Wall Street Slumps as Oil Prices Surge Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions

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. The developments stoked inflation concerns, with the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond reaching its highest since 2004.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 337.09 points, or 0.65 percent, to 51,174.50; the S&P 500 lost 35.17 points, or 0.46 percent, to 7,670.68 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 199.02 points, or 0.74 percent, to 26,737.02.

Analysts said faith in the AI trade helped limit losses, with Nvidia, Broadcom and Microsoft slipping over 1 percent each. Technology stocks led declines on the S&P 500, while the energy sector gained 1.5 percent.