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Middle East Chaos and Stablecoin Report Sends Financial Stocks Tumbling

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Middle East Chaos and Stablecoin Report Sends Financial Stocks Tumbling

Published: by Omor IE

Key Points

  • Escalating conflict in the Middle East after Israel’s strikes on Iran has dragged down the stock market.

  • Financial stocks linked to payments have also cratered after a report on stablecoins.

  • Many other stocks have made significant moves in both directions.

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The broader market is down today due to Israel’s attack on Iran, along with a report that showed merchants are starting to accept stablecoins. Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) are both apparently exploring the issuance of their own stablecoins. These are crypto tokens that many people use and prefer. Plus, the crypto market has very light regulations, making transactions a smoother experience.

As such, Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) are both down 5.6% and 5%, respectively. Alongside these names, there are several other stocks that are down in the financial industry due to the geopolitical crisis and stablecoins threatening their businesses.

Here’s a market update as of 11:30 AM (ET) today.

  • The S&P 500 is down 33 points, or 0.55%.
  • The Nasdaq Composite is down 128.94 points, or 0.66%.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 476.6 points, or 1.1%.

Payments-Linked Stocks Pull Back

The S&P 500 Financials sector index is currently down 1.8%, underperforming the rest of the market by around a full percentage point.

  • Paypal (NASDAQ: PYPL) is down 4.65%.
  • Apollo Asset Management (NYSE: APO) is down 3.25%.
  • Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) is down 3.1%.
  • Corpay (NYSE: CPAY) is down 3%.
  • Fiserv (NYSE: FI) is down 2.7%.

Several other stocks in the financial sector are also seeing a decline in value. The stablecoin report could also entail negative consequences for the banking industry. We’ve seen newcomers like Circle (NYSE: CRCL) have massive amounts of “deposits,” as many people are holding stablecoins in their crypto wallets instead of in banks.

Notable Losers Today

  • Sharplink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) is down 65.7% after the company reported a stock-sale filing and reported that it bought $463 million worth of Ethereum.
  • K Wave Media (NASDAQ: KWM) is down 20.3% after a 279% June trough-to-peak rally.
  • VEON Ltd (NASDAQ: VEON) is down 14.2% as it has been seeing an accelerating downtrend this month.
  • Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) is down 13.7% after raising $850 million in a stock offering.
  • Dave Inc (NASDAQ: DAVE) is down 10.5%. It is cooling off from a 176% year-to-date rally.

Notable Gainers Today

  • Urogen Pharma (NASDAQ: URGN) is up 17.5% after the U.S. FDA approved Zusduri despite a negative panel vote.
  • RH (NYSE: RH) is up 11.8% after reporting a surprise profit. Q1 adjusted EPS came in positive at $0.13 vs. analyst expectations for a loss of $0.07.
  • Sasol Ltd (NYSE: SSL) is up 11.2%.
  • Darling Ingredients (NYSE: DAR) is up 10.9%.
  • CRCL stock is up 10.2% due to the stablecoin report.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Artit Wongpradu / Shutterstock.com.

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