This post was originally published on this site
The S&P 500 rose 0.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, 162 points, Nasdaq rose 0.4%.
Following the surprise Hamas’ attack on Israel, and subsequent declaration of war by Israel, geopolitical tensions in the Middle-East dominated investor attention and briefly kept a lid on their appetite for risk.
The escalating conflict comes just as optimism was building that the U.S. was inching closer to brokering a deal that would normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, potentially paving the way to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“The Saudi leadership has insisted on Israel making significant concessions to the Palestinians as part of any normalization agreement and given what has transpired, it is very difficult to envision a government that is now on war footing to agreeing to such terms,” RBC said in a note.
Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) rose more than 3% after announcing that Israel government ordered the oil major to shutdown natural gas production at the Tamar platform in the Mediterranean amid safety concerns.
The move higher in energy stocks was also supported by rising oil prices on fears of disruptions in the oil-rich Middle East amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Defensive stocks go on offensive amid rising geopolitical tensions
Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) and Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) were among the biggest gainers in the energy sector.
Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL), United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL) and American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) were down sharply after cancelling flights to Israel.
“It is not prudent or appropriate to knowingly put our flight crews and passengers in harm’s way by maintaining flights into a war zone,” American Airlines Union President Ed Sicher said.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was marginally lower after cutting losses despite concerns that the conflict could hurt the chipmaker’s plan to build a new chip-making plant in Israel weighed on sentiment.
Earlier this year, Intel agreed to investment about $25 billion to build a a new chop factor factory in Israel, expected to open by 2027.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) cancelled its AI summit slated for Oct. 15-16 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded less than 1% lower as the electric vehicle maker’s grip in China appears to be waning after data from the China Passenger Car Association showed it sales slipped 10.9% in China in September from the same period a year earlier.
Chinese EV maker and Tesla competitor BYD Co (SZ:002594) Ltd-H (OTC:BYDDF), meanwhile, saw its sales jump 42.8% to 286,903 last month, the data showed.
