Update: US Equity Indexes Fall as Rising Iran Tensions Push Crude Oil Higher

03:47 PM EDT, 10/23/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with index/price moves and geopolitical news from the first paragraph.) US equity indexes retreated, while government yields rose amid escalating geopolitical tensions and rising crude oil prices ahead of the close on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.1% to 52,263.7, and the S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 7,626.7. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.2% to 25,964.5, after trading slightly higher earlier in the session. Consumer staples, consumer discretionary, and financials led decliners. Energy, technology, and real estate were the only gainers. Fifteen of the 20 top-performing stocks in a category with market capitalizations exceeding $200 billion each were technology firms, according to data compiled by Finviz. This tech outperformance represents a recovery, as Meta Platforms' (META) plans announced Thursday to increase capital expenditure by $5 billion at the bottom end of the range for 2026 and launch a new, non-voting share class to raise funds helped spark a sell-off in the so-called AI trade. Iran has drawn up detailed plans to target undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attack Iran again, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters. Saudi Aramco has ordered the evacuation of its headquarters in Dhahran on the Gulf near Bahrain, Reuters reported, as fighting intensified with the Iran-aligned Houthis, according to a separate Reuters report. Meanwhile, an oil spill from a tanker was detected off the coast of Umm Al Quwain in the United Arab Emirates, the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment said, without identifying the cause of the spill or the tanker involved, per the news report. The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract jumped 4% to $103.40 per barrel, and global benchmark Brent advanced 3.4% to $116.97 per barrel. US Treasury yields jumped in midday trading. The 10-year yield climbed 4.6 basis points to 5%, the 30-year rate advanced 3.9 basis points to 5.32%, and the two-year yield rose 5.13 basis points to 4.69%.