NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are edging higher on Wall Street and oil prices are falling for the first time in a week, even as heavy fighting in the Middle East again threatened to slow the global flow of oil. The S&P 500 inched up 0.1% early Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62 points, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%.
All three indexes are still on track to finish the week lower. After shooting to $102 per barrel a day earlier, Brent crude fell 2.6%. European markets were higher and Asian markets closed lower.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP’s earlier story follows below.U.S. markets ticked modestly higher in premarket trading and oil prices retreated for the first time in a week, even as heavy fighting in the Middle East again threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas.S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.4%. Even with the gains Friday, all three indexes are on track to finish the week with losses.Looming over markets has been the deepening crisis in the Middle East, worries over an artificial intelligence bubble and another round of tariff hikes by U.S.
is imposing taxes of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 trading partners, accounting for 99% of U.S. imports, saying they failed to fully enforce bans on goods produced by forced labor, the Trump administration said Thursday.That move came just as the clock was running out Friday on stopgap levies the president imposed after a stinging defeat for other such tariffs at the Supreme Court.Such uncertainties have helped push the U.S. dollar to a 40-year high against the Japanese yen.
A dollar bought 163.79 yen early Friday, down from 163.85 yen and a level last seen in 1986.After shooting to $102 per barrel a day earlier, Brent crude, the international standard, was down $3.02 at $97.67. Before the Iran war began in late February it was trading around $72 per barrel.U.S. benchmark crude slipped $2.43 to $89.76 per barrel.
Even with Friday's decline, both standards are up more than 10% this week.Attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea threatened another avenue that oil companies use to move their crude from the Middle East to customers worldwide, along with the Strait of Hormuz.Underscoring the importance of the sea route for the economy, Trump t…
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