By Heard Editors
What Happened in Markets Today
Oil prices rose sharply and major stock indexes fell as military tensions escalated in the Strait of Hormuz. Fighting in the Iran war flared for the first time in weeks, and strikes on a crucial United Arab Emirates oil port and several ships tested a shaky cease-fire. Futures for Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 6% to about $114 a barrel. U.S. oil futures climbed 4% to $106. The Dow industrials lost 1.1%, the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.2%. Transportation stocks fell hard including United Parcel Service and FedEx, each down more than 9%.
Shares of eBay jumped 5% after GameStop made an unsolicited offer to buy the much larger e-commerce company for about $56 billion. GameStop shares fell 10%, sending its stock-market value below $11 billion. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen during a CNBC interview struggled to explain how his company would finance an acquisition.
Norwegian Cruise Lines said it expects war in the Middle East to hit its results this year. Shares of the cruise operator dropped about 9% after executives said they're seeing signs of softer demand as customers rethink travel plans to Europe. Higher fuel costs are also set to bite.
Anthropic unveiled a $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and a handful of other Wall Street firms to sell AI tools. The companies' Monday announcement confirmed a previous report by The Wall Street Journal.
Greg Abel played host over the weekend at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting for the first time as CEO. The conglomerate was a net seller of stocks for a 14th consecutive quarter, according to its first-quarter report, and its cash pile swelled to $381 billion from $373 billion at year-end.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 04, 2026 16:39 ET (20:39 GMT)
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