Stocks fell at Wednesday’s opening bell after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, June 10, that consumer prices rose 4.2 percent over the past year in May — a three-year high — while overnight American airstrikes inside Iran shattered hopes for a quick end to the war. The Nasdaq Composite led the pullback, down 0.7 percent as Tuesday’s tech sell-off deepened, while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell about 0.5 percent as of just before 10 a.m. Eastern.

The inflation report set the tone. The 4.2 percent annual rise matched economists’ expectations, but the hot reading may boost bets that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year. Energy prices remained the biggest driver of inflation amid the protracted war with Iran. Headline prices rose 0.5 percent from April to May. Before the report landed, markets had priced in a 98.2 percent chance the Federal Reserve leaves rates unchanged at its June meeting, according to the CME Group FedWatch tool. The 10-year Treasury yielded 4.53 percent, and the two-year stood at 4.14 percent.

The war escalated overnight. The U.S. launched a series of airstrikes within Iran on Tuesday, targeting air defense, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites, U.S. Central Command said. Iran acknowledged strikes around the city of Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island inside the Strait of Hormuz, but gave no details on the damage.

The strikes came after President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that while the two pilots involved in the shootdown of an Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz were safe and uninjured, the United States must respond to the attack. Central Command called the strikes a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.

Trump turned up the pressure again Wednesday morning. He wrote on Truth Social that Iran has taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, and now they will have to pay the price. Brent crude rose nearly 2 percent to $93 per barrel after the post, while West Texas Intermediate hovered just below $90.

The supply damage keeps mounting. Rystad Energy said Wednesday that the shutdown of 11.8 million barrels a day of production across six Gulf producers has created the most severe oil supply disruption in modern history, with cumulative losses reaching 1 billion barrels. The consultancy warned each additional month of conflict could erase another 350 million barrels of output.

Global Markets

Asia sold off hard overnight. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.89 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi slumped 4.52 percent, leading regional losses amid a tech sell-off and Middle East tensions. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng traded 0.77 percent lower, and mainland China’s CSI 300 lost 1.11 percent.

SoftBank Group plunged 10 percent after its effort to secure at least $6 billion through a margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake hit a snag, according to Bloomberg News.

Europe held firmer. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.3 percent after its open, with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.2 percent, France’s CAC 40 adding 0.4 percent and Germany’s DAX rising 0.2 percent. Autos, insurance and healthcare led gains, while technology and banks lagged.

Movers and Shakers

Super Micro Computer fell 10 percent in premarket trading after the company announced a $7 billion financing package to fund its AI infrastructure order backlog.

Chip stocks stayed under pressure. Shares of Nvidia, Micron, Intel and Qualcomm pointed lower before the open after finishing Tuesday in the red.

Oracle reports earnings after Wednesday’s closing bell, with investors focused on details of its cloud business, which counts OpenAI as a customer, amid fluctuations in the AI trade.

Starbucks is exploring options for its business in Japan, including a stake sale, according to Bloomberg, which reported preliminary talks between the company and investment banks. Japan is one of the chain’s largest markets, with about 2,100 stores.

In housing, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Toll Brothers to outperform from market perform, saying builders exposed to affluent buyers are better positioned to defend margins, while downgrading Lennar to underperform, citing its heavy entry-level exposure. Bank of America upgraded STMicroelectronics to Buy from Neutral.

What Comes Next

The week’s main event arrives Friday. SpaceX holds its initial public offering Friday, June 12, listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX at $135 per share, giving the company an initial market value of $1.77 trillion — the largest IPO on record.

Roughly $75 billion worth of shares must be allocated to underwriters and asset managers before trading begins Friday.

Until then, the market sits between two forces it cannot control: inflation climbing on war-driven energy costs, and a conflict in the Persian Gulf that shows no sign of ending.

JBizNews Desk

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