Wall Street logged its third consecutive losing session Tuesday. Fresh U.S. strikes on Iran sent oil surging, and CNBC’s Jim Cramer says three forces now keep the market, including Bitcoin, volatile.
The Dow fell 419 points and the Nasdaq dropped 1%. Both slides reflect geopolitical shocks, bond market stress, and a hawkish new Fed chair. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.79%.
Three Forces Rattling Wall Street
The first of the three factors is Iran. Renewed U.S. strikes near the Strait of Hormuz pushed Brent crude up 4.6% to $95.70 a barrel Tuesday evening. U.S. crude closed above $90 for the first time in over a month.
Cramer says the pattern keeps repeating as Iran’s latest Hormuz threat resurfaces whenever ceasefire hopes fade.
The second factor is the Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has signaled he would raise rates even at the cost of a recession.
Cramer compares him to former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, another inflation hawk. Traders now put the odds of a September rate hike at 66%, up from about 40% a week earlier.
The third is the president himself. Cramer estimates a provocative post on Iran shaves about a quarter point off major indexes. An actual strike can cut markets by half a percent and add two percentage points to oil. He calls it a volatility premium with no fixed expiration.
Cramer’s team also trimmed data center exposure ahead of the November election, wary of political risk to AI names. They kept core holdings in Nvidia and Apple.
Bitcoin Also Feeling the Pressure
The pressure has spilled into digital assets too. Bitcoin’s brief slide below $77,000 tracked Tuesday’s broader risk-off move.
Investors trimmed exposure across both stocks and crypto. Ether slid alongside bitcoin as traders cut risk broadly across the sector. Cramer’s investing club raised cash to more than 15%, the highest level in its 25-year history.
He is betting the whipsaw continues until Iran’s conflict eases or the Fed’s path becomes clearer. The next test arrives Friday, when the August jobs report could reshape rate-hike expectations further.
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