[U.S. Market Recap] Sept. 8: Dow Falls 628 Points as Middle East Tensions Send Oil Surging, Intel Jumps 9%

Hey everyone, Hirokichi here.

This time I’m covering Tuesday, September 8, in the U.S. stock market. Escalating tensions in the Middle East sent oil prices surging, and Canada’s retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. also took effect on this day, which combined to push the Dow down 628 points (-1.18%). The Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, only slipped about 0.3%, a pattern that looked like money rotating out of cyclical stocks and into tech names. Individual stocks were also split down the middle: Intel jumped more than 9% on an analyst upgrade, while several other names slid sharply.

The Three Indexes: The Dow Leads the Decline, the Nasdaq Holds Up Better

What this table shows is that the Dow’s decline stood out, while the Nasdaq Composite fell only about a third as much in percentage terms. Old-economy, cyclical names in the Dow were sold off, while money stayed relatively put in tech-heavy Nasdaq names (sources: Yahoo Finance, 24/7 Wall St.).

Behind this was the ongoing escalation in the Middle East. Following an exchange of strikes between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacked Saudi oil facilities on this day, reportedly wounding more than 70 people. A senior Iranian security official also signaled plans to declare an “exclusion zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz restricting the passage of vessels, deepening concerns over the oil supply (sources: AP, CBS News).

Adding to the pressure, Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods (up to $20 billion, with rates of 15-50%) took effect on this same day. President Trump posted on social media that Canadian planemaker Bombardier “cannot sell in the U.S.” unless it builds its aircraft domestically, underscoring the trade friction with Canada (source: Reuters). On top of that, expectations for a September rate hike, fueled by the stronger-than-expected August jobs report released on September 4, continued to linger, keeping the 10-year Treasury yield elevated around 4.79%, near its highest level of the year (source: Trading Economics).

What Moved the Market: Middle East Oil Shock and the Canada Tariff Fight

The biggest story of the day was, again, the Middle East. WTI crude futures rose to the $93 range per barrel, a six-week high, while Brent crude topped $98 (source: Oilprice.com). In my view, higher oil prices feed directly into inflation worries, so the market is now carrying two burdens at once: rate-hike expectations and geopolitical risk. The Fed’s FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meets September 15-16, and the PPI (Producer Price Index) and CPI (Consumer Price Index) reports due before then could make trading even more nervous.

The other factor was the escalating tariff dispute with Canada. This drives a wedge into what had been a free-trade-based economic relationship between the two countries, and it’s a headwind for industries like autos and aerospace that run production networks across the border.

Stocks in Focus: Intel, NuScale, GoPro, Oracle, and Novartis

*Oracle’s price is a pre-market figure. Novartis’s closing price could not be confirmed, so it’s left blank. Let’s dig into each name below.

Intel (INTC): Up 9.1% on Analyst Upgrade and CPU Price-Hike Report

Shares of chip giant Intel rose 9.1% on the day to close at $104.48. The trigger was an upgrade from Northland Securities analyst Gus Richard, who moved his rating to Outperform from Market Perform with a $120 price target (sources: Seeking Alpha, Benzinga). He pointed to Intel’s turnaround progress amid a tight supply of server CPUs (central processing units), as well as potential upside from Intel’s “Terafab” chipmaking collaboration with Tesla. On top of that, a report surfaced that Intel is considering its third CPU price hike of the year, roughly 10%. With both an upgrade and a pricing-power story landing on the same day, the stock, which had been out of favor for a long stretch, reacted sharply to the good news.

NuScale Power (SMR): Up 16.8% With No Clear Trigger

Small modular reactor (SMR) maker NuScale Power jumped 16.8% to $11.33, one of the day’s biggest gainers. The move appears tied to the broader theme of rising electricity demand from AI (artificial intelligence) data centers, with peer Oklo also climbing 6-7% on the same day. That said, no clear company-specific catalyst could be found for this particular surge (source: 24/7 Wall St.). The market’s read is that this was sector rotation and momentum buying rather than news-driven, though that can’t be stated with certainty. Worth noting: even after this jump, NuScale is still down more than 20% year-to-date, a reminder of how volatile this name can be.

GoPro (GPRO): Down 15.0% on Weak Fundamentals and a Merger-Arb Unwind

Action-camera maker GoPro fell 15.0% to $1.45, among the day’s biggest decliners. Behind this is a genuine slowdown in demand: quarterly revenue was down more than 30% year over year, and camera unit sell-through fell nearly 40%. On top of that, the company agreed just this month to a merger deal paying shareholders $1.14 per share in cash. So why the sharp drop now? It looks like retail investors had pushed the stock well above that cash deal value in a short-squeeze-like rally after the merger announcement, and this was a correction back toward a level that makes more sense given the deal terms (sources: 24/7 Wall St., TIKR.com).

Oracle (ORCL): Up 4.8% Ahead of Sept. 10 Earnings

Database giant Oracle rose 4.8% ahead of its earnings report due September 10. The interest here stems from Oracle’s push into AI-driven cloud demand, with this quarter’s revenue expected to come in around $19 billion. Mizuho maintains an Outperform rating, and the average analyst price target of $242.69 implies more than 50% upside from recent levels (source: Vantage Markets). With the stock expected to move roughly 11% in either direction on the earnings news, today’s gain looks like pre-earnings positioning.

Novartis (NVS): Down 12.6% on Failed Heart Drug Trial, Dragging Peers Down Too

Swiss pharma giant Novartis fell 12.6%, with the selling spilling over into partner Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS, -10.5%) and, in an unrelated but similarly timed trial failure in the neuromuscular disease space, Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT, -10.6%). The trigger was the September 4 announcement that pelacarsen, a drug designed to lower Lp(a), a substance linked to cardiovascular risk, failed to meet its primary endpoint in the Phase 3 Lp(a)HORIZON trial. While the drug did lower Lp(a) levels, that didn’t translate into a meaningful reduction in heart attacks or strokes compared to placebo (sources: Novartis press release, STAT News). Why did the reaction carry into this day? Because it raised broader doubts about the entire Lp(a)-lowering approach, casting a shadow over similar programs at Eli Lilly and Amgen. A result where “the numbers improved, but it didn’t actually help patients” chilled sentiment across the biotech sector as a whole.

iPhoneを手に入れるならこちら

Sectors and ETFs: Money Flows to Energy and Tech, Healthcare Slammed

The sectors that gained on the day were energy, which benefited from higher oil prices, and technology, led by Intel and optical-networking names like AAOI and Lumentum. Renowned investor Jim Cramer calling OpenAI’s new “GPT-6 Astra” launch “the real story of the day” reflects how much appetite remains for AI-related names (sources: X, CNBC). On the downside, healthcare, hit by the Novartis trial failure, and financials led the declines. The Dow’s heavy weighting toward cyclical and industrial names also weighed on the index overall.

For ETFs familiar to Japanese individual investors, S&P 500-tracking VOO and VTI likely fell in line with the index, around 0.5%, while Nasdaq-100-tracking QQQ appears to have held up somewhat better. High-dividend ETFs like SPYD, HDV, and VYM, which carry relatively heavy energy weightings, may have held up relatively well, though the day’s precise moves couldn’t be confirmed, so I’ll avoid stating that definitively.

In currencies and commodities, the dollar weakened further against the yen to the mid-154 range, extending from the prior session’s 154.36 (sources: Wise, Investing.com). WTI crude traded at $93.20 per barrel (+1.88%), and gold traded at $4,445.60 per ounce (-0.69%). The VIX (the “fear index,” a measure of market anxiety) stood at 15.30, still a calm reading overall but ticking up slightly from the prior day (sources: CBOE, Yahoo Finance).

What to Watch in Japanese Stocks Today: Middle East Developments and PPI/CPI

With U.S. markets down, Tokyo stocks are likely to face a heavy tone as well. Here are three things worth watching this week.

(1) How far the Middle East escalation goes. A prolonged military standoff around the Strait of Hormuz could keep fueling global inflation pressure and weigh on stocks through higher oil prices. (2) August’s PPI (Producer Price Index) is due September 10, followed by CPI (Consumer Price Index) on September 11. If these inflation readings come in hot on top of the strong September 4 jobs report, expectations for a rate hike at the September 15-16 FOMC meeting could firm up further. (3) Whether the yen’s move into the mid-154 range against the dollar pauses here or extends further is another focus. A stronger yen tends to be a headwind for Japan’s export-heavy stocks, which is worth keeping in mind.

日本語はこちら → 【米国株まとめ】9月8日の記事

Let’s keep at it, slow and steady. Have a good day!

* This article is for informational purposes only and does not recommend any specific investment. Please make investment decisions at your own responsibility.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, a quick click on the banners below would really encourage me.