Stock market today: Wall Street drifts lower as oil prices continue to climb
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting lower Thursday, as crude oil prices continue to climb.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in early trading following a shaky run where worries about worsening tensions in the Middle East knocked the index off its record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 140 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.
Oil prices rose again as the world continues to wait to see how Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack from Tuesday. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 2.4% to top $75 after starting the week below $72.
Iran is a major producer of oil, and a worry is that a broadening war could affect neighboring countries that are also integral to the flow of crude. Helping to keep oil prices in check, though, are signals that supplies remain ample at the moment.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose after a report suggested the number of layoffs across the United States remain relatively low. Slightly more workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, but the number remains low compared with history.
The dominant question hanging over Wall Street has been whether the job market will continue to hold up after the Federal Reserve earlier kept interest rates at a two-decade high. The Fed wanted to press the brake hard enough on the economy to stamp out high inflation.
Stocks are near their records because of hopes the U.S. economy will indeed continue to grow, now that the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates to give it more juice. The Fed last month lowered its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years and indicated more cuts will arrive through next year.
The job market could use help, as U.S. hiring has been slowing. The U.S. government will release the latest monthly update on the jobs market on Friday, and economists expect it to show hiring slowed slightly to an overall pace of 140,000 from 142,000 from August.
On Wall Street, Levi Strauss dropped 7.4% despite reporting better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The denim company’s revenue fell short of forecasts, and it said it’s considering what to do with its Dockers brand, whose revenue fell 7% last quarter.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.81% from 3.78% late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Fed will do with overnight rates, rose to 3.67% from 3.64%.
Two-year yields have been rising as traders pare bets for the Federal Reserve to cut rates by a larger-than-usual half of a percentage point at its next meeting. They’re now forecasting a better than 60% chance the Fed will cut by a traditional-sized move of a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2% as its sharp swings continue amid speculation about when the country’s central bank may hike interest rates next.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has also been swerving, and it gave back 1.5%. Stocks in China have been largely surging on hopes for a flurry of recent announcements from Beijing to prop up the world’s second-largest economy. With Shanghai and other markets in China closed for a weeklong holiday, trading has crowded into Hong Kong.
___
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
