The three major indexes on Wall Street opened mixed on selling in semiconductor stocks.
As of 9:30 a.m. on the 7th (local time) on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 126.66 points, or 0.24%, to 53,182.57. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 fell 15.57 points, or 0.21%, to 7,521.86, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 192.30 points, or 0.74%, to 25,928.86.
Semiconductor stocks led the weakness. Micron, a memory chipmaker, fell more than 6%, and Western Digital and SanDisk each dropped more than 7%. Intel and Marvell Technology fell 7.5% and 6%, respectively.
News that a ship near the Strait of Hormuz was attacked also weighed on sentiment. According to Reuters and other foreign media, a fire broke out on the Qatar-flagged liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Al Rekayat after it was hit by missiles from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near the Strait of Hormuz on the night before.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) of the Royal Navy said a tanker and an LNG carrier transiting the Strait of Hormuz, 15 kilometers east of Lima, Oman, were struck by projectiles and caught fire. UKMTO did not release information on the tanker, but the struck vessel is presumed to be the Al Rekayat.