Wall Street is mixed in light trading early Friday and oil prices held steady with no major developments in the Iran war.
Futures for the S&P 500 inched 0.1% higher while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%. Nasdaq futures were off 0.1% a day after U.S stocks motored to more records on strong profits for some high-profile companies.
Most global markets were closed for May Day holidays.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude for June
delivery rose 73 cents to $111.13 per barrel while U.S. benchmark crude fell back 80 cents to $104.27 a barrel.
Prospects for a deal to cement a three-week ceasefire in the Iran war remained clouded as Iran’s supreme leader said it will protect its nuclear and missile capabilities as a national asset.
The war's shocks to oil supplies and prices are putting pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump, who was floating a new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for oil and gas exports from the Middle East.
Friday brought some calm to the oil market, after prices surged Thursday on worries over the potential long-term impact of the war on the flow of crude.
Traders are buying and selling contracts for different kinds of oil, going out for many months. In the most actively traded part of the market for Brent crude, for delivery in July, the price rose as high as $114.70 per barrel, fell back toward $107 and settled at $110.40 on Thursday, nearly unchanged from the day before.
So far during the war, the peak price for the most actively traded Brent contract has been $119.50, which was set last month.
In a less actively traded corner of the Brent market, the price for a barrel to be delivered in June briefly went above $126 early Thursday before pulling back toward $114.
Brent’s price was roughly $70 before the war.
Shares of Chevron and Exxon Mobil, up sharply this week, were mixed after reporting that their profits fell in the first quarter even as crude and gasoline prices rocketed higher. Those setbacks are temporary, however, and the decline in profit is only on paper.
The two biggest U.S. oil companies had set up hedges against volatile energy prices but those bets, which are standard practice in the industry, backfired after tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was severely disrupted by the war in Iran. The war has made the physical delivery of crude impossible, meaning that the companies will likely not book gains from those shipments until next quarter.
Apple rose 3.8% overnight after it posted strong quarterly results on Thursday. Attention on the iPhone maker has been focused on the upcoming CEO change and the tech firm’s artificial intelligence strategy.
Strong demand for iPhones boosted Apple's revenue 17% higher than the same period last year and well above analyst expectations.
Elsewhere, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6% at midday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.7% to 59,678.31 as the Japanese yen gained against the U.S. dollar. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 surged 0.9% to 8,743.70.
Most other international financial markets were closed.
