00:00Wall Street ended lower on Wednesday, September 23, pulled down by Alphabet and Amazon as Treasury yields climbed and Iran's
00:06president said Tehran would never surrender to U.S. pressure.
00:10Oil prices rose almost 4% and the S&P 500 Energy Sector Index rallied after Iranian President Masud Bezashkin's
00:17speech at the UN a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned he could annihilate Iran.
00:22The market is trading on the news, essentially because we are in a limbo period.
00:30We've got four weeks before earnings starts, four weeks before we get some inflation readings, and six weeks until the
00:37FOMC meets once again.
00:40So essentially, investors are playing whack-a-mole by responding to the movements in interest rates and oil prices.
00:48A survey show U.S. businesses' activity raised to a more than five-year high in September, pushing government bond
00:56yields higher and raising expectations the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates at its October meeting.
01:03The Nasdaq recorded record-high closes in the previous two sessions.
01:07As Wall Street remained optimistic about AI-related companies, the S&P 500 is less than 2% below its
01:14record-high close on August 13.
01:18When commentary is thrown about accelerating the tensions between the U.S. and Iran, that implies that oil prices are
01:29likely to remain elevated for longer and maybe could even be pushed higher because of increased levels of tensions.
01:37So that is not helping.
01:40Also, seeing diesel prices set new records on a daily basis and knowing how important transportation is to this economy,
01:49certainly because we have not invented a Star Trek-like transporter yet.
01:53So that is still going to be a concern that would be affecting consumer confidence and just the cost of
02:00doing business.
02:01U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington on Wednesday for a three-day visit.
02:09The agenda includes extending the trade truce reached last year between the two superpowers, AI regulation and U.S. arms
02:16sales to Taiwan.
02:17The S&P 500 lost 58.61 points or 0.75% to end at 7,706.03 points, while
02:28the Nasdaq Composite lost 308.24 points or 1.13% to 26,936.04.
02:37The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 352.10 points or 0.68% to 51,511.59.
