Wall St. Rallies on Falling Stocks     08/03 09:33

   Oil prices are easing on Monday and helping to calm Wall Street's worries 
that inflation could potentially get even worse. That has U.S. stock indexes 
rallying, though sharp swings are continuing to roil underneath the surface.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices are easing on Monday and helping to calm Wall 
Street's worries that inflation could potentially get even worse. That has U.S. 
stock indexes rallying, though sharp swings are continuing to roil underneath 
the surface.

   The S&P 500 rose 1% following its wild July, where it swung up and down as 
oil prices shot higher because of the war with Iran and worries grew about 
whether Big Tech's massive investments in artificial-intelligence technology 
will translate into profits and whether chipmaker stocks soared too high in the 
euphoria around AI.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 711 points, or 1.4%, as of 10:15 
a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% higher.

   Some of the strongest action was in the oil market, where the price for a 
barrel of Brent crude fell 5.4% to $83.17. It dropped after President Donald 
Trump said over the weekend that he decided to hold off on new strikes against 
Iran at the urging of allies in the region.

   Brent careened between $72 and $102 last month as worries rose and fell 
about when the war with Iran would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian 
Gulf again to deliver crude to customers worldwide.

   The latest acquiescence by Trump on Iran helped to ease worries about 
inflation potentially getting worse, and Treasury yields correspondingly fell 
in the bond market.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.68% from 4.75% late Friday. It, 
though, remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran.

   That jump is threatening to undercut prices for stocks and other 
investments, while slowing the economy by making borrowing more expensive for 
U.S. households and businesses. The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate has 
already leaped to its highest level in a year.

   Monday's drop in oil prices helped airlines and other companies with big 
fuel bills lead the market. United Airlines flew 6.7% higher, while American 
Airlines climbed 6.4%. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings steamed 4.3% higher.

   Tyson Foods rose 1.8% and erased an early-morning loss after it reported a 
stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. CEO Donnie King said 
strength is continuing in the company's chicken business and its prepared 
foods, which includes brands like Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm.

   It joined a lengthening list of big U.S. companies to deliver 
stronger-than-expected profit for the spring. That's imperative for Wall Street 
because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate earnings over the 
long term.

   Companies in the S&P 500 are on track to deliver earnings per share for the 
spring that are 47% higher than a year before, according to FactSet, with more 
than half of the companies having already reported. If that ends up being the 
case, it would be the strongest growth since the spring of 2021, when the 
economy was roaring out of the COVID pandemic.

   On the losing end of Wall Street Monday were stocks of companies that make 
computer chips, which have been swinging sharply on worries about whether their 
surging revenues because of the AI boom are sustainable.

   If AI ends up produce less profit and productivity than hoped, Big Tech 
companies could curtail their spending sprees on data centers that have helped 
chip stocks soar to tremendous heights.

   Micron Technology fell 3.2% Monday and was one of the heaviest weights on 
the S&P 500, but its stock is still up nearly 180% for the year so far. 
Advanced Micro Devices fell 1.1%, but its price is still roughly 120% higher 
than it was at the end of last year.

   The manic swings for AI stocks have been most dramatic in South Korea, where 
the Kospi index is dominated by just two tech titans, Samsung Electronics and 
SK Hynix.

   Seoul's Kospi fell 5.1% Monday, coming off Friday's 17.9% surge that was its 
best day in history.

   In neighboring Japan, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% after the United States 
and Japan confirmed they had moved together to to prop up the value of the 
Japanese yen against the dollar. A stronger yen would help to limit inflation 
in Japan, but it could also potentially hurt Japan's exporters.