Index Drops as Middle East Tensions Rise; Oracle Climbs

Major U.S. equities indexes moved lower after Israel conducted attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership, prompting a retaliation from Tehran and exacerbating the tense geopolitical environment in the Middle East and across the globe.

The S&P 500 lost 1.1% in the week’s final trading session. The Dow ended the day 1.8% lower, while the Nasdaq was down 1.3%. Read Investopedia’s full daily markets coverage here.

Shares of payment processors moved lower after a report in The Wall Street Journal indicated that Walmart (WMT) and Amazon (AMZN) are considering issuing their own stablecoins, a move that could help the retail giants sidestep the interchange fees charged by credit-card providers. Shares of business payment solutions provider Corpay (CPAY) dropped 7.7%, falling the most of any S&P 500 stock, while shares of PayPal (PYPL), Visa (V), and Mastercard (MA) also declined.

Analysts at Citi downgraded Sherwin-Williams (SHW) stock to “neutral” from “buy,” indicating that the persistence of high mortgage rates and softness in the housing market could weigh on the paint distributor’s performance in the near term. Sherwin-Williams shares slipped 5.7%.

Shares of Adobe (ADBE) were down 5.3%. Although the provider of software for creating and editing digital media posted better-than-expected sales and profits for its fiscal second quarter, several analysts raised concerns about Adobe’s progress with its artificial intelligence products, pointing to potential competitive pressure and disruption in the AI space.

Oracle (ORCL) shares surged 7.7% on Friday, securing the S&P 500’s top performance for a second straight day and extending an all-time high posted in the prior session. The march higher for the stock came after the enterprise software giant exceeded sales and profit estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter and guided for revenue growth driven by its booming cloud infrastructure business.

Shares of companies with exposure to biofuel production gained ground after the Trump administration proposed to increase the amount of biofuel that oil refiners must blend into diesel and gasoline over the next two years. Shares of fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings (CF), which is engaged in projects aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of biofuel production, gained 6.5%.  Shares of grain processors Bunge Global (BG) and Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) were up 5.7% and 4.7%, respectively.

Crude oil futures prices jumped as concerns spread about possible supply impacts from the escalating conflict in the Middle East, even as Iranian officials said the country’s oil storage and refining facilities remain operational following Israel’s strikes. The rising price of the commodity helped lift oil and gas stocks. Shares of refiner Haliburton (HAL) gained 5.5%, while shares of exploration and production firm APA Corp. (APA) were up 5.3%.