Wall Street falls as semiconductor stocks tumble, oil prices surge

US stocks fell Tuesday as a sharp drop in semiconductor shares and a surge in global oil prices pushed Wall Street into negative territory.

All three major indexes closed lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 130.76 points, or 0.25 percent, to finish at 52,925.15. The S&P 500 fell 33.58 points, or 0.45 percent, to close at 7,503.85. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 302.47 points, or 1.16 percent, to end at 25,818.69.

The declines reflected mounting economic uncertainty. Two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz came under attack Tuesday in an incident attributed to Iran, prompting the United States to fully revoke its sanctions waiver on Iranian oil and sending crude prices sharply higher. Brent crude futures for September delivery settled at $74.16 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange, up 3.01 percent from the previous session. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for August delivery closed at $70.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a gain of 2.76 percent.

Semiconductor stocks and some other information technology shares continued to slide, adding to the pressure. With market participants increasingly voicing the view that semiconductor stocks have peaked, investor attention is shifting toward hyperscalers and other technology stocks and exchange-traded funds.