Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving right now.
Crude is the headline this afternoon, with June WTI surging more than three percent and RBOB gasoline up nearly four percent as tensions in the Strait of Hormuz intensify. Iran's posture in that critical chokepoint is rattling energy markets and pushing prices sharply off overnight lows.
That pressure is feeding straight into equities. The S&P five hundred is off about a third of a percent, the Dow down nearly three quarters, and the Nasdaq holding up somewhat better but still in the red. Risk appetite is clearly retreating as traders price in the geopolitical uncertainty, with oil's move acting as both an inflation signal and a growth headwind.
Stepping back from the daily volatility, a Fortune report out today makes an important structural point — America's shift away from heavy manufacturing is actually buffering the domestic economy from the worst of the oil shock. With energy-intensive industry a smaller share of GDP than in past decades, the transmission from crude prices to broad economic damage is meaningfully softer than it would have been a generation ago.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
