Oil prices keep falling, while US stocks hang near their record highs

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding near its records Thursday as oil prices keep dropping on hopes that a deal may be nearing to allow tankers to carry crude once again from the Persian Gulf to customers.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell another 4.5% to $96.70, down from more than $115 early this week. It and gasoline are still much more expensive than they were before the war with Iran began, but hope is rising in financial markets as Iran said it was reviewing the latest U.S. proposals on ending their war.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 added 0.1% to its all-time high set the day before after a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said, “We expect an agreement sooner rather than later.” Pakistan has been acting as a mediator between the United States and Iran. The hope is that an end to the war will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf and sent prices higher for crude and all kinds of products worldwide.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 176 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.5% to its own record.

Of course, Wall Street has rallied strongly before on hopes for a coming end to the war with Iran, only to get quickly disappointed. That could happen again, and tensions are still high in the Middle East after a U.S. fighter jet shot out the rudder of an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman Wednesday as it tried to breach the American blockade of Iran’s ports.

Despite all those uncertainties, a powerful parade of U.S. companies saying they made even bigger profits during the first three months of the year than analysts expected has helped support the U.S. stock market. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.

Datadog leaped 28.6% after the monitoring and security platform for cloud applications topped analysts' expectations for profit in the latest quarter. Albemarle jumped 11.2%, and Vistra rose 2.6% after both likewise delivered better-than-expected results.

They helped offset a 13.1% drop for Whirlpool, which tumbled after reporting much weaker results than analysts expected. The seller of home appliances said it would raise prices by at least 10% for some of its offerings, while accelerating cuts to its costs, as it contends with weaker confidence among U.S. consumers.

Shake Shack dropped 28.8% after its results for the latest quarter fell well below analysts' expectations.

McDonald’s held steadier and added 0.6% after its revenue for the latest quarter edged past analysts’ expectations. It credited a new burger and a continuing emphasis on value.

In the bond market, Treasury yields fell with the price of oil. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.34% from 4.36% late Wednesday and from 4.45% at the start of the week.

Lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can give the economy a boost. Lower yields also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments. The 10-year Treasury yield, though, remains well above its 3.97% level from just before the war.

Several reports on the U.S. economy also came in mixed. One said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the increase was not as bad as economists expected. Another report suggested that productivity for U.S. workers improved by only half of what economists expected last quarter.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 roared 5.6% higher as trading in Tokyo reopened following a holiday and caught up with big gains for Asian markets from earlier in the week. It’s at a record after soaring nearly 71% in the last 12 months on strength for tech stocks benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence.

“I think it’s a kind of bubble because buying activity concentrated on leading AI, artificial intelligence stock and semiconductor-related stocks. It’s a situation where only semiconductor stocks are being bought,” said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX.

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