By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Some calm is returning to Wall Street, and U.S. stocks are rising on Monday, while oil prices are giving back some of their initial spurts following Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear and military targets at the end of last week.
The S&P 500 was 0.7% higher in early trading and on track to reclaim more than half of its drop from Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 280 points, or 0.7%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher. They joined a worldwide rise in stock prices, stretching from Asia to Europe.
Israel and Iran are continuing to attack each other, and a fear remains that a wider war could constrict the flow of Iran’s oil to its customers. But past conflicts in the region have seen crude prices spike only temporarily. They’ve receded after the fighting showed that it would not damage the flow of oil, either Iran’s or other countries’ through the narrow Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast.
Related Articles
The Trump family’s next venture, a mobile phone company
Wisconsin dairy farmer sues Trump administration claiming discrimination against white farmers
Credit scores decline for millions as US student loan collections restart
ICE is using no-bid contracts, boosting big firms, to get more detention beds
‘Golden Share’ in U.S. Steel gives Trump extraordinary control
Hopes that the fighting could remain similarly contained this time around sent the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. oil down 1.6% to $71.82 on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.7% to $72.97. Both had jumped roughly 7% on Friday after the initial attacks.
In another signal of calming worries, the price of gold also gave back some of Friday’s knee-jerk climb, when investors were looking for someplace safe to park their cash. An ounce of gold slipped 0.5% to $3,433.90.
Wall Street has plenty of other concerns in addition to the fighting in Iran and Israel. Key among them is President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which still threaten to slow the economy and raise inflation if trade deals aren’t made with other countries to reduce Trump’s taxes on imports.
The United States is meeting with six of the world’s largest economies in Canada for a Group of Seven meeting, with the specter of tariffs looming over the talks.
Later this week, the Federal Reserve is set to discuss whether to lower or raise interest rates, with the decision due on Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve has been hesitant to lower interest rates, and it’s been on hold this year after cutting at the end of last year, because it’s waiting to see how much Trump’s tariffs will hurt the economy and raise inflation. Inflation has remained relatively tame recently, and it’s near the Fed’s target of 2%.
While lower rates can goose the economy by encouraging businesses and households to borrow, they can also accelerate inflation.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.43% from 4.41% late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do with its overnight interest rate, was holding steady at 3.96%, where it was late Friday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly across Europe and jumped a bit more in much of Asia.
Stocks climbed 0.7% in Hong Kong and 0.3% in Shanghai after data showed stronger Chinese consumer spending for May but slower growth in factory activity and investment.
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.8%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 1.3% for two of the world’s bigger gains.
AP Writer Jiang Junzhe contributed.
