Oil falls below $US80<\/p>\n
Oil prices sank again in US trading on Tuesday and dropped below $US80 per barrel for the first time since early March, while US stocks drifted near their all-time highs in mixed trading.<\/p>\n
The S&P 500 slipped 0.6% and pulled 1.3% below its record set earlier this month. The market was nearly evenly split between stocks rising and falling, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 328 points, or 0.6%, to set a record for the second straight day. But drops for some influential tech stocks pulled the Nasdaq composite down 1.2%.<\/p>\n
AI stocks weigh on Wall Street<\/p>\n
Stocks that had benefited from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology weighed on the market in particular following vicious swings over the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
They’ve been leading the market up and down amid worries that their stock prices shot too high in the mania around AI. That’s taken a toll because chip companies, makers of computer memory and other AI winners have grown so massive that they’ve become some of Wall Street’s most influential stocks.<\/p>\n
Drops of 2.4% for Nvidia, 4.4% for Broadcom and 6.2% for Micron Technology were the heaviest weights pulling the S&P 500 lower.<\/p>\n
SpaceX rises after debut<\/p>\n
On the winning side of Wall Street was SpaceX, which rose 4.8% for its third straight gain since its debut on the US stock market. It said it’s moving forward with a purchase of Cursor, a popular AI coding assistant, valuing it at $US60 billion.<\/p>\n
All told, the S&P 500 slipped 42.94 points to 7,511.35. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 328.64 to 51,999.67, and the Nasdaq composite fell 307.60 to 26,376.34.<\/p>\n
Hopes rise for oil flow<\/p>\n
The strongest action was in the oil market, where optimism continued that a tentative US-Iran deal on their war will reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the week and get the global flow of oil going again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.1% to settle at $US78.96.<\/p>\n
Significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, including what to do with Iran’s nuclear program. But the hope on Wall Street is that this agreement will mean a long-term fix to a conflict that has worsened inflation around the world. The price of Brent has come down sharply from its $US100-plus level of a few weeks ago, though it could still take months for the energy industry to get back to full speed.<\/p>\n
European markets rise<\/p>\n
On other stock markets, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed performance in Asia.<\/p>\n
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 briefly topped 70,000 for the first time before ending with a modest gain of 0.1% after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to 1%.<\/a> That’s its highest level in three decades, and it followed a similar move by the European Central Bank last week.<\/p>\n The US Federal Reserve began its own meeting on what to do with interest rates on Tuesday, with an announcement on the decision scheduled for Wednesday.<\/p>\n It’s the first meeting under the Fed’s new chair, Kevin Warsh, who was nominated by President Donald Trump. Trump has been pushing for lower interest rates, which would give the economy a boost but also threaten to worsen inflation. The widespread expectation, though, is that the Fed will leave its main interest rate alone again.<\/p>\n Bond yields ease<\/p>\n