Most US stocks fell on Wednesday but the market remained calm, even as the price of oil got back to rising.
- The S&P 500 fell 5.68 points, or 0.1%, to 6,775.80 for a second day of modest moves following what had been a wild stretch caused by the war with Iran.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 289.24 points, or 0.6%, to 47,417.27.
- The Nasdaq composite edged up 19.03 points, or 0.1%, to 22,716.13.
Oil prices climbed even though the International Energy Agency said its members will
release a record amount of crude from stockpiles set aside for emergencies, the
AP reports. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 4.8% to settle at $91.98. A barrel of benchmark US crude gained 4.6% to settle at $87.25
Worries are centered on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran's coast where a fifth of the world's oil sails on a typical day. The war has halted most of that traffic, which means storage tanks for crude in the region are filling up because the oil has nowhere else to go. That in turn is pushing oil producers to say they're cutting their output. The United States said it took out more than a dozen minelaying Iranian vessels Tuesday. Iran vowed to block the region's oil exports, saying it would not allow "even a single liter" to be shipped to its enemies.
All this is happening at a time when inflation was already relatively high in the US. A report released Wednesday showed that US consumers paid prices for groceries, gasoline, and other costs of living that were 2.4% higher in February than a year earlier. That inflation rate was the same as the prior month's and better than the 2.5% that economists expected, but it remains above the Fed's 2% target. It also doesn't include the spike in gasoline prices that's happened this month because of the war. "Looking forward, we expect a spring bulge in inflation due to the spike in energy prices tied to the Iran war, the duration of which will dictate the landing spot for headline inflation by year end," according to Gary Schlossberg, global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
On Wall Street, the majority of stocks fell. Campbell's sank 7.1% after the soup company reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It was hurt by struggles for its snack business, and it cut its forecasts for revenue and profit this fiscal year. Helping to limit Wall Street's losses was Oracle, which jumped 9.2%. The tech giant reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for revenue growth next fiscal year, in part because of demand for cloud computing for artificial-intelligence training and inferencing.
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