NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is remaining relatively calm on Wednesday, even as the price of oil gets back to climbing.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% in early trading and could be heading for another day of relatively modest moves
following a punishing stretch of extreme swings caused by the war with Iran. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 72 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.Since the
start of the war, oil prices have been the trigger causing big moves up and down for financial markets worldwide, sometimes by the hour. Oil prices briefly spiked to their highest levels since 2022 this week because of the possibility that production in the Middle East could be blocked for a long time, which in turn raised worries about a surge of debilitating inflation for the global economy.
Several governments said Wednesday they’ll release some of the oil in stockpiles they’ve set aside for emergencies, including Germany and Japan. Such moves push downward on oil prices in the near term, but it’s likely that only a full resumption of the flow of oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf area would fully ease the market. That has investors worldwide anxiously awaiting the end of the war.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3% to $90.42. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude gained 1.5% to $84.73.
Worries are centered on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s coast where a fifth of the world’s oil sails on a typical day. The war halted most of that traffic, which has storage tanks for crude in the region filling up because the oil has nowhere else to go. That in turn is pushing oil producers to say they’re cutting their output.
The United States said it took out more than a dozen minelaying Iranian vessels Tuesday, and the Islamic Republic vowed to block the region’s oil exports, saying it would not allow “even a single liter” to be shipped to its enemies.
All this is happening at a time when inflation was already higher in the United States than anyone would like. A report released Wednesday showed that U.S. consumers paid prices for groceries, gasoline and other costs of living that were 2.4% higher in February than a year earlier.
To be sure, that inflation figure was better than the 2.5% that economists expected, but it remains above the 2% target the Federal Reserve has set for the economy. It also doesn’t include the spike in gasoline prices that’s happened this month because of the war.
“Looking forward, we expect a spring bulge in inflation due to the spike in energy prices tied to the Iran war, the duration of which will dictate the landing spot for headline inflation by year end,” according to Gary Schlossberg, global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
High inflation combined with a stagnating economy would create a worst-case scenario called “stagflation” that the Federal Reserve has no good tools to fix. Stagflation fears are rising not just because of higher oil prices but also because of weakness in hiring by U.S. employers.
On Wall Street, Oracle jumped 13.8% to one of the market’s biggest gains. The tech giant reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Campbell’s sank 3.2% after the soup company reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than expected, in part because of struggles for its snack business. It also cut its forecasts for revenue and profit this fiscal year.
In stock markets abroad, indexes sank in Europe following better performances in Asia. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.8%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.4%.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose because of the upward pressure from climbing oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.18% from 4.15% late Tuesday.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
