NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is inching closer to its all-time high on Tuesday, and oil prices are easing as hopes rise that the United States and Iran may try again on talks to end their war and avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy.
The S&P 500 added 0.4% after a rally the day before returned it to where it was before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February. The index at the heart of many 401(k)
accounts is just 1% below its record and on track for its ninth gain in the last 10 days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 20 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.
They followed up on gains for stock markets worldwide as expectations rose for a possible return to talks by the United States and Iran. Such prospects also helped lower the price of oil, whose production and transportation has been snarled by the fighting.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 2.1% to $97.31. That’s still above its roughly $70 level from before the war, but it’s well below its peak of $119 reached a couple times when worries about the war hit their heights.
To be sure, hope has often quickly swung into doubt in financial markets since the war began, which has caused extreme and sudden reversals. Much of the stress has been due to the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that’s the main avenue for crude oil produced in the Persian Gulf area to reach customers worldwide. Blockages there have kept oil off the global market, which has in turn driven up its price.
And that has meant a blast of higher inflation. In the United States, inflation at the wholesale level accelerated to 4% in March from 3.4% the month before, according to the latest data released Tuesday. That was actually better than the 4.6% rate economists expected, but it could all filter down to U.S. households if businesses fully pass the increases through.
The effect is worldwide. Global inflation this year looks set to accelerate to 4.4% this year from 4.1% in 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund, which had earlier thought inflation would slow to 3.8%.
The IMF on Tuesday also downgraded its forecast for global economic growth to 3.1% this year from the 3.3% it had forecast in January.
On Wall Street, strong profit reports from several companies and expectations for more are helping make up for such worries. At their heart, stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.
BlackRock gained 2.7%, and Citigroup rose 1.6% after the financial companies reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
JPMorgan also delivered a better-than-expected quarter, but its stock dipped 1% as CEO Jamie Dimon said bank officials cannot predict how the “increasingly complex set of risks” will play out given so much uncertainty.
Amazon climbed 2.4% after saying it would buy Globalstar, a mobile satellite services company, for $90 per share in either cash or Amazon stock. Globalstar rose 8.6%.
They helped offset a 6.1% drop for Wells Fargo, which reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.7%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.4% for two of the bigger gains.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.29% from 4.30% late Monday.
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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
