Oil prices and stock markets worldwide whipsawed through a shaky Monday as traders tried to price in the next move in the Iran war. Brent crude jumped as high as $112 overnight, sank below $107 in the morning, then settled at $112.10 per barrel before sliding back below $109 after Donald Trump said late in the day that he would hold off on a military attack on Iran planned for Tuesday.
The swings rippled through Wall Street. The S&P 500 finished down 0.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 159 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%. The benchmark index also slipped 5.45 points to 7,403.0. For investors trying to keep up with the moves, the day had the feel of the market note in S&P wavers as oil tops $110, yields jump and dealmaking stirs.
Brent was trading on uncertainty about how long the war would keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, a chokepoint that was preventing oil tankers from delivering crude. The pressure did not stop at energy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose as high as 4.63% before easing to 4.59%, and the 10-year Japanese government bond rallied toward its highest level since the late 1990s as higher oil prices fed fears of stronger inflation around the world.
That matters because rising rates make borrowing more expensive for households, businesses and companies trying to build data centers for artificial intelligence technology. It also helps explain why the market’s reaction was so uneven. Some stocks were punished for their exposure to higher costs or changing demand, while others were lifted by the same price shock.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals dropped 9.8% on Monday, while NextEra Energy fell 4.6%. Dominion Energy rallied 9.4% as investors rotated toward parts of the market seen as more insulated from the oil shock. Delta Air Lines finished essentially flat after swinging up and down through the day, even after Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it had bought more than $2.6 billion of the airline’s stock. Boston Scientific climbed 6.2% after saying it would spend $2 billion of its previously announced $5 billion stock buyback program by the end of June.
The tension in Monday’s trading was not just about one overnight spike in oil. It was about whether the Iran conflict would keep cutting through supply lines long enough to reshape prices, yields and corporate costs well beyond a single session. Trump’s decision to delay the planned strike gave markets a brief reprieve, but the Strait of Hormuz remained closed and the broader risk to crude supply was still in place. That leaves traders facing a market that can turn on a single headline before the day is over.
