US equity markets closed the first session of September in negative territory, as uncertainty over the future path of interest rates deepened amid surging oil prices and mounting inflation concerns.
The United States launched a new wave of strikes against targets in Iran on Tuesday, sending oil prices sharply higher at a moment when sovereign bond yields globally have reached their highest levels since 2008. President Donald Trump said the offensive was a retaliation for Iran’s alleged attempt to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz and for earlier attacks on a US military base in Jordan, warning that further operations would follow should Tehran respond.
Against that backdrop, and as US-Iran hostilities in the Middle East intensified, the S&P 500 ended the session down 0.71% at 7,631.47 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.79% to 52,766.88 points, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.03% to close at 26,099.77 points.
Among individual stocks, GoPro surged more than 40% after the action camera maker signed a merger agreement with Starman Optical, a company specialising in optical solutions. Apple shares rose 2.61% following the announcement that Tim Cook had handed the chief executive role to John Ternus, bringing Cook’s tenure as CEO to a close.
Oil majors continued to benefit from the commodity’s price rise. Chevron advanced more than 2% as it finalises a deal set to significantly expand its operations in Venezuela, including the entry into two crude extraction fields in the Orinoco Belt, as part of a Trump administration initiative to boost oil production in the South American country.
Investors are now turning their attention to Friday’s US employment data, which could shape the Federal Reserve’s next decision on interest rates. “Higher oil prices threaten to reignite inflation, increasing the risks of a more restrictive monetary policy,” said Fawad Razaqzada of Forex.com, as quoted by Bloomberg. “Also unsettling investors is the continued rise in global sovereign bond yields, which tends to move in tandem with oil prices,” he added.
Expectations of a rate increase grew last week after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh warned in a speech at Jackson Hole that inflation was not slowing at a meaningful pace. Warsh added that policymakers would need to act if price pressures did not ease in the near term.
“Warsh will be watching the impact that more expensive oil has on inflation expectations across all time horizons and on bond yields,” said Krishna Guha of financial advisory firm Evercore. “A single rate hike would have a trivial effect on long-term yields, and even two or three hikes may not have a major impact,” he added, as cited by Bloomberg. Nevertheless, Guha said the upward pressure on yields should lead the Fed chair to demand clearer signals from economic data before deeming it reasonable to forgo a rate increase in September.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/09/02/mercados/wall-street-fecha-primeiro-dia-de-setembro-no-vermelho-gopro-dispara-mais-de-40/
