U.S. stocks closed lower for a second consecutive session as oil prices approached $100, driven by escalating tensions in the Middle East and rising inflation expectations. Markets raised the probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September to above 60%, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield remained near 4.8%. AI computing (processing capacity for artificial-intelligence workloads) moved independently, with investors continuing to add exposure to chips, optical communications, cloud computing and memory stocks. CoreWeave gained nearly 12%, Lumentum rose 11% and Intel advanced 9%.