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Financial Markets 08/11 15:26
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks slipped a bit further from their records
Tuesday, while oil prices kept swinging on uncertainty about when the war with
Iran will allow crude to flow freely again.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% for a second modest drop since setting its all-time
high on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 184 points, or 0.3%,
and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.6%.
The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of
Brent crude briefly jumped above $90 in the morning before falling back below
$87. It eventually settled at $88.91, up 1.4% from Monday.
Such erratic moves have become typical since the United States and Israel
attacked Iran in late February, which led to the closure of the Strait of
Hormuz and kept much of the world's oil pent up in the Middle East. Last month
alone, Brent's price veered between $72 and $102 per barrel.
Higher oil prices make inflation worse, and they've sent the average cost
for a gallon of regular gasoline to $4.01, according to AAA. That's up from
less than $3.14 a year ago, though it's down from last week's nearly $4.09.
That has Wall Street's attention focused on Wednesday, when the U.S.
government will release the latest monthly reading on inflation. Economists
expect it to show inflation remains high but that it decelerated to 3.4% in
July from 3.5% in June.
That could help the Federal Reserve, whose members are notably split on
whether they should be raising the country's interest rates to keep a lid on
inflation. While higher rates could help slow the increases of prices on store
shelves, they would also slow the overall U.S. economy by making it more
expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money. They would also
undercut prices for stocks and other investments.
Traders are betting on a coin flip's chance that the Fed will raise its main
interest rate at its next meeting in September, according to data from CME
Group. If it does, that would be the first increase in more than three years.
It also could anger President Donald Trump, who has been lobbying for lower
interest rates.
Treasury yields have jumped since the war with Iran because of higher oil
prices and worries about inflation, sending long-term mortgage rates to their
highest levels in a year.
The 10-year Treasury yield eased back Tuesday, falling to 4.69% from 4.72%
late Monday. But it remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with
Iran.
On Wall Street, On Holding dropped 20.3% even though the Swiss sneaker
company reported a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
It gave a forecast for upcoming revenue that fell short of analysts'
expectations, while saying it does not want to slash prices to drum up more
sales.
Companies broadly have been blowing past analysts' forecasts, which Wall
Street loves because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits
over the long term. Earnings per share for S&P 500 companies are on track to be
50% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet, and that's a big reason
U.S. stocks have been setting records recently despite worries about expensive
oil, high inflation and other challenges.
Aramark, the food company and facilities manager, rallied 8.5% after
reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts
expected. Cardinal Health added 1.3% after topping analysts' profit
expectations for the spring.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 24.91 points to 7,728.20. The Dow Jones
Industrial dropped 184.13 to 53,791.85, and the Nasdaq composite sank 159.91 to
26,445.45.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. Hong Kong's
Hang Seng fell 1.1% for one of the world's bigger moves.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this
report.
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