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Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday as a renewed tech selloff and a spike in Treasury yields pressured equities, with semiconductors and chip-related names leading declines amid heightened Middle East tensions that lifted oil prices and stoked inflation concerns. The S&P 500 fell 51.97 points, or 0.67%, to end at 7,692.10, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 350.45 points, or 1.31%, to 26,294.46, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 115.93 points, or 0.22%, to 53,343.85.

“Bill was a remarkable man – a visionary and an innovator who conceived the idea of a network entirely devoted to sports,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said after the network announced the death of its founder Bill Rasmussen at age 93.

Equity weakness coincided with a surge in bond yields to multiyear highs as concerns about the fallout from U.S.-Iran tensions mounted. Oil pushed higher on the news that Iran would adopt a more offensive posture and that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed, while the U.S. ruled out extending a ceasefire. Brent crude futures finished the session around $91 a barrel (with intraday prints of $91.02 and later $91.46), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate settled near $85 a barrel (intraday $84.94 and $85.25 were reported), both at their highest levels since late July.

Market breadth was negative: decliners outnumbered advancers by about 1.74-to-1 on the NYSE and 1.64-to-1 on the Nasdaq. The Nasdaq Composite recorded 65 new highs and 106 new lows, while the S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and four new lows. Chipmakers and memory names were particularly hard hit—SK Hynix tumbled more than 8%, Micron shares plunged over 7% intraday, and SanDisk slid about 9% amid profit-taking and demand concerns.

• AI hardware funding continued to draw investor attention despite the rout: Etched, a San Jose startup building specialized AI inference systems, said its valuation more than doubled to $21 billion in under a month after raising $700 million. Trading firm Jane Street led the round, joined by Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global.
• In corporate deal activity, private equity firm KKR submitted a $9 billion takeover proposal for energy distributor UGI Corp, offering $42.50 per share — a premium of roughly 21.1% to UGI’s prior close. Shares of UGI jumped more than 12% in early trading, while KKR’s stock was down about 1%.
• Pharma movers included Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, whose experimental drug sharply reduced dangerously low blood-sugar episodes in a late-stage trial of bariatric surgery patients; the company’s shares rose more than 45% on the news.

Safe-haven gold retreated as yields climbed, with spot gold easing about 1% to $4,369.82 per ounce in one reported print and U.S. gold futures for December falling 1.1% to $4,425.10. The mix of rising energy prices, geopolitical risk and higher borrowing costs fed worries about future inflation and the cost of capital, pressuring interest-rate sensitive technology stocks.

Outlook: Traders will watch further developments in the Middle East for cues on oil and risk sentiment, and closely monitor Treasury yields for implications on Fed expectations and corporate financing costs. Earnings flows, deal activity such as the KKR-UGI approach, and additional macro data should determine whether the current weakness broadens beyond the tech and energy-linked selloffs or stabilizes if geopolitical tensions ease.