Oil prices retreated and Wall Street was poised to open with gains Tuesday after a sell-off last week.
Futures for the S&P 500 added 0.4%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up less than 0.2%. Nasdaq futures jumped 0.8%.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell $1.42 to $92.83 per barrel. It had briefly topped $98 overnight.
U.S. benchmark crude shed $1.68 to $89.62 per barrel, remaining elevated
since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February. A barrel of U.S. crude was less than $70 before the war began.
Major airlines, which have been punished by soaring fuel costs, are on the rise. U.S. airlines spent more than $6 billion on jet fuel in April, up 78% from a year earlier, according to government data. Delta, American and United all gained between 1% and 2% overnight.
Since conflict erupted in the Middle East earlier this year, much of the shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical oil transit route bordering Iran — has remained effectively halted, pushing up the price of oil and jet fuel.
The airline industry’s top global trade group warned that soaring energy costs could nearly halve profits in 2026, even as major carriers have raised airfares and fees, canceled flights or trimmed schedules.
Elevated oil prices have already sent broader inflation higher, which increases not only bills for households but also yields in the bond market. High yields worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury was holding around 4.55% early Tuesday, up from 4.01% in the days leading up to the war.
The U.S. government issues its latest reports on inflation this week, with wholesale prices data coming Tuesday and consumer prices due out the following day. With inflation already well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target and the job market stabilizing, analysts don't expect the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate any time soon. Some experts say that a rate hike is actually more likely this year.
Fed officials meet next week to issue their latest decision on interest rates.
In equities trading, shares of J.M. Smucker Co. rose 3% after the snack and spread maker topped Wall Street's sales and profit forecasts.
Coming later Tuesday is the latest data on home sales. Soaring prices and elevated interest rates has mired the U.S. housing market in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday Germany’s DAX picked up 0.5%, the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.9% and Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.3%.
In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 8.2% to 8,096.93, nearly recovering all of Monday’s loss of 8.3%. SK Hynix, which on Monday announced plans to partner with Nvidia in building data centers, jumped 15.9%. Samsung Electronics vaulted up 9%.
In other Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 2.2% to 65,416.63. Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron gained 8.9% and other technology stocks were among the biggest gainers.
Taiwan's Taiex advanced 2.8% on gains for tech companies like computer chip giant TSMC.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.4% to 24,565.90 and the Shanghai Composite index added 1.3% to 4,010.03.
The S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2% to 8,604.20.
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