Financial Markets                      09/25 15:34

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- A cooldown in oil prices on Friday helped release some of 
the pressure that's built up on Wall Street, and U.S. stocks closed out their 
first winning week in the last three.

   The S&P 500 added 0.5% to break 
https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-inflation-oil-bonds-economy-caeb42b84b9
f36294b1c6f6eea5b18ba marked by big swings due to rising yields in 
https://apnews.com/article/bonds-rates-yields-wall-street-7d3ce7fdda0fd58afbeaf6
1293810a0c. Despite the week's uneasiness, the main measure of the U.S. stock 
market's health pulled back within 0.7% of 
https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-ai-semiconductors-fed-energy-3a23f22469
cd0e0062f711096906525c set last month.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 478 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq 
composite climbed 0.5%.

   Stocks got a boost after the price for a barrel of Brent oil dropped 2.8% to 
$97.44 per barrel. It's been yo-yoing on uncertainty about when the 
https://apnews.com/hub/iran will allow 
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-war-saudi-oil-export-price-3aa72ed92a4e38ffd1
dd4003e0c3ed49 from the Middle East. Prices go down when hopes rise for a 
possible deal to fully reopen https://apnews.com/hub/strait-of-hormuz to oil 
tankers, and they go up when doubts resurface.

   But trading was shaky again on Wall Street Friday, particularly after a 
report on U.S. consumer sentiment sent Treasury yields higher in the morning.

   The report from the University of Michigan said U.S. consumers are bracing 
for inflation of 4.6% in the coming year, up from their forecast of 4% the 
month before. It also said that overall sentiment among consumers was not as 
bad as economists expected, even if it was the lowest in four months.

   The rising expectations for high inflation are potentially dangerous for the 
economy because they could encourage behavior that leads to a vicious cycle 
that makes the cost of living spiral even higher.

   Some consumers told the survey that buying some kinds of products now would 
help them avoid higher prices in the future. If many rush to make such 
purchases at the same time, it could encourage sellers to raise prices further.

   Following the report on consumer sentiment, the yield on the 10-year 
Treasury briefly jumped to 5.22%, up from 5.18% late Thursday, and was near its 
highest level since 2007.

   High yields slow the economy by making it 
https://apnews.com/article/mortgage-interest-rate-30year-fb5f426270e80a7fd64264d
489efeeec for everyone to borrow money, while undercutting prices for stocks 
and other investments. The 10-year yield has been jumping since the start of 
the war with Iran, when it was at 3.97%.

   Higher yields worldwide are rattling all kinds of financial markets. They're 
on the rise because of worries about 
https://apnews.com/article/consumer-prices-inflation-fed-interest-rates-c76f53f7
a53def0c464ca44ac637f203, expensive oil, big 
https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESXAHrOzAVeb_LikhMA6ulhfulBm0LR9xz3bgoJykGN_TE
QcCM-BlnmvbPSvQuqNZhJ87neqjIPb0ES6_5aXfaGxFjdI8K3tNx0Loz1V91ea6ucycdqeBZQBPiCrKd
 loads, signs of 
https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-trump-iran-us-6a3b530d3c1df18029956016
203ae52e and other factors.

   But yields eased later in trading on Friday as the price of oil pulled 
lower, and the 10-year yield fell back to 5.15%. That helped stocks on Wall 
Street regain strength.

   Helping to drive the market higher was Akamai Technologies. The cloud 
company's stock rose 3.2% after it announced an $11.6 billion, multiyear 
agreement with Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI chatbot.

   Costco Wholesale climbed 2.9% after the retailer reported a stronger profit 
for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Such strong profit reports from 
U.S. companies have helped the stock market remain resilient despite all the 
worries about high inflation and oil prices.

   All told, the S&P 500 rose 39.28 points to 7,743.41. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average jumped 478.64 to 51,828.62, and the Nasdaq composite gained 
129.34 to 27,068.72.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following bigger moves 
in Asia. Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 1.3%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 
1%.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this 
report.

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