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The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 85.55 points, or 0.18%. The S&P 500 inched up 0.08%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.10%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 250 points, or 0.54%. The S&P 500 was down 0.4%, 26 points, while the Nasdaq Composite traded 0.54% lower, down 114 points. Trump has set an 8 p.m. ET deadline for the U.S. and Iran to strike a deal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, otherwise the U.S. will destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges. However, his latest comments and new reports suggest an agreement by then is unlikely, as he said in a Truth Social post Tuesday: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

Dow Jones traded 202 points lower at 00.54 am IST, recovering from the day’s lows. The tech-heavy Nasdaq traded 113 points lower, while S&P 500 was down 21 points.

Since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the price of jet fuel in the US has nearly doubled, going from $2.50 a gallon on Feb. 27 to $4.88 a gallon on April 2, with the increases even sharper in other regions, according to a CNBC report. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is choking off supplies of both crude and refined products like jet fuel, further driving up the price. That’s forcing airlines to consider cutting flights, especially overseas.

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management has proposed a massive cash-and-stock acquisition of Universal Music Group, the creative home of Taylor Swift, Drake, and Bad Bunny. The stock soared 13% on Tuesday following the announcement.

Anthropic on Tuesday announced a cybersecurity partnership with companies including Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft that it said will help defend against the rise of AI-powered cyberattacks. Called Project Glasswing, the initiative relies on Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos Preview, a frontier model that the company said will only be made available to a handful of organizations.

Delta Air Lines is the latest airline to hit flyers with new bag fees, and just as jet fuel prices bite. Delta announced fees for a first checked bag will rise by $10 to $45, while the second bag will climb by $10 to $55. The steepest jump hits travelers checking a third bag, which will now cost $200 — a $50 increase. New fees will take effect for tickets purchased on or after April 8, 2026, marking the airline’s first domestic baggage fee increase in two years.

Arm Holdings declined nearly 6%, one of the worst performers on the Nasdaq 100 in Tuesday trading, following a downgrade by Morgan Stanley. The bank moved its rating on the stock to equal-weight from overweight, and cut its price target to $135, indicating a 9% loss from Monday’s close. While analyst Lee Simpson in a Tuesday note said the company’s move into chips makes sense, he is concerned about the timeline of the pivot.

UnitedHealth Group and other health insurer stocks surged on Tuesday after the US government said it would boost payments for Medicare Advantage plans next year. The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it would increase payments to insurers for older Americans by an average of 2.48% in 2027, amounting to a $13 billion annual increase in payments to plans. UnitedHealth stock jumped 8%, while Humana popped 5%, and Aetna’s parent company, CVS Health, rose more than 4%.

The dividend yield on the S&P 500 is nearing 50-year lows at a paltry 1.24%, Trivariate Research founder Adam Parker pointed out in a new note on Tuesday. The only lower moment for dividend yields dates back to the tech bubble trough, when it stood at 1.09%. Over the last 100 years, the S&P 500 has averaged roughly a 10% annual return, with approximately 30% of that coming from dividends, Parker said.

The White House denied Tuesday that remarks by Vice President JD Vance about military operations in Iran had contained any suggestion of a US nuclear strike against the Islamic republic. After Vance said US forces have tools they “so far haven’t decided to use” to enforce a dramatic ultimatum from President Donald Trump, the White House said on X: “Literally nothing @VP said here ‘implies’ this, you absolute buffoons.”

The post was in response to one from an account associated with former vice president Kamala Harris that said Vance implied Trump “might use nuclear weapons.”

At a vote in the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, China and Russia vetoed a Bahraini resolution encouraging states to coordinate efforts to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The 15-member Security Council voted 11 in favor of the resolution, with two against – China and Russia – and two abstentions. “The draft resolution has not been adopted, owing to the negative vote of a permanent member of the Council, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani told the Council.

ASML shares fell on Tuesday after US lawmakers last week proposed further measures that would restrict China from additional chipmaking tools and potentially impact the Dutch chip giant’s already fragile sales to the country. On Thursday, a group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (MATCH) Act, designed to cut China off from chipmaking tools and target the country’s most critical semiconductor firms.

Five stocks in the S&P 500 touched new 52-week lows on Tuesday, reflecting weakness across select names. The tickers include Home Depot, trading at levels not seen since December 2023; Nike, at lows last seen in October 2014; Boston Scientific, at lows since January 2024; Insulet, at lows since August 2024; and Axon Enterprise, at lows since September 2024.

More households in the United States expect their financial situation to worsen over the next year, as gas and food prices inch higher, according to the latest survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Consumer sentiment softened across indicators in March. The survey showed a rise in near-term inflation expectations, a slight dip in earnings outlook, and growing concern about unemployment. The share of respondents expecting joblessness to rise over the next year climbed to its highest level since April last year.

This comes as the ongoing tensions involving Iran, the United States and Israel begin to weigh on the global economy, with gas prices moving above $4 per gallon.

Overall, the survey points to a more cautious consumer outlook.

“Year-ahead expectations about households’ financial situations also deteriorated, with a larger share of households expecting a worse financial situation and a smaller share expecting an improvement,” the New York Fed said in a statement.

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European and Asian refiners are paying close to $150 a barrel for some crude grades, higher than benchmark futures, as supply remains tight amid the ongoing tensions involving Iran, the United States and Israel. Around 12 million barrels per day, roughly 12% of global supply, has been disrupted from the Middle East, largely due to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for oil shipments.Meanwhile, Brent crude oil futures touched $119.50 a barrel last month, the highest since 2022, though still below the 2008 peak of $147.50. The nearby Brent contract is for June delivery.

Stock losses picked up on Tuesday morning following President Trump’s latest threats against Iran, which raised concerns that a potential off-ramp to the hostilities may be closing. Sentiment turned even more pessimistic after the New York Times reported that Iran has stopped negotiation efforts with the United States, with three senior Iranian officials informing Pakistan that Iran would no longer engage in ceasefire talks.

Apple shares slid 3.4% on Tuesday after a Nikkei Asia report said the company is facing engineering setbacks in the foldable iPhone’s testing phase, raising the risk of delays to production and shipments, according to people familiar with the matter. The report said the engineering challenges are proving more complex and time‑consuming than Apple initially expected, potentially pushing the first shipment back by several months. The development comes after Apple stock had gained nearly 5% over the previous four sessions. The foldable device is expected to feature an iPad‑like interface when fully opened, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Uncertainty around the escalating US-Iran conflict has prompted UBS to turn more cautious on US equities, cutting its year‑end target for the S&P 500, CNBC reported. In a Tuesday note, the bank lowered its 2026 target to 7,500 from 7,700, though this still implies a headline gain of over 13% from current levels and a return of about 9.5% in 2026. UBS CIO Ulrike Hoffmann‑Burchardi said markets are closely watching President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran, advising investors to de‑risk amid elevated energy prices. UBS flagged higher vulnerability in regions sensitive to energy supply disruptions, including Europe and India, while cautioning against exiting risk assets entirely given medium‑term upside potential.

Gilead said on Tuesday it would acquire private Germany-based Tubulis GmbH for ‌up to $5 billion, as the U.S. drugmaker ‌looks to boost its pipeline with a lucrative class of ​experimental cancer drugs referred to as “guided missiles”. This marks the latest in Gilead’s acquisition spree. The company has been expanding beyond its key areas for growth ‌amid looming patent ⁠expiries and declining sales of its COVID-19 treatment, Veklury.

Broadcom deepened its collaboration with Google and Anthropic with a pair of deals, sending the stock up 3% in premarket trading. The chipmaker agreed to produce Google’s artificial intelligence chips known as tensor processing units, or TPUs, and will give Anthropic access to around 3.5 gigawatts of computing capacity starting in 2027, according to filings. Broadcom Inc (AVGO) shares traded over 3% higher, quoting at $324.20 apiece.

US stocks opened lower after President Trump declared that “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless “something revolutionarily wonderful” happens to intervene in his deadline, set for 8 pm tonight (Wednesday morning IST). The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% at the open, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the indexes lower with a loss of 0.4%.

New orders for key US-manufactured ‌capital goods increased more ‌than expected in February, but data ​for the prior month was revised sharply lower, suggesting some moderation in business spending ‌on equipment ⁠in the first quarter. Non-defense capital goods orders excluding ⁠aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending, rose ​0.6% after ​a ​downwardly revised 0.4% ‌drop in January, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday.

Oil prices rallied Tuesday morning after comments from President Trump suggested the US leader is planning to stick to his imposed deadline of 8 pm ET tonight before ordering a widespread airstrike campaign inside Iran. Futures on Brent crude, the international pricing benchmark, surged by 1.3% to trade above $111 per barrel. Those on US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude jumped by 3.3% to change hands around $116 per barrel.

US stock futures slipped on Tuesday after President Trump escalated bombing rhetoric ahead of his fast-approaching deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes to destroy its key infrastructure. Contracts on the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid about 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively, unwinding earlier slight premarket gains. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.8% after Wall Street stocks finished in positive territory on Monday.

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran! – Tump on Truth Social

The growing stress in the oil market triggered by the war in West Asia is showing up in huge premiums for prompt real-world barrels, with the wider Brent complex working as it should, according to Morgan Stanley.

Buyers are “paying an exceptional premium for secure, refinery-usable Atlantic Basin barrels available now,” analysts including Martijn Rats said in a note dated April 7. “That does not mean the futures market is broken. It just means that different parts of the complex are pricing different combinations of immediacy, tightness and expected persistence,” they added.

Bitcoin dropped nearly 2% overnight as the US-Israeli war against Iran spooked risk favouring investors amid high volatility. The cryptocurrency quoted at $68,356, down 1.77% as of around 5.30 pm IST. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, slipped as much as 2.2% and was trading near $68,800 on Tuesday afternoon in Singapore, giving up gains from the previous session. The token had briefly crossed $70,000 on Monday for the first time since March. Other digital assets also weakened, with Ether, the second‑largest cryptocurrency, falling up to 2.8%.

“Bitcoin sentiment remains bearish in the short to medium term,” a Yahoo Finance report quoted Rachael Lucas, an analyst at BTC Markets. She noted that investors are largely in wait‑and‑watch mode, with bulls lacking the confidence to push prices higher and bears unable to trigger a sharp breakdown.

Markets are closely tracking developments in West Asia. Trump has given another 48-hour deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, set to expire Tuesday evening.

Good evening and welcome to CNBC-TV18’s live coverage of the US markets today. For starters, futures tagged to benchmark indices on the Wall Street are indicating a subdued open as investors balance risk appetite amid the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, especially ahead of the looming Trump-imposed deadline on Iran. At 5.08 pm IST, S&P Futures were 21 points lower, while Dow Futures traded 134 points down. Nasdaq Futures were also lower by over 100 points.

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