US: Stocks rally as crude prices fall sharply

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks rose on Monday as markets shrugged off Iran’s response to the weekend US military strike while petroleum-related equities plummeted with crude prices.

Iran announced it had launched missiles at a major US base in Qatar, with explosions ringing out in Doha and projectiles seen streaking overhead.

But Qatar described the situation as stable, while energy analysts said oilfield assets were not affected. Shares of oilfield companies like Schlumberger and Halliburton fell sharply.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.9 per cent at 42,581.78.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.0 per cent to 6,025.17, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.9 per cent to 19,630.97.

Iran’s response “signified that Iran isn’t going to have the fire power to escalate this in an adverse way,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.

“The response is relatively weak,” he said.

O’Hare said investor sentiment was also boosted by comments from Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman signaling a possible interest rate cut in July, remarks that followed statements from another Fed official late last week.

The comments are likely to get attention at congressional hearings this week with Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Among individual companies, Tesla surged 8.2 per cent after the company’s robotaxi service made its debut in Austin, Texas this weekend.

Northern Trust surged 8.0 per cent following a Wall Street Journal report that said it had been approached by Bank of New York Mellon about a merger. Bank of New York Mellon dropped 2.2 per cent.

In its New York trading debut cement company Amrize advanced 1.3 per cent following its spinoff from Swiss giant Holcim. AFP