US Equity Indexes Decline as Crude Oil Tops $100 Mark While Treasury Yields Jump

12:44 PM EDT, 09/09/2026 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes fell as Brent crude oil futures crossed $100 a barrel, while a surge in government bond yields wiped the shine off the Treasury Department's move to triple government debt buybacks to as much as $6 billion. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.4% to 26,306.5, the S&P 500 retreated 0.3% to 7,651.3, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6% to 52,541.7 after midday Wednesday. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps plans to declare a restricted zone stretching from Chabahar into parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern broadcaster, reported. Any vessel entering this area will face sanctions, it said. The Strait of Hormuz accounted for about a fifth of global oil and gas flow daily before the Iran war. Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war, Reuters reported. The front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract surged 3.1% to $95.91 per barrel, and global benchmark North Sea Brent soared 3.2% to $101.04 per barrel. The Treasury Department on Wednesday said it will buy back up to $6 billion of government debt in an operation aimed at keeping bond markets functioning, CNBC reported. The much-anticipated announcement triples the normal buyback operation, it said. Most US Treasury yields rose, with the two-year up 3.2 basis points to 4.43%. The 10-year yield jumped 4.5 basis points to 4.85%, its highest since late 2023.