Wall Street stocks mostly fall as Iran tensions, Nvidia earnings in focus; Marvell and Micron drop 6% each

Wall Street stocks mostly fell on Monday as investors assessed the Trump administration’s warning of an “economic D-Day” for Iran while also turning their attention to Nvidia’s upcoming earnings report and a key US inflation reading due later this week.

As of 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time, the S&P 500 slipped 0.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.7% lower.

At the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 15.1 points, or 0.03%, to 53,261.95. The S&P 500 fell 11.0 points, or 0.14%, to 7,663.38​, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 115.1 points, or 0.44%, to 26,065.32.

The Trump administration has warned that it could impose economic sanctions on countries and companies that continue trading with Iran, describing the potential measures as the “greatest financial offensive ever.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who used the phrase “economic D-Day” in an opinion article published by the Financial Times, was scheduled to hold a press conference later on Monday.

Markets were also keeping a close watch on US government bond yields. Last week, concerns about rising energy prices and the country’s mounting government debt pushed Treasury yields to multi-year highs.

Bessent could consider using the Treasury Department’s nearly $1 trillion General Account to finance bond buybacks rather than relying on the issuance of short-term Treasury bills, CNBC reported on Monday.

While late August is typically a slow news period for markets, "this week is setting up to be quite busy," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Key Stock Movers

Among major technology companies, Apple and Amazon.com shares edged up less than 1% each, while Nvidia declined 2.44% ahead of its closely watched earnings report.

Most semiconductor stocks also traded lower. Shares of Marvell Technology and Micron Technology each dropped more than 6%, adding to pressure on the broader chip sector.

US-listed shares of Alibaba fell 1.24% after the Chinese e-commerce giant launched a $10.2 billion share offering to help finance its artificial intelligence ambitions.

Meanwhile, US-listed shares of PDD Holdings rose 0.44% after the owner of Temu reported an 8% increase in second-quarter revenue.

Crude Oil

Oil prices slipped on Monday as investors took profits after recent gains and awaited details of expected new US sanctions on Iran.

At 1316 GMT, Brent crude futures were down $1.01, or 1.1%, to $93.38. US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $85.64 a barrel, down $1.42, or 1.6%.

Bullion

Gold prices climbed on Monday, as technical buyers piled into a rally driven by the US Treasury's recent buyback announcement and a weaker US dollar.

By 1334 GMT (9:38 a.m. EDT), spot gold rose 1.6% to $4,677.14 per ounce. US gold futures for December delivery rose 1.2% to $4,734.70 per ounce.

Among other metals, spot silver inched 0.8% up to $69.52 per ounce, platinum gained 0.7% to $1,891.43, and palladium rose 0.7% to $1,359.41.