Stocks in the U.S. plummeted after the opening bell on Tuesday, as jittery investors reacted to the potential fallout from the war in Iran, including the impact on global oil supplies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1,110 points, or 2.2%, in early trading, while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite each dropped 1.9%.
“Global financial markets are in disarray, anticipating a significant interruption in supplies of crude oil and natural gas because of President Trump’s war against Iran,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at investment advisory firm High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients. “The conflict is spreading, and confidence in the continuity of energy supplies is declining in parallel.”
Questions about how the war in Iran will impact energy markets and how long the conflict will last weighed heavily on investor sentiment as markets opened Tuesday, according to Bret Kenwell, an investment analyst at eToro. The weak start on Wall Street follows a turbulent trading day yesterday, which ended with a slight market rebound.
“Markets did a decent job shaking off Monday morning’s volatility, but the task gets harder today, with the S&P 500 hitting a fresh 2026 low,” he told CBS News. “Markets hate uncertainty, and as uncertainty deepens in the Middle East, investors are getting jittery.”
Wall Street is grappling with questions over the world’s oil supply as tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz bogs down. Roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply flows through the waterway, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
Brent crude, the international standard, climbed $4.72, or 6.2%, to $80.83 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude rose $6.22, or 8.8%, to $77.45 a barrel, according to FactSet.
