The Dow Jones (DJIA) is trading lower on Thursday as the U.S.-Iran war nears its fourth week with no ceasefire in sight. Brent crude futures (BZ), the international benchmark for oil, are up by 6%, reigniting inflation fears.
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Trade QQQ with leverageEarlier this week, the U.S. presented Iran with a 15-point peace plan. However, the plan had virtually no overlap with Iran’s five conditions to end the war. “In brief, the proposal suggests that Iran would relinquish its ability to defend itself in exchange for a vague plan to lift sanctions,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that the plan was “one-sided and unfair.”
In addition, he said that there are currently no plans for negotiations with the U.S., although Iran is open to the possibility of them if the two sides are able to establish common ground.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is preparing a “final blow” to Iran, according to Axios. Options include invading the islands of Kharg or Larak, taking over the island of Abu Musa and two smaller islands, and blocking or capturing ships carrying Iranian oil on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz.
Elsewhere, initial jobless claims for the week March 21 ended rose by 5,000 to 210,000, matching the consensus estimate of 210,000. Continuing jobless claims, which trail initial claims by a week, fell by 32,000 to 1.819 million and were below the expectation of 1.849 million. Initial jobless claims serve as a gauge of layoffs, while continuing jobless claims track the number of people receiving unemployment benefits and reflect ongoing unemployment.
The Dow Jones is down by 0.65% at the time of writing.
Which Stocks are Moving the Dow Jones?
Let’s pivot to TipRanks’ Dow Jones Heatmap, which illustrates the stocks that have contributed to the index’s price action.
All four consumer cyclical stocks are in the red, with rising oil prices again stoking inflation concerns and battering the sector. Financial stocks are also dragging the index lower, with Goldman Sachs (GS) leading to the downside.
Elsewhere, tech stocks are split across the board. Nvidia (NVDA) is down by over 2% after a class action lawsuit alleged that the chip giant masked the impact of crypto mining on its gaming GPU revenue between 2017 and 2018. Furthermore, Microsoft (MSFT) is down by nearly 1%, while Apple (AAPL), Salesforce (CRM), and IBM (IBM) are in the green.
Is the Dow Jones a Good Long-Term Investment?
The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) is an exchange-traded fund designed to track the movement of the Dow Jones. As a result, DIA is falling alongside the Dow Jones today.
Wall Street believes that DIA stock has room to rise. During the past three months, analysts have issued an average DIA price target of $558.58, implying upside of 20.91% from current prices. The 30 holdings in DIA carry 30 buy ratings, zero hold ratings, and zero sell ratings.