Oil and the blame game
USO•USO•USO•USO•Brent crude fell nearly 10% to below $100 a barrel after the U.S. midterm elections, helping pull bond yields lower and lift Wall Street stocks. The S&P 500 had its best day in three months, while chip stocks and data-center firms fell amid AI-sector concerns.
Brent crude fell nearly 10% on Wednesday, dropping below $100 a barrel for the first time since September. Investors took comments from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance as a sign that the United States would not soon re-escalate the Iran war, easing the risk premium in oil prices.
The oil slide pulled bond yields lower around the world and helped lift Wall Street stocks broadly; the S&P 500 had its best day in three months. U.S. chip stocks fell despite strong AMD earnings, and data-center firms including CoreWeave dropped as investors weighed potential Democratic scrutiny of the sector.
Sterling rose ahead of the Bank of England's expected rate increase. Economists polled expected a rise to 4% to be the last before a reversal in 2028, while the latest fall in oil prices could make the bank less certain about the path ahead.
