The U.S. stock market is ticking higher Tuesday as artificial-intelligence stocks regain more of their sudden and sharp losses from last week, while oil prices ease.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and pulled back within 2.5% of its all-time high set a week ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 195 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was close to flat.
Companies selling computer chips, memory and other building blocks of the AI boom again helped lift the market.
Micron Technology rose 0.7%, for example, a day after jumping 9.9% and two days after plunging 13.3%. The computer memory company’s stock has already tripled so far this year, raising criticism that it’s gone too far, too fast. Following last week’s industrywide sell-off, the question is whether AI stocks are heading for a long downturn or just needed a shake-out to get rid of excessive optimism.
The biggest gain in the S&P 500 came from J.M. Smucker, which jumped 11.5% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company behind the Folgers, Hostess and other brands benefited from higher prices charged for coffee and sweet baked goods. It joined the long list of U.S. companies delivering stronger profit growth than analysts expected, which has helped drive the S&P 500 to record after record this year.
Nuvalent soared 38.8% after GSK agreed to buy the biotech company for $10.6 billion. The shares of U.K.-based GSK that trade in New York added 0.6%.
Wall Street, meanwhile, got some relief from falling oil prices. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil dropped 3.3% to $91.14 after briefly topping $98 the day before.
Prices have swung up and down as hopes fade and rise that the United States and Iran can reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That would allow oil tankers to resume delivering crude from the Persian Gulf to customers.
The drop in oil prices helped stocks of airlines, which have been punished by soaring fuel costs. U.S. airlines spent more than $6 billion on jet fuel in April, up 78% from a year earlier, according to government data. United Airlines rose 3%, and Delta Air Lines climbed 2.8%.
To make up for their higher fuel bills, airlines have been raising their own airfares. It’s part of the broad, painful acceleration of inflation hitting U.S. shoppers because of the war with Iran. The high oil prices are also pushing up bond yields worldwide, raising the pressure on stock prices.
Treasury yields eased a bit Tuesday with the fade in oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped to 4.54% from 4.56% late Monday. But it’s still well above its 3.97% level from just before the war with Iran.
The latest monthly updates on U.S. inflation will arrive later in the week, with one on consumer prices coming Wednesday and one on wholesale prices coming Thursday.
Inflation is high enough, and the U.S. job market looks strong enough, that traders on Wall Street largely expect the Federal Reserve will have to raise its main interest rate at least once by the end of this year. Higher interest rates would keep a lid on inflation, but they would also threaten to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate has already recently climbed to its highest level in nine months, and high costs to borrow money could discourage the building of AI data centers that are fueling the U.S. economy’s growth.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in much of Europe following bigger moves in Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 8.2% and nearly recovered Monday’s plunge of 8.3%. It’s been beholden to the performance of big tech stocks like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
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