NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rallied, and the price of oil tumbled Monday on hopes that Iran will not disrupt the global flow of crude, something that would hurt economies worldwide but also its own, following the United States’ bunker-busting entry into its war with Israel.
The S&P 500 climbed 1%, coming off a week where stock prices had jumped up and down on worries about the conflict potentially escalating. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 374 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%.
The price of oil initially jumped 6% after trading began Sunday night, a signal of rising worries as investors got their first chance to react to the U.S. bombings. But it quickly erased all those gains and swung to a sharp loss as the focus shifted from what the U.S. military did to how Iran would react.
By late Monday, the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. oil had dropped 7.2% to settle at $68.51 after briefly topping $78. That brought it nearly all the way back to where it was before the fighting began over a week ago, when it was sitting just above $68.
Stocks rise and oil tumbles as Wall Street hopes for a limited retaliation after US strikes on Iran
The losses accelerated sharply after Iran announced a missile attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which the U.S. military uses. Iran said it matched the number of bombs dropped by the United States on Iranian nuclear sites this past weekend, which could be a signal of a desire to deescalate the conflict.