Wall Street indices opened in the red on Thursday amid an intensifying oil disruption caused by the on-going Iran war.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed over 500 points at open and traded 1.19% lower at 46,851.10, S&P 500 fell 0.83% lower at 6,719.45, and tech-heavy Nasdaq index opened 0.88% or 200 points lower at 22,517.04.
Losses in big tech dragged Nasdaq 1.16% lower to 22,453.78 as of 10:05 a.m., while S&P 500 traded 1% lower at 6,716.05, and Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 1.07% lower at 46,912.24.
Earlier in the day, the International Energy Agency flagged that the Middle East war has is creating the biggest-ever disruption in oil markets, affecting 7.5% of global supply and an larger swathe of exports.
Crude oil prices continued to soar as uncertainties regarding global supply persisted. The West Texas Intermediate traded 8.71% higher at $94.71 per barrel, while brent crude rose 8.05% to $99.38 a barrel, inching closer to the $100 mark yet again.
"The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market," IEA underlined in its monthly report on Thursday.
The report further highlighted that with Middle East on the boil, global oil supply will decrease by 8 million barrels per day in march.
Moreover, the IEA has slashed its estimates for global consumption growth this year by roughly 25% to 6,40,000 barrels per day from 8,50,000 barrels per day; the lowest since it introduced forecasts for this year last April.
All of the magnificent seven stocks slipped to red, with major losses in Apple Inc. Nvidia Corp., Tesla Inc., and Meta Platforms Inc.
Nvidia traded nearly 2% lower at $182.52, Apple slumped 2% to trade at $255.54, Tesla fell 1.7% to $400.73, and Meta traded 1.6% lower at $644.69. Stocks of Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Google-parent Alphabet Inc. also slid over 1% to trade lower.
The Dollar Spot Index strengthened against global currencies to rise 0.2%. The euro fell 0.3% to $1.1533, British pound fell 0.3% to $1.3371, while Japanese yen was little changed at 158.91 per dollar.
Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency fell 0.5% to $70,312.49.
ALSO READ: US Jobless Claims Declined Slightly To 213,000 Last Week
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.