* Hopes fade for Strait of Hormuz breakthrough
* Oil prices rise closer to $100
* Stocks dip, but AI hype provides support
(New throughout, updates headline and first paragraph, adds
analyst quote and New York dateline; adds photos)
By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK, June 3 (Reuters) - Global equity markets fell
while oil prices rose on Wednesday as hopes of a quick end to
the Middle East conflict faded as hostilities flared again.
On Wall Street, all three indexes pulled back from recent
record highs with technology and financial shares driving losses
while energy stocks were leading gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.75%, the S&P 500
fell 0.36%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.42%.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.59%. MSCI's
gauge of stocks across the globe fell 0.32%.
Iranian attacks on Kuwait damaged its airport and injured dozens
while the U.S. military carried out strikes near the Strait of
Hormuz, with diplomacy to halt the war showing little sign of
progress.
"The broad market and the tech sector have led this strong,
strong rally for the past several sessions and today's taking a
breather," said Wasif Latif, chief investment officer at Sarmaya
Partners.
"The headline coming out of the Middle East with the Iran
war continuing to escalate, deescalate, escalate, and then
deescalate again. That's the reason for the market selloff
today."
Oil prices crept back towards the $100 mark, with global
benchmark Brent crude up 1.8% to $97.72 a barrel.
AI HALO
Investor euphoria over artificial intelligence continues to
underpin markets. In Asia, stock indexes climbed to record highs
in Japan and Taiwan.
Shares in Marvell Technology ( MRVL ) were up 6%, extending
gains from a record high in the prior session after Nvidia ( NVDA )
boss Jensen Huang called the chipmaker the next
trillion-dollar company.
SpaceX - which is largely focused on AI - plans to raise $75
billion in a blockbuster initial public offering, according to a
source familiar with the matter.
"Our view continues to be that this strong run up in
semiconductors and data center demand is a lot of pulling
forward of future demand and consumption, and that's helping the
economy," Latif added.
YEN INTERVENTION WORRIES
Currency traders were on edge, however, after the dollar
rose against the Japanese yen to the 160 level at
which the market tends to become nervous about intervention from
authorities in Tokyo.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.07% against the greenback
to 159.97 per dollar.
The fall in the yen prompted warnings from the finance minister
on Wednesday.
The euro down 0.31% against the greenback at $1.1596.
The dollar index, which tracks the currency against its
peers, rose 0.21% to 99.50.
Markets, which had expected rate cuts before the Iran war,
have priced in about 18 basis points of U.S. rate increases this
year.
A hike in Europe next week is all but fully priced in following
data showing inflation accelerated last month, while traders
predict about a 75% chance of a June rise in Japan.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose 2.8 basis points to 4.483%
. Data showed U.S. private payrolls increased more
than expected in May. More comprehensive official jobs numbers
are due on Friday.
Spot gold fell 0.81% to $4,449.44 an ounce.