Oil prices decline as U.S. prepares new sanctions on Iran

Commercial vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Aug. 5. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are drifting Aug. 24 ahead of a week packed with potentially market-moving events. The areas of the bond market that the U.S. Treasury Department is trying to calm down, meanwhile, eased a bit.

Brent crude fell 2% to $90.78 per barrel.

Last month it zigzagged between $72 and $102 as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach a deal that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again. That was even though the United States was preparing to announce new sanctions on Iran, which helped drag the value of Iran's currency to a record low.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% and pulled a bit further from its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 150 points, or 0.3%, as of 12:35 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.

Tech stocks led the way downward following big swings through the summer on worries that the frenzy around artificial intelligence technology sent prices too high and that the huge demand for AI chips won’t be sustainable if they don’t produce enough profits.

Chip giant Nvidia has been a tremendous winner of the AI boom and become Wall Street’s largest and most influential stock because of it. It will deliver its latest quarterly earnings report on Aug. 26, which could dictate the next big move for AI-related stocks.

.@SecScottBessent: "Today, at President Trump's direction, the United States Treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast... Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone." pic.twitter.com/XPupinjjod — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 24, 2026

Nvidia sank 2.1% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500, where the majority of stocks rose. Drops of 5.1% for Micron Technology and 1.9% for Broadcom also helped drag the index lower.

The other big factor moving stocks recently has been the bond market, where longer-term Treasury yields climbed through the summer on worries about high inflation, huge government debts and other factors. High yields make it more expensive for everyone to borrow, not just the government, and have already been pushing up mortgage rates and hurting the housing industry.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced a surprise move last week to increase the size of planned buybacks of Treasurys, which could help contain the rise in yields for 10- and 30-year Treasurys. But analysts warned the move may have only a limited effect because of how small the size of the buybacks are and how they do not fix the fundamental problems of too-high debt for the U.S. government and expensive oil prices because of the war with Iran.

On Aug 24, the yield of the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.69% from 4.74% late Aug. 21 and is back below where it was late Aug. 18, before the U.S. Treasury Department made its surprise announcement.

Helping to bring yields down on Aug. 24 was a drop in oil prices.

Despite the easing of yields, analysts warn the U.S. government’s attempts to influence the bond market could ultimately mean higher pressure on inflation. Inflation already is higher than nearly everyone would like and has been for years.

That raises the pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds rate, which affects very short-term overnight loans. When the Fed raises that rate, it could help keep a lid on inflation by trying to slow the overall economy and undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

The Fed’s new chairman, Kevin Warsh, is set to deliver a speech on Aug.  28 at an economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The mountain setting has been the backdrop for major Fed policy announcements in the past, but investors are unsure of what they may get from Warsh this time around.

Warsh has insisted that he wants to give financial markets fewer clues about what the Fed will do with interest rates, hoping that markets react more to incoming data about the economy and inflation than to what the Fed is signaling.

But with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announcing his move last week, Warsh now holds the ball, according to economists at Bank of America. Expectations are high among investors for Warsh to talk about inflation and how the Fed could potentially react, and a failure to deliver could lead to bond yields jumping, they said.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped around much of the world. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.1%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.9% for two of the biggest moves.

Seoul has been home to some of the world’s sharpest swings this summer because it is dominated by two tech titans benefiting from the AI boom, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

AP Business Writers Michelle Chapman and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.