Dow Falls 449 as Iran War Lifts Oil

Wall Street sold off Tuesday, September 1, after a fresh round of US military strikes on Iran pushed oil prices up and drove government bond yields to multi-year highs.

By about 3:45 p.m. Eastern, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 449 points, or 0.9%, with the S&P 500 off 0.8% and the Nasdaq off 1.1%, the New York Post reported.

The move built through the day. At 12:05 p.m. Eastern, the Associated Press had the S&P 500 down 0.4%, the Dow down 190 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq down 0.5%.

The Numbers

Oil did the driving. The New York Post reported Brent crude futures up 5% at $95 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate up 5.3% at $90.33. Earlier in the session, the AP had Brent up 2.3% at $92.61.

The national average gasoline price stayed above $4 a gallon, according to the Post.

The 10-year Treasury yield reached 4.796%, its highest level since January 2025 and roughly 40 basis points above where it sat at the end of June, the Post reported. The 30-year yield hit 5.286%, near the 19-year highs it touched last month.

The AP put the 10-year at 4.77%, up from 4.75% late Monday, and noted it was as low as 4.20% at the start of 2026. The two-year yield, which tracks expectations for Federal Reserve moves, rose to 4.37% from 4.34%, against about 3.50% at the start of the year.

The selling in government debt is not only American. The Post reported Japan's benchmark 10-year yield reached roughly 3% Tuesday, a level not seen since 1996, with Britain's around 5.25% and Germany's around 3.37%.

Technology shares were among the heaviest weights on the market, the AP reported, with Microsoft down 1.3% and Advanced Micro Devices down 2.4%.

Why Oil Moved

President Trump announced the US had launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran, the second such round in two days, according to the New York Post.

The AP reported the war has essentially shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil is typically shipped. IBTimes reported Iran retaliated for the US attacks and said it sought to "tighten the lock" on the strait.

The Post reported Tehran launched drone strikes against Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, reportedly targeting US forces stationed there, and that nearly all incoming missiles were intercepted with little to no impact on the ground, according to reports. Iran also attacked two supertankers carrying 4 million barrels of Saudi oil near Oman's coast, the Post said.

The escalation upended a calmer forecast. Days earlier, Goldman Sachs analysts had written that absent surprise attacks, recovering oil supplies could keep prices below $90 for the rest of the year, the Post reported.