Oil prices rise and stocks fall after US hits Iranian sites in the Strait of Hormuz

NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose and stocks fell on Wall Street Monday after the U.S. launched its first military action in a month against Iran.The S&P 500 index fell 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 348 points, or 0.7%, as of 9:51 a.m.

The Nasdaq fell 0.3%.The losses were broad, with nearly every sector within the benchmark S&P 500 losing ground. Energy stocks, though broadly gained ground. Exxon Mobil rose 2.9% and Chevron rose 3%.Markets were mixed in Europe and Asia.GameStop jumped 4.2% after the video game retailer provided a preliminary second-quarter earnings outlook above its year-ago results.

Shares of Aon fell 5.8% as the company announced that it was buying insurance broker USI Insurance Services from private equity firm KKR in a deal valued at $17 billion, including debt.U.S. forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates said it intercepted an Iranian drone over its waters on Monday.

The aggressive actions follow a lull in activity in the U.S. war with Iran, which has lasted more than six months.The war has curtailed traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for about 20% of the world’s oil shipments. Oil prices remain high after an initial surge earlier in the war and that has made everything from gasoline to shipped goods more expensive.The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3.2%, to $90.91 per barrel on Monday.

The price swung between $72 and $102 last month amid rising and falling hopes for a deal to end the war.The national average for gasoline in August has been above $4 per gallon every day in August for the first time ever, according to the AAA. It has been the most expensive August at the pump on record, outpacing even the enormous supply chain crunch during the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2022.Higher energy prices because of the war have fueled already stubbornly high inflation. That has been weighing on household spending and consumer confidence.

It has also given the Federal Reserve a more complicated path ahead for its interest rate policy.The rate of inflation remains well above 3%, which is far beyond the Fed’s 2% target. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise interest rates at least once before the year ends in an effort to cool inflation.The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectati… NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil is rising and U.S.