NEW YORK — A cooldown in oil prices helped release some of the pressure that’s built up on Wall Street, and U.S. stocks closed out their first winning week in the last three. The S&P 500 added 0.5 per cent Friday to pull within 0.7 per cent of its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5 per cent. Stocks got a boost after the price of a barrel of Brent oil dropped below US$98. That helped Treasury yields ease shortly after the 10-year yield briefly jumped near its highest level since 2007. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — A cooldown in oil prices on Friday helped release some of the pressure that’s built up on Wall Street, and U.S. stocks are rising toward the finish of a winning week. The S&P 500 added 0.4 per cent and is on track to break a three-day losing streak marked by big swings due to rising yields in the bond market. The main measure of the U.S. stock market’s health pulled closer to its all-time high set last month and is heading for the finish of its first winning week in the last three. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 438 points, or 0.9 per cent, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4 per cent higher. Stocks got a boost after the price for a barrel of Brent oil dropped 2.8 per cent to US$97.44 per barrel. It’s been yo-yoing on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow oil to flow freely again from the Middle East. Prices go down when hopes rise for a possible deal to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and they go up when doubts resurface. But trading was shaky again Friday, particularly after a report on U.S. consumer sentiment sent Treasury yields higher in the morning. The report from the University of Michigan said U.S. consumers are bracing for inflation of 4.6 per cent in the coming year, up from their forecast of 4 per cent the month before. It also said that overall sentiment among consumers was not as bad as economists expected, even if it was the lowest in four months. The expectations for high inflation are potentially dangerous for the economy because they could encourage behavior that leads to a vicious cycle that makes the cost of living spiral even higher. Some consumers told the survey that buying some kinds of products now would help them avoid higher prices in the future. If they rush to make such purchases, it could encourage sellers to raise prices further. Following the report on consumer sentiment, the yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly jumped above 5.22 per cent, up from 5.18 per cent late Thursday, and was near its highest level since 2007. High yields slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while undercutting prices for stocks and other investments, and the 10-year yield has been jumping from 3.97 per cent before the start of the war with Iran. Rising yields worldwide are rattling all kinds of financial markets. They’re on the rise because of worries about high inflation, expensive oil, big government debt loads, signs of continued economic strength and other factors. But yields later eased as the price of oil pulled lower, and the 10-year yield eased back to 5.17 per cent. That helped stocks on Wall Street regain strength. Helping to lead the way was Akamai Technologies. The cloud company’s stock rose 4.7 per cent after it announced an US$11.6 billion, multiyear agreement with Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI chatbot. Costco Wholesale added 2.7 per cent after the retailer reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Such strong profit reports from U.S. companies have helped the stock market remain resilient despite all the worries about high inflation and oil prices. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following bigger moves in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.3 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1 per cent. ___ Stan Choe, The Associated Press AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
