At 10:09 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.06%, the S&P 500 lost 0.94%, and the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.27%.
At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 55.9 points, or 0.12%, to 45,904.25. The S&P 500 fell 23.3 points, or 0.36%, to 6,453.89, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 120.9 points, or 0.56%, to 21,287.187.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump pushed back a self-imposed deadline to "obliterate" Iran's power facilities to April 6, contingent on Tehran permitting oil tankers to resume passage from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to open waters.
Despite this second delay announced by Trump within the week, hostilities in the region showed no signs of abating.
Iran indicated no intention of retreating, while Israel issued threats to "escalate and expand" its military operations against Iranian targets.
"Any further statements by Trump about a deal are white noise to the markets," Jim Bianco, president and macro strategist at Bianco Research, wrote in a social media post.
"Only if the IRANIANS say the talks are going well will it impact markets," Bianco added.
Crude oil prices experienced a brief dip following Trump's remarks but soon resumed their upward trajectory due to enduring fears that the conflict will cause long-term disruptions to the production and shipment of oil and natural gas across the Persian Gulf.
The price of Brent crude increased by 2.2% to $104.15 per barrel, a significant jump from the roughly $70 recorded before the outbreak of war. Meanwhile, benchmark U.S. crude climbed 3% to reach $97.28 per barrel.
In the fixed-income market, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.46%, from 4.42% on Thursday.
On the economic data front, University of Michigan consumer sentiment data released on Friday showed consumer sentiment was at 53.3 versus a preliminary reading of 55.5.
Key Stock Movers
Netflix shares rose 0.8% a day after the streaming giant announced price hikes for its services.
Unity Software shares climbed 11.7% after the maker of videogame software reported first quarter preliminary revenue above Wall Street estimates.
Shares of Alphabet and Meta Platforms declined 1.2% and 1.7%, respectively.
Carnival Corp stock fell 1.3% after the cruise-operator cut its annual adjusted profit forecast.
Bullion Market
Gold prices edged higher on Friday on dip-buying.
As of 9:34 a.m. ET (1334 GMT), spot gold rose 0.9% to $4,416.90 per ounce. US gold futures for April delivery gained 0.8% to $4,411.10.
Among other metals, spot silver fell 0.4% to $67.74 per ounce. Spot platinum gained 0.5% to $1,835.60, while palladium rose 0.9% to $1,370.18.
Report by Mint... Source:dailyhunt

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