This Week on Wall Street

Wall Street opens September on the back foot after crude producers came under renewed attack overnight, with two tankers — one Saudi, one South Korean — struck by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz as U.S.-Iran hostilities flared for a second straight session. Monday's close already reflected the shift toward risk-off trading, with the S&P 500 down 0.33% to 7,686.14, the Nasdaq Composite down 0.12% to 26,370.89 and the Dow Jones down 0.70% to 53,185.90, even as all three indexes closed out a winning August. Energy was the lone bright spot, up about 2% on the week as crude climbed toward $86.50 a barrel, while Communication Services and Utilities lagged, each down close to 2%. Tuesday morning futures point lower again — Dow futures off roughly 240 points and Nasdaq-100 futures down nearly 1% — as the 10-year Treasury yield pushes toward 4.76%, a level not seen since January 2025, with traders bracing for the day's JOLTS job openings report and the ISM Manufacturing PMI, the first data points in a week that builds toward Friday's closely watched August jobs report. The VIX climbed to 14.92 as hedging demand ticked up, while gold slipped to around $4,472 an ounce as the firmer-for-longer rate outlook offset safe-haven flows from the Middle East escalation.