Dow Falls 653 Points as Brent Oil Tops $116 and the Selloff Broadens

Updated 21:14 UTC, Oct. 23, 2026. Wall Street closed broadly lower on Friday, October 23, as oil climbed to its highest level in more than four years and the selloff that hit technology stocks a day earlier spread across the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 652.82 points, or 1.2 percent, to 52,215.16. The S&P 500 fell 39.75 points, or 0.5 percent, to 7,623.68. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 53.52 points, or 0.2 percent, to 25,955.34 after giving up a modest gain. Nearly three of every four stocks in the S&P 500 fell.

Oil tops $116 a barrel

Brent crude rose 3.1 percent to settle at $116.72 a barrel, its highest level since June 2022. Brent has surged from less than $97 a barrel at the start of October. Reuters reported that Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia fanned fears of further disruption to energy supplies from the Middle East, where authorities in the United Arab Emirates also reported an oil spill, and European natural gas prices jumped. The Associated Press linked the rise to the United States war with Iran, which has severely cut the world's oil supply. Higher energy costs reached drivers as well: the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States stood at $4.29 on Friday, up two cents from the day before and well above $3.07 a gallon a year earlier, according to AAA data cited by the AP.

Tech steadies, the selling spreads

Several artificial intelligence names rallied on Friday and limited the Nasdaq loss. Micron Technology rose 2.5 percent, Intel gained 1.7 percent, Advanced Micro Devices closed 1.7 percent higher and Microsoft added 0.7 percent. Reuters reported that an index of semiconductor stocks was up about 1 percent during the session, a day after it posted its biggest daily percentage drop since June following a report from Meta Platforms that reignited worries about the AI trade.

The pressure moved elsewhere. American Express slumped 3.7 percent, one of several financial stocks that lost ground, even though it reported profits that beat analysts' forecasts. The company announced its first major job cuts in roughly a decade. JPMorgan Chase fell 1.5 percent, Citigroup dropped 1.5 percent and Capital One Financial slid 1 percent. Caterpillar fell 2.4 percent as industrial companies took some of the biggest losses. Telecom shares, including Verizon, dropped after a Bloomberg News report that SpaceX was in talks with cellular infrastructure companies about launching a United States wireless carrier program, Reuters reported. Energy was the bright spot, as Chevron rose 2.9 percent and ConocoPhillips gained 3.6 percent.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth in Boston, called it a very volatile week. He told Reuters there is still anxiety over the AI trade after Meta's report, and that things in the Middle East look like they are getting worse, not better, which moves energy prices higher and creates a headwind for economic activity. Angelo Kourkafas, senior global strategist at Edward Jones, said in a research note cited by the AP that investors appear increasingly focused on the economics of AI, including the substantial upfront costs required to build AI infrastructure and the uncertainty around the timing of returns.

A second weekly loss, and a heavy week ahead

The S&P 500 posted its second straight weekly loss. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.7 percent, while the Dow gained 0.4 percent. The yield on the 10 year Treasury note edged up to 4.99 percent from 4.96 percent late Thursday, after a sharp drop the day before. Wall Street expects the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady at its meeting next week, while leaning heavily toward another rate hike in December. Investors will also get the personal consumption expenditures index, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, which is expected to show inflation rose at a 3.7 percent rate in September, above the Fed's 2 percent target. Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon all report earnings next week, in results that will test whether AI investments are paying off.