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Oil prices leap as U.S. and Iran carry out airstrikes
Brent crude rises 3.9% to $78.95 a barrel
| Updated:
Three boys play in the shallow waters of the Strait of Hormuz as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, on July 13. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
Key Takeaways:
- Oil prices jumped and world shares were mixed on July 13 after the U.S. carried out airstrikes and Iran retaliated.
- More losses for computer chipmakers and other winners of the AI boom weigh on stock markets.
- 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.
NEW YORK — Oil prices are climbing July 13 following a weekend of attacks in the Middle East, while more losses for computer chipmakers and other winners of the artificial intelligence boom weigh on stock markets.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 3.9% to $78.95 after the United States and Iran each said the Strait of Hormuz is under its control. Fighting between the two has kept oil tankers from using the strait to deliver crude to customers worldwide from the Persian Gulf, which drives up fuel prices worldwide.
The upward pressure on inflation eats away at many companies’ profits, and the S&P 500 fell 0.2%, coming off its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 127 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.
READ MORE: Trump says U.S. will blockade Iran in Strait of Hormuz
Chip stocks like Micron Technology led the way lower. Micron tumbled 6.1%, eating into what had been a stellar rise of 243.1% for the year so far. Real profits are behind the rise because the AI rush has created surging demand for computer memory and other computing building blocks.
But worries are rising that stock prices have shot too high and that the demand may not be sustainable if AI doesn’t deliver as much profit and productivity as expected.
The day’s losses began in Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 8.9%. That included a 15.4% plunge for SK Hynix in Seoul, the worst since its stock began trading in 1997.
At 5 p.m. ET today, U.S. Central Command forces began launching more strikes against Iran to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The Commander in Chief has directed the strikes to hold Iranian… — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 12, 2026
The South Korean maker of computer memory just launched shares of its stock trading in the United States on July 10, raising roughly $26.5 billion. Those shares jumped 13.1% in their first day of trading, but they fell 7.6% on July 13.
Other areas of the AI industry held up better. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s shares in Taiwan rose 1% after the chipmaker said its revenue in June jumped nearly 68% from a year earlier. That brought its total revenue growth for the first half of the year to 35.6% from a year earlier.
TSMC’s stock that trades in the United States added 0.1%.
Much of Wall Street’s attention this week will be on profit reports from companies saying how much they earned during the spring from April through June. On July 14 alone, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo are all releasing their latest quarterly results.
Analysts are forecasting that companies in the S&P 500 index will deliver overall growth of 23.6% from a year earlier, according to FactSet. If they’re right, it would be the second straight quarter of growth better than 20%.
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Companies across industries will need to deliver strong growth to justify the big moves their stock prices have made. Indexes are near records despite sharp recent swings due to worries around AI stocks.
Companies usually turn in results that top analysts’ expectations, including in 37 of the past 40 quarters, according to FactSet. If S&P 500 businesses do so again by the usual margin, earnings growth for the latest quarter could end up being the best since the end of 2021.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose with the price of oil. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.58% from 4.56% late July 10 and from just 3.97% before the war with Iran began.
Yields have risen worldwide on worries about expensive oil and high inflation, which could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates. Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements in Europe.
In Asia, the swings were sharper, beyond South Korea’s plunge. Stocks fell 2.1% in Shanghai, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.9%
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
