Oil prices waver around $100 as 7-month Iran war continues

Diesel prices are displayed at a gas station in Carlsbad, Calif. (Gregory Bull/AP/file)

NEW YORK — Strength for artificial intelligence stocks is helping the U.S. market to hold firmer on Oct. 1, even as pressure from the bond market continues to rattle financial markets worldwide.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 1.9% to $99.88, continuing its swings on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global oil industry to return to normal.  Oil topped $100 a barrel in early September when fighting between the U.S. and Iran escalated. That was the first time Brent crude had passed $100 a barrel since July. 

Oil prices have been swinging wildly in recent months amid uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the flow of crude to be fully restored. Iranian officials indicated Sept. 30 they have received an official U.S. response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the seven-month war. The officials did not say what the latest response contained and whether it was a rejection.

U.S. President Donald Trump publicly rejected Iran’s proposal just days earlier to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the U.S. meets certain conditions.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and was on track to break a three-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 211 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher.

Technology stocks helped lead the way after Micron Technology delivered a stronger profit report for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The maker of memory chips for computers also said growth is strengthening, and it gave forecasts for upcoming profit and revenue that topped analysts’ estimates.

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CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said it’s benefiting from the AI boom, which is driving demand for memory.

Micron’s stock edged down by 0.1%, which analysts attributed to how much its stock had already jumped before the profit report. It came into the day with a gain of more than 270% for the year so far, towering over the less than 12% rise for the overall S&P 500.

But other AI stocks benefited from Micron’s optimism about continued demand related to AI. Nvidia rose 0.6%, and Alphabet climbed 1.5% after Google released its latest AI model, Gemini 4 Argon.

The gains came despite more swings in the bond market, where fast-rising yields have been rattling financial markets worldwide.

The 10-year Treasury edged up to 5.30% from 5.29% late Sept. 30. That’s near its highest level since 2002, but any kind of plateau would count as relief when the 10-year yield has been jumping from less than 5% roughly a week ago and from less than 4% before the war with Iran began.

High yields slow the overall economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

Yields are on the rise for a range of reasons, including worries about high inflation and oil prices, signals that the U.S. economy remains solid and Washington’s insistence to continue to spend much more money than it brings in.

Those worries don’t look to be going away anytime soon, and oil prices climbed again Oct. 1 to keep the pressure up on inflation. 

Another report also signaled the U.S. economy is powering through its many challenges. Fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could mean fewer layoffs. That followed a report on Sept. 30 that said the U.S. economy’s overall growth was even stronger in the spring than earlier thought.

In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.8% after the 10-year U.K. government bond’s yield briefly jumped to 5.53% before pulling back to 5.42%. The CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.6% following a similar, early-morning leap for the 10-year French government bond yield.

In Asia, stock indexes finished stronger thanks to optimism around AI following Micron’s profit report. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.3%, and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.9%.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.