Wall Street tumbles as Middle East tensions send oil surging past $100 a barrel

Houthi tanker attack claims and talk of a US strike on Iran erased a week of market gains from Seoul to New York, with AI spending jitters piling on.

The Dow fell 506.93 points (1.0%) to 51,711.65, the S&P 500 lost 90.66 points (1.2%) to 7,408.30, and the Nasdaq dropped 553.21 points (2.2%) to 25,137.69 on Friday as Brent crude jumped 7% to $100.69 a barrel. The spike followed Houthi militants' claims of attacks on Saudi oil tankers and President Trump's threat of a large-scale strike on Iranian infrastructure, a combination that also sent South Korea's Kospi down 5.72% overnight. Communications and consumer discretionary stocks led the US retreat, with investors already on edge over the tech sector's newly raised AI spending plans.