STORY: U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday as the Middle East conflict entered its sixth day, pushing oil prices higher and spurring worries about inflation and whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.The Dow fell more than one and a half percent while the S&P 500 slid about half of a percent and the Nasdaq dropped a quarter of a percent.Signs the U.S.-Israel war with Iran was expanding fed fears of disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical energy choke point, where missile and drone threats have drastically reduced tanker traffic.U.S. crude jumped more than eight percent to $81 a barrel, the highest since July 2024.However, Todd Ahlsten, chief investment officer with Parnassus Investments says investors seem to be taking it all in stride.“Well, if you look at since the reaction of the war, the S&P 500 is almost unchanged since this conflict started. So I think there's been, if anything, quite a bit of optimism. It's going to be a relatively short endeavor. If you really look at the S&P 500 has been resilient. So as people look at the cone of outcomes and the duration of this, you're expecting and you're going to see some chop. So I think as we evolve, it's probably going to be realized that it's going to take some time to sort this out. And when oil prices go up and supply chains get questioned and the discount rate goes up for geopolitics, this is a geopolitical shock and it's going to take time and be volatile. So today we're on the negative end of that and we'll have to see how it plays out.”Limiting losses was a strong forecast from chip designer Broadcom, which projected its artificial intelligence chip revenue would exceed $100 billion next year. Its shares rose nearly 5 percent.Shares of American Eagle Outfitters sunk nearly 14% after the apparel retailer said it expects a $60 million impact from tariffs in the first half of this year. This despite giving an annual sales forecast above estimates.