U.S. stocks fell Monday after an Iranian drone strike on a UAE oil facility sent Brent crude above $114 a barrel, increasing expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike by March 2027.
On Sunday night, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would “guide” stranded ships safely out of the Strait of Hormuz, warning that any further Iranian interference would be met with force. Tehran fired back within hours, declaring that “any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive U.S. Army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz.”
The picture on the water remains murky. According to CNN, two U.S.-flagged vessels have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. military escort — but Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has rejected that account as “baseless,” according to state media. The Pentagon earlier denied Iranian media reports that a U.S. ship had been struck by missiles.
By midday in New York, UAE authorities reported that an Iranian drone strike ignited a fire at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone — a strategic export hub bypassing Hormuz — while air defenses intercepted three missiles, with a fourth crashing into the sea.
Brent crude rallied 5.6% to $114.18 a barrel, while WTI climbed 3.2% to $105.17. Natural gas added 2.7% to $2.86 as traders priced in collateral disruption to LNG flows from the Gulf.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield ticked up to 4.46%, and the 5-year held near 4.12% as fed funds futures shifted to price in a nontrivial chance of a Fed rate hike by March 2027, with traders unwilling to chase duration amid a fresh oil-driven inflation impulse.
Across U.S. equity markets, losses were broad-based and skewed toward cyclicals.
Dow Drags As Tech And Travel Stocks Slip
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the session’s worst performer, down 1.0% to near 49,015, dragged by its transportation and travel exposure.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to roughly 7,192, while the Russell 2000 slid 0.9% to 2,786, as small caps suffered alongside the rate-sensitive industrial complex.
The Nasdaq 100 declined 0.7% to 27,522.
Within Magnificent Seven stocks, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) all leaked lower with the broader semiconductor complex, while Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) were a relative bright spot — the latter rallying after announcing a major expansion of its third-party logistics service.
Monday’s Performance In Major US Indices
| Index | Last | % Change |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,192 | -0.5% |
| Dow Jones | 49,015 | -1.0% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 27,522 | -0.7% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,786 | -0.9% |
According to the Benzinga Pro platform:
- The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) slipped 0.5%.
- The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) tumbled 1.0%.
- The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) fell 0.7%.
- The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) dropped 0.9%.
Hormuz Shock Meets Amazon Bombshell
Energy was the only S&P 500 sector firmly in the green. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) added 1.1% as oil majors and exploration & production names tracked Brent higher. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSE:XOP) led all U.S. industry ETFs with a 2.3% advance.
The biggest pain trade was in transportation. The Dow Transports were thumped by an Amazon press release detailing the broad rollout of “Amazon Logistics Plus” to third-party shippers, a competitive shock that hammered every major package carrier.
FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) tumbled 9.9% in its worst session in over a year, United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE:UPS) dropped 10%, GXO Logistics Inc. (NYSE:GXO) cratered 12.8% on contract-loss fears, and freight-broker C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW) sank 9.3%.
The damage radiated into airlines as the U.S. Global Jets ETF (NYSE:JETS) slid 1.7%, also amid rising fuel prices.
Defense names, however, were a pocket of strength as Trump’s “Project Freedom” reignited Pentagon-spending narratives — Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT), RTX Corp (NYSE:RTX) and Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) all traded higher.
Cruise stocks were thrashed by an oil shock plus a guidance miss. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NCLH) dropped 9.0% after first-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.23 beat the $0.15 consensus on revenue of $2.33 billion, but full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance was cut to a range of $1.45 to $1.79 on Middle East booking disruptions.
Sympathy selling crushed Carnival Corp. (NYSE:CCL) and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), both down sharply.
An Unexpected Pocket Of Strength: Software
The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (BATS:IGV) rallied 2%, decoupling from semis where the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) fell 1.4% as Nvidia Corp. and the chip complex slumped.
Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ:TEAM) tacked on another 6.2% as analysts continued to upgrade following Friday’s blowout fiscal third-quarter print, when the company posted adjusted EPS of $1.75 vs. $1.34 consensus and revenue of $1.79 billion against the $1.7 billion Street view, sending the stock 29% higher into the weekend.
Crypto-related equities were another haven. Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE:CRCL) stormed 16.7% higher into its May 11 first-quarter earnings release, helped by Bitcoin’s 1.2% rally to $79,900 and a string of bullish stablecoin product launches including the new CPN Managed Payments rail.
Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) jumped 6% on the same crypto bid.
Biotech stayed bid as the iShares Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:IBB) rose 1.0%. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) climbed 6.1% as BTIG reiterated a Buy rating with a $125 price target on its VK2735 obesity program, helping investors look past last week’s wider-than-expected Q1 loss of $1.37 per share.
Rate-sensitive housing names were the clear losers in the rate-hike repricing. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (BATS:ITB) collapsed 3.3%, the worst-performing major industry ETF on the day. The Invesco Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) dropped 2.3% and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSE:XRT) fell 2.3% on the same rate concerns.
On the corporate news tape, GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) sank 9.9% — the fourth-worst Russell 1000 performer of the day — after disclosing a non-binding $125-per-share, half-cash, half-stock proposal to acquire eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) in a deal valued at roughly $56 billion, with TD Bank providing only a “highly confident” letter for $20 billion in debt. EBay traded higher into mid-session before fading as investors questioned the financing and antitrust risk.
Looking ahead to the after-bell tape, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) reports against a $1.54 billion revenue / 28 cents EPS bar, with options pricing a roughly 10% post-print move, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX) reports against $4.18 EPS on $2.99 billion in revenue.
Monday’s Russell 1000 Top Gainers
| Name | % change |
|---|---|
| Circle Internet Group, Inc. | +16.72% |
| Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. | +7.59% |
| Atlassian Corporation | +6.21% |
| Freedom Holding Corp. | +6.16% |
| Viking Therapeutics, Inc. | +6.07% |
Monday’s Russell 1000 Top Losers
| Name | % change |
|---|---|
| GXO Logistics, Inc. | -12.80% |
| United Parcel Service Inc. | -10.04% |
| FedEx Corp. | -9.93% |
| GameStop Corp. | -9.85% |
| C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. | -9.32% |
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