The US stock market careened through a manic Monday, going from a steep early loss to a solid gain as worries turned into hope that the war with Iran may not last that long. Oil prices whipped from nearly $120 per barrel, their highest since 2022, back toward $90.
- The S&P 500 fell as much as 1.5% before rising 55.97 points, or 0.8%, to 6,795.99.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 239 points, or 0.5%, to 47,740.80.
- The Nasdaq composite climbed 308.27 points, or 1.4%, to 22,695.95.
They're the latest hour-to-hour swings to pummel financial markets because of the uncertainty about just how high oil prices will go and how long they will stay there because of disruptions to the energy industry in the Middle East, the
AP reports. Markets made their remarkable reversals during the last hour of Wall Street's trading after President Trump
told CBS News that he thinks "the war is very complete, pretty much."
That calmed worries that had built earlier in the morning, when the price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, briefly touched $119.50. It hadn't been that expensive since the summer of 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. If oil prices stay very high for very long, households' budgets already stretched by high inflation could break under the pressure. Companies, meanwhile, would see their own bills jump for fuel and to stock items on their store shelves or in their data warehouses. It all raises the possibility of a worst-case scenario for the global economy, "stagflation," where growth stagnates and inflation remains high.
Concerns have focused in particular on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran's coast that a fifth of the world's oil sails through on a typical day. Iran had earlier threatened to set fire to ships sailing the strait. If the strait remains closed for only a few weeks, the price of oil could push to $150 per barrel or higher, according to oil and gas strategists at Macquarie Research. But oil prices pared their gains through the day, initially on talk that seven of the world's largest economies could coordinate moves to push back on the spikes. They then slid sharply after CBS reported that Trump said of Iran: "If you look, they have nothing left. There's nothing left in a military sense."
Trump also added that when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, he's "thinking about taking it over," according to CBS. A barrel of Brent crude pulled back to settle at $98.96 in the afternoon and then kept falling afterward below $90. A barrel of benchmark US crude touched $119.48 during the morning, then pulled back to settle at $94.77 and then sank toward $85.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
