April 6, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is making only hesitant moves Monday, while oil prices are flip-flopping as mediators try to forge a ceasefire agreement ahead of a deadline that President Donald Trump has set to bomb Iranian power plants.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% in morning trading, coming off its first winning week in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 46 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.

Oil prices seesawed between gains and losses amid continued uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of oil and natural gas. Fighting is continuing, including an Israeli attack on an Iranian petrochemical plant, while mediators scramble to get the United States and Iran to agree to a new ceasefire proposal.

 

Wall Street spent Monday doing its favorite impression of a weather vane with a Bloomberg subscription: the S&P 500 barely inched up, the Dow drifted down, and the Nasdaq managed a little hop, all while oil prices flip-flopped like they were auditioning for cable news panelists. Meanwhile, mediators are trying to stitch together a ceasefire before President Trump’s deadline to bomb Iranian power plants, which is exactly the sort of headline that makes “uncertainty” sound almost quaint. The markets are also digesting Friday’s pleasantly surprising jobs report, because nothing says economic stability like stronger hiring, an improved unemployment rate, and gasoline averaging nearly $4.12 a gallon after being under $3 just before the war began. For countries with less oil of their own, the situation is even more charming, since the crude that usually squeezes through the Strait of Hormuz is now trapped in the great geopolitical traffic jam of our time.

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