Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 23, 2026.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
The Nasdaq Composite fell on Friday, bogged down by chip stocks, as the index headed for a losing week.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.5%, while the S&P 500 traded around the flatline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 134 points, or about 0.3%.
Brent crude futures, which topped $100 per barrel for the first time since late May this week, eased from those levels to currently trade at roughly $97, dropping 3%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 2% to trade above $89 a barrel.
The major averages are now on pace for weekly declines. The Dow and S&P 500 have each shed less than 1%, while the Nasdaq has lost more than 1%.
The moves come after the Dow dropped more than 500 points, or around 1%, on Thursday for its fifth negative day in six. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq had their worst one-day performances since June 23, dropping 1.2% and 2.2%, respectively.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he will soon make a decision on whether to launch a “massive attack” on Iran after the conflict in the Middle East extended to a new battleground in the Red Sea. Speaking to Axios on Thursday, the president said the proposed strikes would be bigger than anything seen in the war so far, and that Iran has not “received enough pain yet.”
“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” Trump said in the interview.
U.S. forces have pummeled Iranian targets over the past two weeks, with Central Command completing a 13th consecutive night of strikes overnight.
“While current positioning does not guarantee that oil will continue rising, it does mean that the market entered the latest escalation poorly positioned for an upside surprise,” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. “And when sentiment and positioning are extremely bearish, even a modest deterioration in supply expectations can produce an outsized price response.”
Quarterly results from Tesla and Alphabet also weighed on the broader market Thursday. Tesla suffered its worst day since March 10, 2025, after posting an earnings miss for the second quarter. Alphabet hiked its full-year guidance for capital expenditures, leading the tech giant to post its biggest daily decline since May 7, 2025.
