NEW YORK, April 23, 2026, 13:19 EDT
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq pulled back late Thursday morning after notching record closes the previous day; the Dow also dipped.
- Brent crude climbed past $103 a barrel with shipping snarls in the Strait of Hormuz unresolved, leaving inflation concerns lingering.
- IBM, Tesla and Lockheed Martin dropped following their results. Texas Instruments, though, surged and pulled chip stocks higher.
Stocks faltered Thursday. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq stepped back from their latest record highs, while oil prices stayed north of $100 and corporate results didn’t provide much clarity. By 11:45 a.m. ET, the Dow had dropped 99.59 points, or 0.20%. The Nasdaq retreated 0.21%, and the S&P 500 edged lower by 0.03%.
This comes as Wall Street logged yet another all-time closing high, snapping back sharply from the lows it hit in March. The S&P 500 is up 11% off that bottom, while the Nasdaq has surged roughly 18%. But Baird strategist Ross Mayfield isn’t convinced the Iran crisis is behind us, saying investors “need to see more hard evidence” that the threat is actually fading. Reuters
Oil prices had traders watching nervously. Brent was up at $103.53 a barrel as of 11:35 a.m. CDT. John Kilduff at Again Capital described the barrage of U.S.-Iran news as “headline roulette.” The market tried to size up the odds for shipping getting back to normal in the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters
The latest U.S. numbers painted a mixed picture. Jobless claims ticked up to 214,000. Meanwhile, S&P Global’s flash Composite PMI moved higher, clocking in at 52.0 after last reading 50.3—still on the expansion side of the line. Businesses, though, reported charging the most for goods and services since July 2022. S&P Global’s Chris Williamson pointed to the data as signaling economic growth stuck below a 1% annualized clip.
The focus circled back to the Federal Reserve. Treasury yields showed little movement—10-year notes at 4.288%, 2-year at 3.794%. Traders are still betting the Fed will stand pat on rates this year, with energy prices tied to the war pressuring inflation to stay stubborn.
Earnings season cranked up the pressure, sending the market into deeper division. IBM tumbled roughly 10% as sluggish software numbers stoked concerns that fresh AI offerings are undercutting legacy business, dragging ServiceNow and Microsoft down in the process. Tesla slid too, after hiking its 2024 capital spending forecast above $25 billion. Lockheed Martin edged lower following a drop in quarterly profit.
Semiconductors took the spotlight on the other end of the trade. Shares of Texas Instruments surged 18.4% after it projected second-quarter sales and earnings ahead of what Wall Street had penciled in, a move that pulled up chip stocks including NXP Semiconductors and nudged the sector closer to fresh highs. UBS strategist Kiran Ganesh flagged that tech investors are now looking at a “bigger range of outcomes.” Reuters
Pressure isn’t just hitting tech anymore. American Airlines slashed its 2026 forecast, blaming higher fuel prices. Honeywell sees second-quarter revenue trailing expectations, citing disruptions from conflict. Both announcements stoked worries that Q1 numbers could be downplaying the full hit from rising energy costs and snarled supply chains.
Even so, the bulls aren’t out of the race. First-quarter earnings growth is running near 14%, LSEG data show, as picked up by Reuters. Sameer Samana at Wells Fargo Investment Institute cautions against getting too caught up in headlines, arguing both the economy and earnings are solid. State Street’s Michael Arone echoed that, saying sitting on the sidelines too long could mean missing the rally.
This balance could easily tip the other way. Oil above $100? That pressures more firms to echo the caution seen from American and Honeywell. If traffic through the Strait of Hormuz stays tight, the market’s historic rally might quickly unravel. UBS’s Ganesh points out that today’s earnings don’t yet reflect the true impact of the energy shock. Investors, meanwhile, waited for Intel’s numbers later Thursday—another test for corporate America.
