S&P 500, Dow End Lower As Oil Prices Rise Amid US-Iran Crisis — PSKY, GOOGL, IREN, AMD, NVDA, AVGO In Focus

• The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower, while the Nasdaq 100 ended flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%.
• Google is developing a server chip designed to optimize its Gemini AI model.
• A federal judge temporarily paused Paramount Skydance Corp.’s $110-billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. 

The S&P 500 and Dow ended lower on Monday over worries about soaring oil prices, while chipmaker stocks staged a comeback.

The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower, while the Nasdaq 100 ended flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%. The Russell 2000, which tracks stocks with small market capitalizations, eased 0.5%.

Among ETFs tracking benchmark indexes, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) fell 0.2% and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ended Monday 0.1% higher, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) dropped 0.5%. 

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) jumped 0.3%, aided by strength in Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Micron Technology (MU) and Broadcom (AVGO) shares, while the broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) gained about 0.1%.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for SPY was ‘bearish’, while sentiment for QQQ and DIA were in ‘bullish’ zones with ‘normal’ to ‘high’ message volumes.

US Market Drivers

Following a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump warning that Iran would pay “many times over!” for the deaths of three U.S. service members, oil prices extended their upward momentum. U.S. crude futures advanced 0.9% to settle at $83.23 per barrel, while the international benchmark, Brent, gained around 1.3% to finish at $89.22.

Moreover, a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia was declared by the Houthis in Yemen.

“The Iran situation continues to roil markets,” veteran strategist Louis Navellier told Bloomberg. “This is holding back the stock gains that should be expected given the strong earnings trends.” 

While geopolitics and oil prices continue to sway markets, investor attention will now move to tech earnings with Tesla Inc. (TSLA) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) set to kick off big tech’s reporting season from Wednesday. 

Chipmakers and wider tech stocks saw a pullback in recent weeks, and investors would now be keen on the sector’s earnings to judge the results on massive AI spending. 

Trending Stocks To Watch

Alphabet (GOOGL): Alphabet Inc.’s Google is developing a server chip designed to optimize its Gemini artificial-intelligence model, the Information reported.

Paramount Skydance (PSKY): A federal judge has temporarily blocked Paramount Skydance Corp.'s (PSKY) proposed $110-billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. (WBD).

Iren (IREN): The company raised its 2026 AI Cloud annualized run-rate revenue target on the back of new multi-year cloud services contracts. 

Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO): Morgan Stanley said the recent sell-off in semiconductor stocks has created an attractive opportunity for investors, naming Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) as its top picks in AI compute.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): The chipmaker announced an expanded strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), under which the tech giant will deploy AMD's next-generation Helios rack AI system platform on Azure to power frontier AI model inference.  

Read More: RKLB Stock Is Falling Despite A Space Force Contract Win Alongside SPCX — Retail Sees A Buying Opportunity

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.