Financial Markets                      05/11 09:32

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices are rising Monday as the war with Iran threatens 
to drag on for longer, but the U.S. stock market is nevertheless holding near 
its record heights.

   The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 1.6% to $102.90 after 
President Donald Trump called Iran's latest proposal to end their war "totally 
unacceptable" on Sunday. The rejection raises the stakes for Trump's trip this 
week to China, where he could urge President Xi Jinping to pressure Iran into 
making concessions. Xi has leverage because China is the biggest buyer of 
Iran's sanctioned crude oil.

   The war has already sent the price for a barrel of Brent up from roughly $70 
and delivered a blast of painful inflation through the global economy. That's 
because it has shut the Strait of Hormuz and kept oil tankers stuck in the 
Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.

   Still, the U.S. stock market has been setting records recently on hopes that 
the war will not keep oil prices high for very long. U.S. companies are 
meanwhile producing even bigger profits than analysts expected, while signals 
suggest the U.S. economy is holding up even though households are feeling 
discouraged about expensive gasoline and tariffs.

   On Wall Street, the S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% from its record set Friday. The 
Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 10:05 
a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged.

   Mosaic helped drag on the market after the fertilizer company reported much 
weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company is 
benefiting from higher prices for its products, but it's also contending with 
much higher prices for sulfur and other raw materials that it uses because of 
logistics snarls created by the war with Iran.

   Mosaic's stock slipped 1%.

   Stocks of companies whose customers have the least cushion to absorb higher 
gasoline prices also struggled, and Dollar General fell 5.8%. Businesses with 
big fuel bills likewise had some of the market's sharpest losses, including 
drops of 4.6% for Royal Caribbean and 2.6% for United Airlines.

   Helping to offset those losses was Fox, which rose 3% after reporting 
stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

   More than four out of every five companies in the S&P 500 index that have 
reported their results for the latest quarter have topped profit expectations 
so far, and they're on track to deliver overall growth of nearly 28%, according 
to FactSet. If that turns out to be the case, it would be the best growth since 
the end of 2021.

   Outside of earnings reports, Beazer Homes USA soared 30.1% after Dream 
Finders Homes offered to buy it in a deal valuing it at roughly $704 million. A 
combination would create the country's seventh-largest homebuilder, and Dream 
Finders is asking Beazer's shareholders to push its management to OK the deal 
after making several attempts itself.

   Dream Finders slipped 0.2%.

   Tech stocks were also strong, continuing their big run amid big spending in 
the boom around artificial-intelligence technology. Gains of 1.4% for Nvidia 
and 4.9% for Micron Technology were two of the strongest forces pushing upward 
on the S&P 500.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. France's 
CAC 40 fell 0.8%, and South Korea's Kospi soared 4.3% for two of the world's 
bigger moves.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields held ticked higher. The 10-year yield 
edged up to 4.39% from 4.38% late Friday.

   Yields have moderated a bit this month, but they remain well above where 
they were before the war began. Higher yields can raise rates for mortgages and 
other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can 
slow the economy. Higher yields also tend to push downward on prices for stocks 
and other kinds of investments.

   A report on Monday said the pace of sales for previously occupied U.S. homes 
accelerated last month, but not by as much as economists expected.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

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