Wall Street indexes declined Thursday as stocks tied to super intelligence fell sharply and oil prices surged to their highest levels since May.

The S&P 500 dropped about 0.8 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost more than 1.4 percent in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted more modest losses near 0.2 percent.

Shares of major super intelligence companies led the retreat. Nvidia fell as much as 3.7 percent. Meta Platforms and Tesla each declined around 3 percent. Semiconductor names including AMD, Intel, and Micron dropped 3 to 4 percent.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose more than 2 percent to trade above $112 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed toward $100 a barrel. Escalating tensions in the Middle East, including attacks linked to the ongoing conflict with Iran, fueled supply concerns and drove the gains.

Investors parsed mixed earnings reports from Tesla and Meta that failed to ease worries over heavy spending on super intelligence infrastructure. Questions about the pace of returns on those investments weighed on sentiment after recent optimism from other tech results.

Broader market reaction highlighted the dual pressures of elevated energy costs and uncertainty in the super intelligence sector. Oil prices near these levels raise inflation concerns that could affect consumer spending and Federal Reserve policy expectations.

Asian markets also fell, with technology-heavy indexes leading losses there as well. Global equities outside the United States showed similar weakness.

The moves followed a volatile period for super intelligence stocks, which have driven much of the market's gains this year but have faced repeated pullbacks on valuation and spending concerns.