Stocks down as attack pushes crude prices up
Airlines, cruise lines and other companies in fueldependent industries dragged U.S. stocks lower Monday after an attack on Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil processing facility sent crude prices soaring.
The U.S. and international benchmarks for crude each vaulted more than 14% — that’s comparable to the 14.5% spike in oil on Aug. 6, 1990, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to break a streak of eight consecutive gains. The S&P 500, while down modestly, had its biggest decline in two weeks. American Airlines was the biggest decliner in the index.
Shares of oil producers jumped, while prices for Treasurys, gold and other investments seen as less risky rose.
The weekend attack halted production of 5.7 million barrels of crude a day, more than half of Saudi Arabia’s global daily exports and more than 5% of the world’s daily crude oil production. President Trump warned that the United States was “locked and loaded” to respond as his administration pinned the blame on Iran, which supports the Yemeni rebels who took credit for the attack.
The attack raised worries about the risk of more disruptions in the supply of oil at a time when the global economy’s
strength is seen as shaky.
Still, analysts expressed doubts that the disruption in Saudi Arabia’s oil production would have much of an impact on the U.S. economy, at least in the short term.
“From a global perspective, there’s probably a concern,” said Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird. “From a U.S. perspective, we produce more now than we used to, and our economy is less dependent on oil than it used to be.”
The S&P 500 fell 9.43 points, or 0.3%, to 2,997.96. That’s the index’s largest loss since Sept. 3.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 142.70 points to 27,076.82. The Nasdaq lost 23.17 points, or 0.3%, to 8,153.54.
Small stocks in the Russell 2000 were better performers. The index rose 6.46 points, or 0.4%, to 1,584.60.
Major stock indexes in Europe also fell. Markets in Asia finished mixed.
The stock market has been volatile since the summer, as worries waxed and waned about the U.S.China trade war. The most recent move for stocks had been higher, boosted by renewed optimism in recent weeks about easing tensions between Washington and Beijing, and the S&P 500 had climbed back within 1% of its record.
Stocks lost their recent upward momentum Monday as investors weighed the implications of the attack in Saudi Arabia.
While analysts expected that the attack would only disrupt oil supplies temporarily, the bigger threat is the worry about more attacks in the future.
“At a time when oil markets have been in the shadows of a weak global macroeconomic backdrop, the attack on critical Saudi oil infrastructure calls into question the reliability of supplies from not just one of the largest net exporters of crude oil and petroleum products but also the country that holds most of the world’s spare production capacity,” Barclays analyst Amarpreet Singh wrote in a report.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil soared $8.05 to settle at $62.90 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, jumped $8.80 to close at $69.02 a barrel.
That helped energy stocks in the S&P 500 surge 3.3%. Marathon Oil gained 11.6%, Devon Energy jumped 12.2% and oilfield services provider Halliburton climbed 11%.
The spike in oil prices weighed on shares in airlines, whose operations can be hurt by any rise in the price of fuel.
American Airlines Group, which spent $3.7 billion on fuel and taxes in the first half of the year, dropped 7.3%. United Airlines slid 2.8%, and Delta Air Lines dropped 1.6%.
Cruise ships also burn lots of fuel, making them vulnerable to oil price swings. Carnival fell 3.2%.
Prices for U.S. government bonds rose as investors moved into safer investments. Yields for bonds fall when their prices rise, and the yield on the 10year Treasury dropped to 1.85% from 1.90% late Friday. The yield on the twoyear Treasury, which moves more on expectations for Fed policy, sank to 1.76% from 1.79%.