ORLANDO, Florida, April 23 (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped

and Wall Street fell on Thursday, with the Nasdaq having its

worst day in a month, as fading hopes of a U.S.-Iran peace deal

soured recent optimism around the U.S. earnings season and tech

companies in particular.

In my column today, I look at the resilience of U.S. equity

- and other global stock markets - and ask whether the biggest

investment risk right now might not be war, inflation or

tariffs, but risk aversion and not being invested.

If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I

recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets

today.

1. Iran shows off its control over strait after collapse

of peace talks

2. Iran war impact seeps ever deeper into global economy

3. A Warsh-led Fed's 2% inflation goal might be a

different 2%: Mike Dolan

4. Investors return to US stocks as AI, earnings growth

feed fear of missing out

5. Biggest IPO wave in history promises $3 trillion in

value - with no profits

Today's Key Market Moves

* STOCKS: Asia down - KOSPI big exception, hits new

high. Europe mixed. Wall Street in the red, Nasdaq -0.9% for

biggest fall in a month.

* SECTORS/SHARES: Six of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500

fall, five rise. Tech -1.5%, utilities +2.8%. Texas Instruments

+19%, ServiceNow -18%, IBM -8%, Tesla -3.6%. Intel +16% after

the bell. AMD +5% after the bell too.

* FX: Dollar up for 3rd day. Indian rupee set for worst

week since 2022. Peru's sol down again. Brazil real -1%, biggest

fall in a month and back below 5.00/$.

* BONDS: U.S. Treasuries fall, yields +4 bps at short

end, flattening curve for 4th day. 5-year TIPS auction goes

smoothly.

* COMMODITIES/METALS: Oil +4%, up for 4th day in a row,

gold slips to 1-week low.

Today's Talking Points

* Private market blues

The opaque world of private markets is in the spotlight

again after the Reuters exclusive on Wednesday that private

equity firm Thoma Bravo is nearing a deal to hand software firm

Medallia over to its lenders. This will result in a $5.1 billion

equity writedown for Thoma Bravo and its co-investors.

Medallia's main lenders? Private credit giants Blackstone,

KKR and Apollo, whose shares all underperformed on Thursday.

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman came out swinging in defense

of private credit, but shares fell 5.7%, their worst day in two

months.

* IPO, IPO, it's off to work we go

Excitement is building ahead of SpaceX's stock market

listing, expected in June, with OpenAI and Anthropic set to

follow not long after. Together, this will be the largest wave

of initial public offerings in history - pretty remarkable for

three reportedly loss-making companies.

Of course, investors will be buying in for future earnings,

and that's what the combined IPOs worth $3 trillion, according

to LPL Financial estimates, will reflect. Investor appetite for

high-growth technologies is palpable, but $3 trillion is, well,

a lot.

* Safe haven, where art thou?

With the Iran war about to enter its third month and the

global energy shock still very much alive, the strength of U.S.

and many other equity markets is remarkable. Yet surely there is

some demand for safety, hedging or diversification amid such

uncertainty, right?

It doesn't look like it. Traditional havens like Treasuries,

gold and the yen are all down since the war started, and the

dollar is barely up at all. Bitcoin is up 18%, but it did fall

50% in the five months preceding the war. Is Big Tech taking on

a 'safe haven' mantle now too?

What could move markets tomorrow?

* Developments in the Middle East

* Energy market moves

* Japan earnings including Nomura

* Japan inflation (March)

* UK retail sales (March)

* Germany Ifo business sentiment index (April)

* Canada retail sales (March)

* U.S. University of Michigan consumer, inflation

expectations (April, final)

* U.S. earnings include Proctor & Gamble

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