Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading, Thursday, in New York City. Stocks opened mixed, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq falling while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 500 points after dropping 600 points at the previous day's close. Getty Images via AFP-Yonhap
NEW YORK — Most U.S. stocks are rising Thursday as oil prices ease, but slumps for influential artificial-intelligence winners are keeping Wall Street in check.
The S&P 500 added 0.3 percent a day after dropping from its all-time high and coming just short of its longest winning streak in three decades. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 925 points, or 1.8 percent, as of 12:34 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2 percent lower.
A clear majority of stocks on Wall Street climbed, including 3 out of every 4 in the S&P 500. They got a boost from a 2.8 percent drop for the price of Brent crude oil to $95.10 per barrel. That gave back a chunk of its rise this week caused by the latest flare-ups of fighting between Iran and the United States and its allies.
The expectation on Wall Street seems to be that the United States and Iran will ultimately agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. That would hopefully improve the flow of crude, lower oil's price and remove some of the upward pressure on inflation that's hurting the world. Such hopes, along with strong profit reports from U.S. companies, helped launch the S&P 500 on a nine-day winning streak that ended Wednesday.
