Dow drops 400 points after trimming an early plunge of 1,200 as oil prices climb

A sell-off for stocks wrapped around the world and hit Wall Street on Tuesday, while oil prices climbed even higher on worries about the widening war with Iran. But the big moves that rocked markets in the morning eased substantially as the day progressed.

By the end of trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 had sunk 0.9%. That would be a solid loss on a typical day, but the index had been down as much as 2.5% in the morning because of worries that the war may do more sustained damage to the economy than initially feared.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 403 points, or 0.8%, after plunging more than 1,200 points earlier in the morning. The Nasdaq composite pared its loss to 1%.

It was just a day earlier that U.S. stocks opened the morning with a sharp loss, only to recover all of it and end the day with a tiny gain. Helping to drive that rebound was a record showing that past wars and conflicts in the Middle East usually have not meant long-term pain for U.S. stocks.

But that was with the caveat that oil prices did not jump too high, like above $100 per barrel. On Tuesday, oil prices rose again and raised more alarms. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, briefly leaped above $84.

The jump lessened throughout the day, though, which helped moderate the losses for stocks. Brent settled at $81.40, up 4.7%. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 4.7% to $74.56.

The moves showed oil prices, and how much they’re set to worsen inflation, are among the central fears for investors. More expensive fuel will mean less money for U.S. and other households to spend. It also would raise expenses for companies worldwide, which likewise would hurt their profits. And corporate profits are the lifeblood of stock markets.

Tuesday’s climb for oil prices came after Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, part of a widening of targets that also include areas critical to the world’s oil and natural gas production. Worries are particularly high about the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran, a narrow passageway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

Iranian Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, an advisor to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, vowed that any ships that passed through the strait would be set on fire.

The fears about oil prices ebbed later in the day as President Trump said the U.S. Navy could begin escorting tankers through the strait, “if necessary,” to “ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD.”

Making things uncertain for markets is the question of how long this war may continue.

A major attack by the United States and Israel already killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but Trump said late Monday night on his social media network, “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully” with the supply of munitions that the United States possesses.

Some professional investors repeated Tuesday that they don’t think this is the beginning of a long-term down market and stocks could rebound if the war doesn’t last long. But they acknowledge it could take a while for that to become clear, and Tuesday’s swings for markets show how uncertain things are.

Tuesday’s sell-off started in Asia, where the Kospi stock index in South Korea, a big energy importer, plunged 7.2% as markets reopened after a holiday Monday. That was its worst day since two summers ago, and it had been setting records recently.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped 3.1%, even as analysts said Japan has a sizable stockpile of oil lasting more than 200 days. In Europe, where prices for natural gas have soared because of the war, France’s CAC 40 lost 3.5%.

On Wall Street, nearly three out of every four stocks within the S&P 500 dropped. Unlike a day before, influential Big Tech stocks weren’t able to prop up indexes, and Nvidia fell 1.3%.

Among the winners on Wall Street was Target, which rose 6.7% after the retailer reported a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 64.99 points to 6,816.63. The Dow dropped 403.51 to 48,501.27, and the Nasdaq composite sank 232.17 to 22,516.69.

In the bond market, Treasury yields leaped in the morning with worries about inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly rose above 4.10% before pulling back just below 4.06%. It was at 4.05% late Monday and just 3.97% on Friday.

Higher yields can make it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money, affecting everything from mortgages to bond issuances. They also put downward pressure on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

When Treasurys are paying more in interest, they also can undercut the price of gold, which pays its investors nothing. Gold fell 3.5% Tuesday to settle at $5,123.70 per ounce, halting a strong run that had taken it above $5,300 as investors looked for safer places to park their money.

High inflation also could tie the Federal Reserve’s hands and keep it from cutting interest rates. The Fed lowered rates several times last year and indicated more cuts were to come. That would help boost the economy and job market, but lower rates also can worsen inflation.

Traders are pushing back their forecasts for when the Fed could resume cutting rates further into the summer, according to data from CME Group. That’s even though Trump has been calling, in angry and personal terms, for Fed officials to cut rates now.

Choe writes for the Associated Press.