Oil Prices Surge as Trump Imposes "Massive" Sanctions on Russian Energy Giants Amid Mixed Global Market Performance

New York:

Wall Street stocks exhibited minimal movement while oil prices surged following President Donald Trump's announcement of "massive" new sanctions targeting Russia's crude industry. The S&P 500 edged up 0.1 percent during early Thursday trading, positioning just slightly below its recent all-time high achieved earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained virtually unchanged, and the Nasdaq composite similarly showed little movement. Tesla shares declined after reporting quarterly profits below analyst expectations, despite revenue exceeding forecasts. Oil prices jumped 5.6 percent following Trump's sanctions announcement against Russian petroleum giants Rosneft and Lukoil.

These sanctions targeting Rosneft and Lukoil aim to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin toward negotiations and help terminate Moscow's ongoing war against Ukraine.

Concurrently, European Union leaders gathered Thursday for a summit intended to approve additional sanctions against Russia and advance plans to utilize frozen Russian assets in Europe to support Ukraine's military efforts and economy for at least the next two years.

US benchmark crude oil increased by $3.13 to $61.63 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, also rose by $3.13 to $65.72 per barrel.

Tesla shares dropped 3.2 percent after the electric vehicle manufacturer led by Elon Musk reported a 37 percent year-over-year decline in third-quarter earnings, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of profit reduction.

During an investor conference call, Musk diverted attention from vehicle sales to highlight Tesla's alternative business segments, including its autonomous robotaxi service, AI products, and Optimus robots.

IBM shares fell 6.8 percent despite beating Wall Street's sales and profit expectations, as investors focused on slowing cloud revenue growth. The company maintains that cloud computing and artificial intelligence remain its primary strategic focuses.

Molina Healthcare plummeted over 20 percent after significantly missing analysts' third-quarter profit projections and drastically reducing its full-year earnings forecast below expectations, citing persistent cost pressures across all business segments.

By midday in Europe, Germany's DAX declined 0.3 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.6 percent, and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.4 percent.

Chinese equities recovered from earlier losses as Beijing leaders concluded an important Communist Party meeting that will establish the agenda for the coming five years.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.7 percent to 25,967.98 while the Shanghai Composite index increased 0.2 percent to 3,922.41, amid reports suggesting Washington may strengthen restrictions on exports to China for products utilizing US software.

Japan's Nikkei 225 decreased nearly 1.4 percent to 48,641.61 following reports that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is preparing a stimulus package exceeding last year's approximately 14 trillion yen (about $92 billion). SoftBank Group led market declines, with shares dropping over 4 percent after announcing plans to finance AI investments through dollar and euro-denominated bonds.

Takaichi has also expressed support for maintaining interest rates near their current level close to zero, contributing to the Japanese yen's weakening against the dollar. The dollar rose to 152.75 Japanese yen on Thursday, up from 151.94 yen.

South Korea's Kospi fell 1 percent to 3,845.56, with investor sentiment remaining cautious as trade negotiations with the United States showed limited progress.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged up less than 0.1 percent to 9,032.80.

Taiwan's Taiex declined 0.4 percent, while India's BSE Sensex increased 0.6 percent.

In other Thursday trading, gold prices recovered approximately 1.6 percent to $4,131.80 after declining for two consecutive days from their record high.