Wall Street slumps over 1% as yields jump on inflation fears, Nvidia sheds3%, Microsoft surges 3.6%

Wall Street stock indices fell sharply on Friday, as Treasury yields climbed on inflation anxieties triggered by the Middle East conflict.

At 12:08 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 519.39 points, or 1.04%, to 49,544.07, the S&P 500 lost 79.60 points, or 1.06%, to 7,421.64 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 360.56 points, or 1.35%, to 26,274.66.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 133.2 points, or 0.27%, to 49930.26. The S&P 500 fell 56.1 points, or 0.75%, to 7445.11​, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 346.3 points, or 1.30%, to 26288.923.

The yield on 10-year Treasury, a benchmark for global borrowing costs, rose to 4.58%, highest level since May 2025.

International debt yields also surged as mounting proof of financial harm from the Iran conflict led traders to believe borrowing costs will climb quicker than anticipated and expansion will decline.

Market participants additionally strictly monitored the US-China summit, which finished on Friday without significant progress, following talks between the two countries covering an expansive list including commerce, duties, Iran and Taiwan.

"Markets are reacting to some of the recent inflation data, which has maybe been a bit higher than expected and continued relative robustness in the economy," said Kiran Ganesh, Multi-Asset Strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management.

"And so markets are pricing in some risk that central banks might feel the need to hike interest rates."

Brent crude prices increased nearly 3% to $109 a barrel while the Strait of Hormuz stayed blocked, heightening fears regarding worldwide power inventories.

Key Stock Movers

Shares of Nvidia and AMD dropped more than 3% each, while Intel sank 6.5%, and the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index shed 3.5%.

Among the gainers, Microsoft stock surged 3.6% and Dexcom stock jumped 6.7%.

Bullion

Gold prices fell on Friday, as US Treasury yields and the dollar climbed.

By 11:40 a.m. EDT (1540 GMT), spot gold was down 2.3% at $4,541.91 per ounce. US gold futures for June delivery lost 3.2% to $4,535.

Among other metals, spot silver fell 8.6% to $76.27 per ounce, platinum lost 3.9% to $1,976.54, and palladium was down 1.7% at $1,412.11. All three were headed for weekly losses.

"There was a selloff across the (precious metals) for a couple of reasons. The dollar is quite strong today. We're also seeing not just a U.S. increase, but a global increase in (bond) yield rates," said Edward Meir, an analyst at Marex.