{"id":686129,"date":"2026-05-21T23:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686129\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:37:17","slug":"stock-markets-swing-erase-early-losses-as-oil-prices-wobble-over-iran-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686129\/","title":{"rendered":"Stock markets swing, erase early losses as oil prices wobble over Iran – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hour-to-hour swings for oil prices keep jerking financial markets around<\/a>, and U.S. stocks wavered Thursday following the latest reversal over a possible end to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

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The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and inched closer to\u00a0its all-time high\u00a0set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 276 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.1%.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Toronto Stock Exchange closed up nearly 0.75% after opening in the red by about a quarter of 1%.<\/p>\n

All four indexes erased early drops and gained strength following the latest U-turn for oil prices. Brent crude oil briefly got above $109 per barrel in the morning, threatening to worsen the world\u2019s already high inflation, before quickly erasing all its gains in midday trading and falling 2.3% to settle at $102.58.<\/p>\n

Oil prices are yo-yoing because of uncertainty about how long the\u00a0war with Iran\u00a0will keep the Strait of Hormuz shut. The closure has prevented oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf to deliver crude to customers worldwide, driving up oil\u2019s price.<\/p>\n

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As oil prices eased Thursday, so did pressure on\u00a0Wall\u00a0Street\u00a0that\u2019s been building from the bond market.<\/p>\n

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Yields had climbed so high\u00a0that they threatened to slow economies worldwide and undercut prices for stocks, bitcoin and all kinds of other investments. They\u2019ve already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its\u00a0most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies\u2019 borrowing to build the AI data centers that have\u00a0supported the U.S. economy\u2019s growth\u00a0recently.<\/p>\n

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The yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly got near 4.63% in the morning before falling back to 4.55% following the midday turnaround for oil prices. That\u2019s down from 4.57% late Wednesday and from 4.67% the day before.<\/p>\n

Some of the biggest beneficiaries of lower yields can be the smallest companies, many of which need to borrow money to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks climbed 0.9%, far more than the rest of the market.<\/p>\n

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Stocks of companies with big fuel bills also rose because of the easing of oil prices. Southwest Airlines gained 2.7%, and American Airlines flew 4.9% higher.<\/p>\n

Ralph Lauren jumped 13.9% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.<\/p>\n

They helped offset a 1.8% drop for Nvidia, which is one of\u00a0Wall\u00a0Street\u2019s most influential stocks because of its immense size.<\/p>\n

The chip company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while also forecasting revenue for the current quarter that cleared analysts\u2019 estimates. \u201cThe buildout of AI factories \u2014 the largest infrastructure expansion in human history \u2014 is accelerating at extraordinary speed,\u201d CEO Jensen Huang said.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0such performances and such talk have become routine, and Nvidia\u2019s stock swiveled between losses and gains before falling.<\/p>\n

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Some analysts said the weakness may have been because investors were locking in profits after Nvidia\u2019s stock had soared nearly 70% over the prior year, more than double the S&P 500\u2019s 27% jump. The broad AI industry is also getting criticism for becoming too expensive, as well as\u00a0too circular\u00a0as Nvidia has bought ownership stakes in companies that use its own chips that drive Nvidia\u2019s revenue.<\/p>\n

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Walmart also fell, 7.3%, following its profit report. The retailer delivered\u00a0another quarter of impressive revenue\u00a0but offered up weaker forecasts for upcoming profit than analysts expected.<\/p>\n

Walmart has resonated with Americans who have grown increasingly cautious about where they spend their money with\u00a0inflation\u00a0taking a bigger bite out of paychecks.<\/p>\n

All told, the S&P 500 rose 12.75 points to 7,445.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 276.31 points to 50,285.66, and the Nasdaq composite gained 22.74 to 26,293.10.<\/p>\n

A preliminary report on U.S. business activity suggested that companies are also feeling the bite of higher inflation.<\/p>\n

A flash survey from S&P Global said growth in activity for U.S. services businesses unexpectedly slowed a tad, though growth was better than forecast for U.S manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damaging economic impact from the war in the Middle East is becoming increasingly evident in the business surveys,\u201d according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.<\/p>\n

A separate report, meanwhile, gave the latest signal that the U.S. job market remains in better shape than economists expected. The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits last week\u00a0unexpectedly declined in an indication of fewer layoffs.<\/p>\n

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following bigger moves in Asia.<\/p>\n

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South Korea\u2019s Kospi Kospi jumped 8.4% thanks to strength for technology stocks. Samsung Electronics leaped 8.5% after its labor union and management reached\u00a0an agreement\u00a0late Wednesday that averted a strike. SK Hynix, a chip company partnering with Nvidia, leaped 11.2%.<\/p>\n

Tokyo\u2019s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.1%, while indexes fell 1% in Hong Kong and 2% in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With files from Reuters and Global\u2019s Ariel Rabinovitch<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hour-to-hour swings for oil prices keep jerking financial markets around, and U.S. stocks wavered Thursday following the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,2065,164,5575,187,4846,1054,488,1491,1720],"class_list":["post-686129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-iran","tag-money","tag-recession","tag-stock-markets","tag-u-s-news","tag-wall-street","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}