Ahead of the mid-term elections, news reports that the U.S. planned to restart talks with Iran sent oil prices sharply lower.
Brent crude fell by 7.6% to close on Monday below $105/bbl. The drop is the biggest one in three months. Any reprieve for lower gas prices would help the Republicans in the elections. Polls indicated a low support for the party, with voters citing inflation and high gas prices for the discontent.
Shares of ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), EOG, and Marathon Petroleum (MPC) fell. The pattern suggests that energy stocks likely peaked.
In the AI space, Anthropic (ANT) posted third-quarter results. The firm filed its initial public offering late last month. In Q3, Anthropic posted revenue growing by 1,127% Y/Y and 47% Q/Q to $17 billion. It lost $567 million, compared to a $974 million profit in Q2.
Anthropic’s net loss of $23.3 billion is an accounting matter. On the other side of that adjustment, investors Alphabet (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) posted gains from their ANT stock holdings.
The Q3 report hurt tech stocks. AMD (AMD) fell by 7.52%, while Intel (INTC) fell by more. Server sellers like Dell Technologies (DELL) fell. Storage firms like SanDisk (SNDK), Western Digital (WDC), and Seagate (STX) fell by around 7% or more on Monday.
Investors fled to defense plays by bidding retailer Walmart (WMT), Dollar General (DG), and Costco (COST) higher.
