Stocks Leap Worldwide; Oil Prices Drop 06/15 15:23

   Stock markets rallied worldwide Monday, and oil prices eased after the 
United States and Iran reached a tentative deal to extend their ceasefire and 
reopen the Strait of Hormuz to get the global flow of crude going again.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Stock markets rallied worldwide Monday, and oil prices 
eased after the United States and Iran reached a tentative deal to extend their 
ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to get the global flow of crude going 
again.

   The S&P 500 rose 1.7% on hopes that this time, the announcement of an 
Iran-U.S. agreement will mean a long-term fix to a conflict that has worsened 
inflation around the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 468 
points, or 0.9%, to a record, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 3.1%.

   Stocks got a lift after the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 4.8% 
to $83.17, back to where it was in early March. While that's still above its 
price of roughly $70 from before the war, it's lower than the $100 plus it cost 
just a few weeks ago. The hope is that lower oil prices will take pressure off 
households and businesses, which have had to pay higher prices for everything 
from food to fuel to fertilizer because of the war with Iran.

   Iran confirmed the deal, but it does not include a final agreement on issues 
like Iran's nuclear program. Negotiations on that are expected to continue over 
the next 60 days, which leaves opportunity for hiccups that could derail the 
agreement. And even if the Strait of Hormuz does fully reopen on Friday as 
expected, it will likely take months for the energy industry to get back to 
full speed.

   For now, though, relief swept through financial markets worldwide.

   On Wall Street, stocks of companies with big fuel bills were instant 
winners. United Airlines flew 3.9% higher, and cruise operator Royal Caribbean 
Group rose 6.6%.

   Stocks of companies enmeshed in the artificial-intelligence industry also 
jumped. These stocks have yo-yoed in recent weeks, going from roaring to 
records to suddenly turning lower. The concern is whether such stocks shot too 
high, too fast because of AI mania, and their careening moves have sometimes 
reversed direction by the hour.

   Micron Technology rallied 10.8%, and Advanced Micro Devices rose 7%. 
Nvidia's climb of 3.5% was the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 upward 
because the AI chip company is Wall Street's most valuable company, giving it 
more weight on the index than any other.

   SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company that also owns the AI company xAI, rose 
19.6% in its second day of trading on Wall Street. Its successful debut on the 
Nasdaq suggested plenty of demand still exists among investors for AI. The 
market has given SpaceX a total value of more than $2.1 trillion, making it 
bigger than Exxon Mobil, Bank of America and Coca-Cola combined.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields eased on hopes that lower oil prices 
will remove pressure on central banks to raise interest rates.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.47% from 4.48% late Friday.

   Europe's central bank last week became the first major one in the world to 
raise interest rates because of the war with Iran. High interest rates can keep 
a lid on inflation, but they also slow economies and undercut prices for all 
kinds of investments, including stocks and cryptocurrencies. They hit 
investments seen as the most expensive in particular, and some critics are 
calling the AI industry a bubble where investment inflated too far.

   The Fed will announce its latest decision on interest rates later this week, 
which will be the first under its new chair, Kevin Warsh. Traders see it as a 
near certainty that the Fed will leave its main interest rate steady after its 
two-day meeting ends Wednesday.

   Traders had been raising bets that the Fed may have to raise interest rates 
this year because of how much inflation has accelerated and how solid the U.S. 
job market remains. But the tentative deal between the United States and Iran 
means traders are now betting on only a 57% chance of a hike this year, down 
from 71% a week ago, according to data from CME Group.

   Elsewhere on Wall Street, Roku fell 1.9% after the company announced that 
Fox Corp. is buying the streaming pioneer in a cash-and-stock deal valued at 
approximately $22 billion.

   Roku's stock had already soared 20% Friday, when media reports emerged about 
a deal, which will give Fox access to the Roku channel, first-party data and 
more than 100 million global streaming households. Fox's stock fell 16.8%.

   All told, the S&P 500 rose 122.83 points to 7,554.29. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average climbed 468.77 to 51,671.03, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 
795.10 to 26,683.94.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed in Asia and Europe. Japan's Nikkei 
225 leaped 5% for one of the world's biggest gains and finished at a record.

   "This is great news," said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex. 
"Buying by foreign investors is leading the market with expectations of easing 
tensions around the situation in the Middle East."

   South Korea's Kospi soared even more, 5.2%, thanks in part to continued 
rallies for AI winners like Samsung Electronics.

   London's FTSE 100 was an outlier and slipped 0.4%.