NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is rising toward a record as big companies keep piling up profits and oil prices ease. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% early Tuesday and is on track to top its all-time closing high set in June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 788 points from its own record set the day before, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%. AI company Palantir Technologies jumped more than 18% after reporting a 93% gain in revenue and raising
its revenue forecast for the full year. The price of Brent crude fell 2.8%. Treasury yields fell.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Wall Street was poised to open higher and oil prices flipped to significant losses Tuesday after President Donald Trump criticized oil companies for using the Iran conflict to amass excessive profits.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%. Nasdaq futures jumped 1.1%.
Oil prices slid close to 3% early Tuesday after Trump bashed big oil companies.
“They made too much money, too much money," Trump said on Monday. “They ought to give some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price.”
Trump said he’s not happy with profits reported by Chevron and Exxon Mobil, even though the higher margins reflected energy prices that had increased after Trump launched a war with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed to oil and natural gas tankers.
Shares of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron all fell around 1% before the bell.
Also possibly helping to push oil prices lower was comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said Tuesday in an interview on CNBC that “we are in talks with the Iranians.” Bessent added, “There is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the Strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict.”
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude slid $2.46 to $77.88 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, to $lost $1.87 to $81.90 a barrel.
Foreign oil companies are also posting massive increases in profits.
Saudi Aramco on Tuesday reported a 44% year-on-year increase in second-quarter net profit to $32.69 billion, driven by higher crude oil, refined products and chemicals prices during the regional conflict.
London-based BP reported overnight that its profits more than doubled to $3.9 billion in the second quarter.
Outside of the energy sector, a raft of major companies are reporting earnings this week.
McDonald's rose less than 1% in premarket after the fast food giant posted a strong profit in its second quarter and named a new head of its U.S. market. The burger chain said same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, edged up 0.8% in the U.S., a sharp slowdown from the 2.5% increase a year ago.
McDonald’s warned in May that the higher gas prices could cut into sales as many Americans grow more cautious about spending.
In Europe, France's CAC 40 added 0.3% in midday trading, while the German DAX surged 0.8%. Britain's FTSE 100 edged up 0.3%.
In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% to finish at 63,957.53, as the U.S. dollar rose to 157.80 Japanese yen from 157.18 yen. The euro cost $1.1513, inching down from $1.1514. The dollar was trading at 160-yen levels before regulators stepped in to boost the yen's value after it fell to nearly 40-year lows.
Some analysts said the effectiveness of such an intervention remains uncertain as it doesn't address the fundamental economic reasons behind the currency fluctuations, including inflation, interest rates and the relative strengths of the economies.
“A U.S.-backed operation carries far more signaling weight than Tokyo acting alone, and the pledge of further action will give speculators pause. But any U.S. contribution will probably be constrained by size,” a report by BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said.
Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, noted the latest effort could have some impact because it appears to signal a real change in monetary policy rather than just a one-time defensive move.
“This is an historic and meaningful development for the yen, which materially improves confidence in our mildly bullish call for the currency,” he said.
South Korea's Kospi gained 1.6% to 6,358.95. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.4% to 9,145.80. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6% to 25,852.92, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.3% to 3,822.28.
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