Crude oil prices climb following the latest fighting in the Middle East, and tech stocks fall
Oil prices are climbing following a weekend of attacks in the Middle East, while more losses for computer chip makers and other winners of the artificial-intelligence boom are yanking stock markets lower.
Crude oil prices climbPhoto: The Canadian PressSpecialist Glenn Carell, left, and Dilip Patel, center, work with trader Jeffrey Vazquez on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Oil prices are climbing following a weekend of attacks in the Middle East, while more losses for computer chip makers and other winners of the artificial-intelligence boom are yanking stock markets lower. The price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed more than 3% early Monday after the United States and Iran each said the Strait of Hormuz is under its control. The S&P 500 fell 0. 2%, coming off its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 106 points, and the Nasdaq composite was 0. 7% lower. Chip stocks like Micron Technology fell. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. Oil prices jumped and early trading on Wall Street was mixed Monday after the U. S. carried out airstrikes and Iran retaliated. Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0. 3%, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were unchanged and Nasdaq futures tumbled 0. 8%. Chip and memory companies were dragging indices down, with SanDisk, Western Digital and Micron all falling close to 5% in premarket. Energy producers ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron all gained around 1% before the opening bell as fighting in the Middle East pushed oil prices higher. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed as much as nearly 5% early Monday before falling back. As of midday in Europe, it was up 3. 4%, or $2. 58, at $77. 72 per barrel, while U. S. benchmark crude added 3. 5%, or $2. 48, to $72. 92 per barrel. Prices for both types of crude oil recently had slipped back to around the levels they were at before thewar with Iranbegan after the two sides set an interim agreement on ending the conflict and ships resumed transporting oil through theStrait of Hormuz. However, theUnited States launched several waves of strikes on Iraninto Monday morning over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the strait that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing over the weekend. Iran retaliated by targeting countries across the Middle East. This week will bring earnings reports from many of the biggest U. S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo on Tuesday alone. Meanwhile, worries about how continued fighting with Iran will affect the global flow of crude are clouding the outlook both for energy costs and overall inflation. High bondyieldshave been weighing on financial markets worldwide since more expensive oil andhigh inflationcould pushthe Federal Reserveand other central banks toraise interest rates. Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they alsoslow the economy and hurt pricesfor all kinds of investments. Elsewhere, at midday in Europe, Germany's DAX added 0. 2%, as did the CAC 40 in Paris. Britain's FTSE 100 was unchanged. In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 1. 9% to 67,242. 73, while in Seoul, the Kospi declined 9% to 6,806. 93. It's now at its lowest level since early May. Shares in South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which soared 13% in their debut Friday on Wall Street, slumped 15. 4% in Seoul. Its bigger rival Samsung Electronics sank 10. 7%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0. 2% higher, to 24,212. 36, and the Shanghai Composite index shed 2. 1% to 3,913. 79. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,808. 50.