Middle East Escalations Lift Oil Prices, Weigh on Wall Street

Wall Street's main indexes declined on Thursday, with the Dow hitting a three-month low, as escalating tensions in the Middle East drove up oil prices and Treasury yields.

Crude prices surged $4 a barrel, with Brent futures reaching $107 after Yemen's Houthis attacked Saudi military sites in Jazan. The development stoked inflation concerns, pushing the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond to its highest since 2004.

The energy sector gained 1.5 percent as investors reacted to the rising oil prices, but technology stocks led declines on the S&P 500. Nvidia, Broadcom, and Microsoft each slipped over 1 percent, despite analysts saying faith in the AI trade helped limit losses.