US Stock Market Crashes: Triple Digit Crude Oil Scares Dow Jones, Nasdaq, S&P 500; Chip & Tech Stocks Drag

The US stock market crashed on Thursday due to crude oil prices that touched above triple-digit and rising bond yields. Also, the Producer Price Index (PPI) jumped in August, adding further fuel to the downtrend. Chip and tech stocks are among the top draggers. Continued and fresh escalation between US and Iran has put pressure on equities across the global market as energy crises intensify and the chances of rate hikes heighten.

Dow Jones + Nasdaq + S&P 500

At the time of writing, the Dow Jones traded at 52,171.65, down by 209.01 points or 0.40%. The DJIA index has touched an intraday low of 52,006.96, resulting in overall crash of 374 points on Thursday compared to previous session.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite index plunged by 117.84 points or 0.45% to trade at 26,136.17. This is a mild rebound from its 274 points decline to intraday low of 25,979.54 during the early-trade. The tech-heavy index is struggling to retain 26,000 mark.

Chip stocks like Micron plunged 4.3%, AMD slipped 2.3%, Sandisk dropped over 4%, while Marvell dipped 1%, Intel crashed over 5% and LAM Research also declined nearly 4.2%. Furthermore, Nvidia, the largest AI company, plummeted nearly 3%. Among tech stocks, Dell is down 4%, Oracle tumbled nearly 2%. and Dell sank 4% as well.

Among gainers were SpaceX and Apple that rose 2% each. Meta and Microsoft are marginally up.

US stocks fell further as a surge in oil and fuel prices lifted Treasury yields and dented margins for the corporate sector. The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, the Dow dropped 0.4%, and the Nasdaq 100 lost 1.3%. Producer prices jumped 0.4% from the previous month in August as the war in Iran lifted wholesale energy prices. Oil and fuel benchmarks have gained further since the start of September on fresh escalation in the war and the increase in buying from Asia, adding to pressure on equities amid the possibility of a Federal Reserve rate hike next week, as per Trading Economics.

Currently, S&P 500 is trading at 7,603.64, down by 32.72 points or 0.43%.

At present, the 10-year US Treasury Yield is at 4.9%, while the 30-year yield climbed to 5.34%. These are at multi-year high. Meanwhile, US WTI crude oil has climbed above $100 per barrel with over 4% gains. Brent Crude skyrocketed by over 4% to trade near $106 per barrel. Oil is at the highest level since May 19.

US PPI Index

The US' producer price index (PPI) rose to 0.4% in August 2026, in-line with market sentiments.

"Overall PPI of 0.4% was in line with expectations but still likely too hot for the Fed's liking," said Cooper Howard, director of fixed income research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research (SCFR) "CPI will be the more important report but I don't think this squashes the idea of a hike in the near future." Several PPI metrics like airfare, transportation, and warehousing were firmer, and these filter into Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) prices, the Federal Reserve's favored inflation metric.

This doesn't bode well for PCE, and odds of a rate hike jumped to 65% from 60%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Hence, Wall Street is trading under pressure. Investors will further eye the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Friday, which will be the last inflation reading before the US Federal Reserve's meeting next Wednesday.

US Stock Market Outlook

Joe Mazzola, head of trading and derivative strategist at Charles Schwab explains that firstly, all eyes are on next week's monetary policy decision by the Federal Reserve. The Fed will convene for two days of meetings on September 15 and 16. And there's widespread speculation that the Fed may hike its baseline interest rate for the first time since 2023.

He further added at the beginning of the year, the question was how many rate cuts there would be this year, and there was a 0% expectation that there would be a rate hike in 2026. But the war in Iran, sticky inflation, new rounds of tariffs, an anxious bond market, and other factors have created a completely different environment.

Second is the big news from Capitol Hill: As per the expert, there won't be any last-minute drama at the end of this month about a government shutdown.

The other problem is rising treasury yields. As per Mazzola, the rising cost of servicing the debt and the apparent lack of interest in addressing it are contributing factors in the recent turmoil in the bond market. Yields, particularly on longer-term bonds, have risen to the highest levels in years here in the United States.

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