Stock Market Today: Dow Down 475 Points, Israel Braces for Potential Attack from Iran

• U.S. stocks fell Friday amid reports of a possible Iranian attack on Israel.

• Fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East have driven oil prices higher and interest rates lower.

• Investors also digested the first batch of first-quarter earnings, but were not impressed.

U.S. stocks sold off on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping nearly 500 points on fears of a possible Iranian attack on Israel.

A U.S. intelligence report suggests that Iran or its proxies may launch attacks against Israel in the coming days. The report, which was corroborated by a U.S. official, explicitly states that potential drone strikes against Israel could target interests "inside Israel" rather than outside Israel.

Such an attack would come shortly after Israel launched a missile strike that killed seven Iranian military personnel in Syria.

Concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East have driven up oil prices and lowered bond yields.

Investors also digested the first batch of first-quarter earnings reports, but they weren't satisfied. The big banks JPMorgan (JPMorgan), Wells Fargo (Wells Fargo) and Citigroup (Citigroup) all reported better-than-expected results, but their shares were sold off sharply, with JPMorgan dropping more than 6%.

Here's what the U.S. stock indexes were doing at the 4 p.m. close on Friday:

• S&P 500 Index::5 123.41 points, a decrease of 1.46

• Dow Jones Industrial Average37983.24 points, down 1.24 points (-475.84 points)

• Nasdaq Resonanceindices16,175.09, a decrease of 1.62 percent

What else happened today?

• Bank of America (Bank of America) released a new report, said that because Wall Street underestimated Apple's profitability, Apple's stock price could soar nearly 30%.

• Bank of America said that firm inflation means the Fed won't cut rates for the first time until December.

• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says Tesla will have to focus on its low-cost Model 2 cars if it wants the stock to recover from its nasty sell-off.

• On the inflation front, US import prices rose for the third consecutive month in March, slightly above the consensus estimate of 0.4%. Almost all of the rise in import prices was driven by the recent surge in oil prices.

In commodities, bonds and cryptocurrencies:

• West Texas Kerosene Intermediate crude jumped 0.49% to $85.44 a barrel. International benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.48% to $90.17 a barrel.

• Gold fell 0.57% to $2,359.40 an ounce.

• The 10-year Treasury yield fell 6 basis points to 4.52%.

• Bitcoin fell 4.50% to $66,874.

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