U.S. stocks fall as Iran tensions and oil prices weigh on Dow

2026-07-29

U.S. stocks opened lower on the 29th, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling for the first time in four trading days. Concerns over a military clash between the United States and Iran intensified, while crude futures rose. Selling dominated the market.

Middle East tensions weigh

The Dow at one point fell more than 900 points. U.S. Central Command said on the 28th that it had attacked an Iran-backed group in Iraq in coordination with Saudi forces. The move was seen as retaliation for attacks targeting Saudi oil facilities. The U.S. military also said the same day that it had intercepted multiple missiles fired by Iran toward U.S. military facilities deployed across the Middle East.

Higher oil and earnings caution

FOX News reported on the morning of the 29th that U.S. President Donald Trump said he would 'attack Iran hard'. In the U.S. crude futures market on the 29th, the near-term September WTI contract briefly rose to the high $84 a barrel range, about 7% above the previous day's close. That is weighing on equities.

Among individual stocks, semiconductor-related shares continued to fall. KLA, which is not a Dow component, declined. It was hurt by a revenue outlook for July-September 2026 released the previous day that failed to meet bullish market expectations. Memory and storage-related stocks including SanDisk and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also fell.

Later on the 29th, the Federal Reserve will release the outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The policy rate is widely expected to be left unchanged, but some in the market still see the possibility of a rate hike. In addition to the meeting outcome, remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell at his news conference are in focus.

After regular trading ends, Meta Platforms and Microsoft will each report earnings for April-June 2026. Investors are moving quickly to determine whether massive artificial intelligence (AI) spending is translating into sufficient revenue growth.

Among individual names, Procter & Gamble (P&G) fell. In earnings released on the morning of the 29th for April-June 2026, sales fell short of market expectations, and the full-year earnings outlook for the year ending June 2027 also came in below forecasts. Disappointed selling spread.

Elsewhere, Sherwin-Williams, Boeing and Goldman Sachs also fell. Caterpillar, after an analyst downgraded the stock, was also sold. Chevron, Coca-Cola and Apple rose. The Nasdaq Composite, which has a heavy concentration of technology shares, started down for a sixth straight session, and Tesla and SpaceX also fell.

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