Oil prices rise, but not by enough to keep Wall Street from more records

Maj.-Gen. (Ret’d) David Fraser on what the recent exchange of airstrikes means for peace talks between the U.S. and Iran.

NEW YORK — Oil prices rose Monday following the latest fighting to threaten the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, but Wall Street isn’t very worried, and U.S. stocks ticked to more records.

The S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent to its prior all-time high set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46 points, or 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.4 per cent to likewise set records.

A slight majority of U.S. stocks actually fell, including companies with big fuel bills hurt by higher oil prices. United Airlines lost 2.6 per cent, and Alaska Air Group fell 3.3 per cent after the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 4.2 per cent to settle at US$94.98. That clawed back a chunk of Brent’s loss from last week and means it’s still well above its price of roughly US$70 from before the war.

Expensive oil has already sent inflation higher, which increases not only bills for households but also yields in the bond market. High yields worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

But yields regressed during the day after oil prices came off their highest levels. That eased some of the pressure on Wall Street, and the Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks went from a loss of 1.3 per cent back to roughly even before finishing with a dip of 0.5 per cent. Small companies can feel the pinch of higher borrowing costs in particular because of the need for many to borrow to grow.

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Hope, meanwhile, seems to remain on Wall Street that the United States and Iran will ultimately reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, allow deliveries of oil to resume from the Persian Gulf and ease the upward pressure on inflation.

Strength from several market heavyweights also helped to power Wall Street.

Nvidia was the strongest force lifting the market and rose 6.2 per cent after CEO Jensen Huang announced several product updates at a conference. What Nvidia does matters immensely for the U.S. stock market because it’s the biggest in terms of overall market value. That means the movements for its stock carry more weight on the S&P 500 than any other’s.

And Wall Street’s biggest companies have been growing so much that they’re dominating the market. The top 10 stocks control nearly half the S&P 500’s total market value, a 40-year high, according to Thomas Carroll, equity market strategist at Stifel.

That worked well as Big Tech stocks shot higher thanks to exuberance around artificial intelligence. But it could also weigh on the index if the market’s leadership broadens, Carroll warns. Even if most stocks end up rising in such a rotation, stagnation or declines for Big Tech heavyweights could drag on S&P 500 index funds.

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A key indicator Carroll follows about market breadth “is signaling a rotation is coming,” he wrote in a report.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Science Applications International Corp. jumped 10.4 per cent after becoming the latest U.S. company to report bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. SAIC also raised forecasts for upcoming financial results.

A cavalcade of such better-than-expected profit reports has helped the U.S. stock market push to records despite the uncertainty created by the war with Iran.

Berkshire Hathaway fell 0.9 per cent after saying it would buy homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home for US$6.8 billion. It’s one of the first big acquisitions announced by the company since Greg Abel took over as its leader from famed investor Warren Buffett. Taylor Morrison Home jumped 22.3 per cent.

MGM Resorts International leaped 16.1 per cent after People Inc., Barry Diller’s business that was formerly known as IAC, offered to buy the rest of the company it doesn’t already own for US$48.30 per share in cash.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 19.90 points to 7,599.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 46.42 to 51,078.88, and the Nasdaq composite rose 114.19 to 27,086.81.

In the bond market, Treasury yields climbed with oil prices and after a report said growth in U.S. manufacturing accelerated by more last month than economists expected. The yield for the 10-year Treasury briefly approached 4.52 per cent before regressing to 4.46 per cent, up from 4.45 per cent late Friday.

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High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level in nine months, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9 per cent to an all-time high. SoftBank Group, the investment company that focuses heavily on AI, soared 21.2 per cent and surpassed Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable listed company.

In South Korea, the Kospi index jumped 3.7 per cent to a record after data showed the country’s exports surged 53 per cent in May from a year earlier, buoyed by global demand for semiconductors.

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Stan Choe, The Associated Press. AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.