US stocks fall as Brent crude rises above $100

Wall Street stocks fell early Thursday as oil prices rose sharply during the US-Iran war and shares in Tesla and Google parent Alphabet dropped after earnings reports.

International benchmark Brent North Sea crude topped $100 a barrel after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck oil tankers in the Red Sea. The attack extended the effects of the war in the Middle East to another front.

About 15 minutes after trading began, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.8 percent at 51,783.21. The S&P 500 fell 0.8 percent to 7,441.90, while the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.5 percent to 25,310.00.

Alphabet shares fell about six percent and Tesla dropped more than 10 percent. The report said the moves reflected investor concern about large capital spending on new technologies after the companies' earnings reports.

Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital said the latest increase in oil prices was a growing concern for investors. He said investors were worried that there was no end in sight to the conflict and that high oil prices could remain for months. He also said sentiment around technology earnings was moving more toward skepticism than optimism.