Stock market today: Live updates

Stock futures moved sharply lower Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump told the NATO summit in Turkey that the ceasefire with Iran is “over”, amid renewed hostilities in the Middle East that sent oil prices surging.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 705 points, or 1.3%, following Trump’s comments in Ankara. Futures tied to the S&P 500 were 1% lower, and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped.

International Brent crude futures were up nearly 6% at $78.54 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures popped 6% to trade at $74.75.

European stock markets fell sharply as well, with the Stoxx 600 regional benchmark dropping 1.8%, and all major regional bourses and sectors, except oil and gas, sliding into the red.

The U.S. started a “series of powerful strikes” against Iran on Tuesday evening, retaliating for attacks against three commercial vessels traveling in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said. Earlier, the Treasury Department revoked a license that permitted Iran to sell its oil around the world in light of the attacks in the Hormuz Strait.

In a statement on Wednesday, Iran’s foreign ministry labeled the strikes a “gross violation of the Memorandum of Understanding” Washington and Iran reached last month to bring their war to an end.

“The powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as they have repeatedly shown, will not hesitate to defend Iran’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty, and national security against American military aggression,” the ministry said, according to a Google translation.

Speaking to reporters at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday, the military alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte said America’s strikes were “absolutely necessary.”

“When you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating the ceasefire — we see what happened yesterday with ships being attacked — I think it is totally crucial that the U.S. forcefully reacts,” he said.

“Renewed tensions in the Middle East have interrupted what had become an increasingly complacent market narrative, prompting investors to reassess geopolitical risks after several weeks of pricing in a smooth path toward de-escalation,” Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, said in a note on Wednesday morning.

“The latest attacks have reminded investors that while a ceasefire remains in place, a lasting agreement between the U.S. and Iran is far from guaranteed. Markets had become comfortable with the idea that the conflict would gradually fade into the background but recent developments suggest that assumption may have been premature.”

Investors’ attention will also turn to the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s June meeting, due at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. The release is expected to provide more insight into Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s first policy meeting, where officials left interest rates unchanged while signaling that additional rate hikes could be warranted if inflation pressures persist.

“The FOMC minutes will be [a] wildcard simply because Warsh was so opaque at the most recent press conference,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note. “Normally, [Jerome] Powell provided fairly comprehensive accounting of the meeting discussion, but that didn’t happen with Warsh, so the minutes, which are likely to be hawkish in tone, could contain some surprises.” 

— CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed reporting.