Wall Street opened Thursday with modest, mixed trading, while oil prices spiked more than 5% after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping sanctions on Russia’s top energy companies.
Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq inched up less than 0.1%, while the Dow Jones industrials slipped about 0.1%. The sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil aim to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into peace talks and help end Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
In Europe, leaders meeting in Brussels were preparing to approve additional sanctions on Russia and move forward with plans to use Moscow’s frozen assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort and stabilize its economy for the next two years.
U.S. benchmark crude jumped $3.13 to $61.63 per barrel, and Brent crude rose the same amount to $65.72.
Corporate earnings weighed on markets. Tesla shares fell 3.2% after reporting a 37% year-over-year drop in quarterly profit — its fourth straight decline. CEO Elon Musk downplayed car sales, instead promoting the company’s robotaxi service, AI products, and humanoid robot line.
IBM tumbled 6.8% after showing slower cloud revenue growth, despite beating forecasts. Molina Healthcare plunged more than 20% after missing earnings expectations and cutting its annual profit outlook amid high costs.
Across Europe, Germany’s DAX slipped 0.3%, while London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6% and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.4%.
In Asia, markets were mixed as China wrapped up a key Communist Party meeting outlining its five-year economic strategy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.7% to 25,967.98, and the Shanghai Composite added 0.2% to 3,922.41, amid reports of tighter U.S. export controls on China.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.4% to 48,641.61 after reports that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is planning a stimulus package exceeding 14 trillion yen ($92 billion). SoftBank shares dropped over 4% after announcing bond plans to fund AI investments.
The yen weakened as Takaichi signaled support for low interest rates, with the dollar rising to 152.75 yen from 151.94.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1% to 3,845.56 amid slow progress in U.S. trade talks, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.1%. Taiwan’s Taiex slipped 0.4%, and India’s Sensex rose 0.6%.
Gold prices rebounded 1.6% to $4,131.80 after two days of declines from record highs.