U.S. stocks drift higher ahead of Trump’s deadline to bomb Iranian power plants

James Denaro, center, and Dilip Patel, left, work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks drifted higher in hesitant trading on Monday, ahead of a deadline that President Donald Trump  has set to bomb Iranian power plants.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent, coming off its first winning week in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 165 points, or 0.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5 per cent.

Oil prices likewise rose after seesawing through the day amid uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran  and how long it will slow the global flow of oil and natural gas. Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal  and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war.

“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”

Fighting continued in the war, meanwhile, including an Israeli attack on an Iranian petrochemical plant. And in the background was the clock ticking toward a deadline, one that Trump has moved multiple times, where he has threatened to attack Iranian power plants if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s oil typically sails through the strait during peacetime.

Trump on Monday suggested that his latest deadline of Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time will be the final one, saying he’d already given enough extensions. “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said.

Monday also offered the first chance for U.S. stock prices to react to a report from Friday that said U.S. employers hired more workers  last month than economists expected. The unemployment rate 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 US$4.12 across the country, according to AAA. It was below US$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 around the world by exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.8 per cent to settle at US$112.41 after erasing an earlier modest dip. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.8 per cent to US$109.77 per barrel and remains well above its roughly US$70 price from before the war.

On Wall Street, a split performance for the Big Tech stocks that dominate the U.S. market kept things in check. Apple rose 1.1 per cent, and Amazon added 1.4 per cent. Tesla slid 2.2 per cent, and Microsoft fell 0.2 per cent.

Bank stocks were strong, including a 1.3 per cent rise for JPMorgan Chase.

CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual letter to shareholders released on Monday that the U.S. economy continues to be resilient, and businesses still look healthy. He, though, also acknowledged that prices for stocks and other assets are high, which could imply “anything less than positive outcomes could have a dramatic impact on global markets.”

All told, the S&P 500 rose 29.14 points to 6,611.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 165.21 to 46,669.88, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 117.16 to 21,996.34.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The 10-year Treasury yield was sitting at 4.33 per cent. That’s still well above its 3.97 per cent level from before the war. The rise has pushed up rates for mortgages  and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.

A report on Monday said that finance, transportation and other U.S. businesses in services sectors grew in March for a 21st straight month of expansion. But the growth was slightly slower than economists expected, and a measure of prices accelerated at its fastest pace since 2022 in a potentially discouraging signal for inflation.

In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.5 per cent, and South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.4 per cent. Many other markets in Europe and Asia were closed for holidays.

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Stan Choe, The Associated Press. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.