NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is making only hesitant moves Monday, while oil prices are flip-flopping as mediators try to forge a ceasefire agreement ahead of a deadline that President Donald Trump has set to bomb Iranian power plants.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in early trading, coming off its first winning week in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 23 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5%
higher.
Oil prices seesawed between gains and losses amid continued uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of oil and natural gas. Fighting is continuing, including an Israeli attack on an Iranian petrochemical plant, while mediators scramble to get the U.S. and Iran to agree to a new ceasefire proposal.
Trump has threatened to attack Iranian infrastructure if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil typically sails, by Monday night, Washington time. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump said on his social media network over the weekend, threatening Iranian leaders that “you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!”
“As we kick off the first full trading week of April, the word uncertainty is paramount. Last year it was centered on the impact of ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, this year it’s uncertainty surrounding the ongoing Iranian War,” said Jay Woods, analyst at Freedom Capital Markets in New York.
Monday also offered the first chance for U.S. stocks to move after a report on Friday said that U.S. employers hired more workers last month than economists expected. The unemployment rate also unexpectedly improved.
They’re encouraging signals for an economy that’s had to absorb painful leaps in costs for gasoline since the war’s beginning. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is nearly $4.12 across the country, according to AAA. It was below $3 a couple days before the United States and Israel launched attacks to begin the war in late February.
For countries that don’t produce as much oil as the United States, the pain has been even worse. That’s because they are more reliant on oil coming from the Middle East, and the war has blocked in much of the crude produced in the Persian Gulf area. That oil typically gets to customers worldwide by exiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.4% to $111.97 after erasing an earlier modest dip. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.2% to $109.20 per barrel and remains well above its roughly $70 level from before the war.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The 10-year Treasury yield was sitting at 4.34%, a bit lower than its 4.35% level from Friday. But it remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war.
That rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, slowing the economy.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.4%. Many other markets in Europe and Asia were closed for holidays.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
