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose by another 8.2 per cent to US$84.14. It was sitting near US$70 less than a week ago. A barrel of benchmark US crude, meanwhile, rose 8 per cent to US$76.92.
Oil prices made the leap as Iran struck the US embassy in Saudi Arabia, part of a widening of targets that also includes areas critical to the world’s oil and natural gas production.