Oil prices rise, but not by enough to keep Wall Street from more records
[June 02, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose Monday following the latest fighting to
threaten the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, but Wall Street isn’t very worried,
and U.S. stocks ticked to more records.
The S&P 500 added 0.3% to its prior all-time high set on Friday. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average rose 46 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq
composite climbed 0.4% to likewise set records.
A slight majority of U.S. stocks actually fell, including companies with
big fuel bills hurt by higher oil prices. United Airlines lost 2.6%, and
Alaska Air Group fell 3.3% after the price for a barrel of Brent crude
oil climbed 4.2% to settle at $94.98. That clawed back a chunk of
Brent’s loss from last week and means it’s still well above its price of
roughly $70 from before the war.
Expensive oil has already sent inflation higher, which increases not
only bills for households but also yields in the bond market. High
yields worldwide recently have threatened to slow economies and undercut
prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.
But yields regressed during the day after oil prices came off their
highest levels. That eased some of the pressure on Wall Street, and the
Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks went from a loss of 1.3%
back to roughly even before finishing with a dip of 0.5%. Small
companies can feel the pinch of higher borrowing costs in particular
because of the need for many to borrow to grow.
Hope, meanwhile, seems to remain on Wall Street that the United States
and Iran will ultimately reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of
Hormuz, allow deliveries of oil to resume from the Persian Gulf and ease
the upward pressure on inflation.
Strength from several market heavyweights also helped to power Wall
Street.
Nvidia was the strongest force lifting the market and rose 6.2% after
CEO Jensen Huang announced several product updates at a conference. What
Nvidia does matters immensely for the U.S. stock market because it’s the
biggest in terms of overall market value. That means the movements for
its stock carry more weight on the S&P 500 than any other’s.
And Wall Street’s biggest companies have been growing so much that
they’re dominating the market. The top 10 stocks control nearly half the
S&P 500’s total market value, a 40-year high, according to Thomas
Carroll, equity market strategist at Stifel.
That worked well as Big Tech stocks shot higher thanks to exuberance
around artificial intelligence. But it could also weigh on the index if
the market’s leadership broadens, Carroll warns. Even if most stocks end
up rising in such a rotation, stagnation or declines for Big Tech
heavyweights could drag on S&P 500 index funds.
A key indicator Carroll follows about market breadth “is signaling a
rotation is coming,” he wrote in a report.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Science Applications International Corp.
jumped 10.4% after becoming the latest U.S. company to report bigger
profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. SAIC also raised
forecasts for upcoming financial results.
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Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
 A cavalcade of such
better-than-expected profit reports has helped the U.S. stock market
push to records despite the uncertainty created by the war with
Iran.
Berkshire Hathaway fell 0.9% after saying it would buy homebuilder
Taylor Morrison Home for $6.8 billion. It’s one of the first big
acquisitions announced by the company since Greg Abel took over as
its leader from famed investor Warren Buffett. Taylor Morrison Home
jumped 22.3%.
MGM Resorts International leaped 16.1% after People Inc., Barry
Diller’s business that was formerly known as IAC, offered to buy the
rest of the company it doesn’t already own for $48.30 per share in
cash.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 19.90 points to 7,599.96. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 46.42 to 51,078.88, and the Nasdaq
composite rose 114.19 to 27,086.81.
In the bond market, Treasury yields climbed with oil prices and
after a report said growth in U.S. manufacturing accelerated by more
last month than economists expected. The yield for the 10-year
Treasury briefly approached 4.52% before regressing to 4.46%, up
from 4.45% late Friday.
High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage
rate to its most expensive level in nine months, and they could
curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have
supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger
finish in Asia.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9% to an all-time high. SoftBank Group,
the investment company that focuses heavily on AI, soared 21.2% and
surpassed Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable listed company.
In South Korea, the Kospi index jumped 3.7% to a record after data
showed the country’s exports surged 53% in May from a year earlier,
buoyed by global demand for semiconductors.
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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
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