NEW YORK (AP) — Calm is returning to Wall Street, and U.S. stocks are rallying on Monday, while oil prices are giving back some of their initial spurts following Israel's attack on Iranian nuclear and military targets at the end of last week.
The S&P 500 was up 1.2% in morning trading and on track to reclaim all of its drop from Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 469 points, or 1.1%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% higher. They joined a worldwide climb for stock prices, stretching from Asia to Europe.
Israel and Iran are continuing to attack each other, and a fear remains that a wider war could constrict the flow of Iran's oil to its customers. But past conflicts in the region have seen crude prices spike only temporarily. They've receded after the fighting showed that it would not damage the flow of oil, either Iran's or other countries' through the narrow Strait of Hormuz off Iran's coast.
Hopes that the fighting could remain similarly contained this time around helped send oil prices back toward $70 per barrel on Monday.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. oil fell 4.4% to $69.79, while Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 3.5% to $71.66 per barrel. They both had jumped roughly 7% on Friday after the initial attacks. Monday's drops for oil prices accelerated following a report from The Wall Street Journal saying Iran has been signaling it wants to end hostilities and resume talks over its nuclear programs.
In another signal of calming worries in financial markets, the price of gold also gave back some of its knee-jerk climb from Friday, when investors were looking for someplace safe to park their cash. An ounce of gold fell 1.1% to $3,413.60.
Wall Street has plenty of other concerns in addition to the fighting in Iran and Israel. Key among them are President Donald Trump's tariffs, which still threaten to slow the economy and raise inflation if trade deals aren't made with other countries to reduce Trump's taxes on imports.
The United States is meeting with six of the world's largest economies in Canada for a Group of Seven meeting, with the specter of tariffs looming over the talks.
Later this week, the Federal Reserve is set to discuss whether to lower or raise interest rates, with the decision due on Wednesday. The nearly unanimous expectation among traders and economists is that the Fed will make no move.
The Federal Reserve has been hesitant to lower interest rates, and it's been on hold this year after cutting at the end of last year, because it's waiting to see how much Trump's tariffs will hurt the economy and raise inflation. Inflation has remained relatively tame recently, and it's near the Fed's target of 2%.
While lower rates can goose the economy by encouraging businesses and households to borrow, they can also accelerate inflation.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.40 from 4.41% late Friday. A drop in oil prices could take pressure off inflation, and lower inflation removes some upward pressure on Treasury yields.
On Wall Street, Sage Therapeutics jumped 35.4% for one of the market's biggest gains after Supernus Pharmaceuticals said it would buy the biopharmaceutical company in a deal worth up to $795 million, or $12 per share, if certain conditions are met.
U.S. Steel rose 5.1% after Trump on Friday signed an executive order paving the way for an investment in the company by Japan's Nippon Steel. Trump would have unique influence over the operations of U.S. Steel under the terms of the deal.
They helped offset drops for defense contractors, which gave back some of their jumps from Friday. Lockheed Martin fell 2.4%, and Northrop Grumman sank 1.9%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across most of Europe and Asia.
Stocks climbed 0.7% in Hong Kong and 0.3% in Shanghai after data showed stronger Chinese consumer spending for May but slower growth in factory activity and investment.
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.8%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 1.3% for two of the world’s bigger gains.
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AP Writer Jiang Junzhe contributed.
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