NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� U.S. stocks and oil prices flip-flopped Tuesday as following a ceasefire in the war with Iran, which had been set to expire Wednesday.
The S&P 500 erased an early rise to fall 0.6% after U.S. Vice President JD Vance called off a trip to Pakistan, where he was expected to lead U.S. negotiators in talks with Iran to extend the ceasefire.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 293 points, or 0.6%, after erasing an earlier gain of 400 points, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.6%. Less than 10 minutes after the U.S. stock market finished trading for the day President Donald Trump said he would extend the ceasefire to give Iran time to submit a proposal to end the war.
Oil prices also wavered before Trump announced the extension, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude went from less than $95 to roughly $100 during the day. It settled at $98.48, up 3.1%.
The moves were mostly more modest than the vicious swings that rocked Wall Street earlier in the war, when the price for a barrel of Brent crude briefly and the below its prior all-time high. The U.S. stock market remains near , which was set Friday, indicating optimism still remains in financial markets that the United States and Iran will avoid a worst-case scenario for the economy.
鈥淚t鈥檚 become cliched to say that the economic hit will depend on the duration of the Middle East conflict, but that clich茅 does ring true,鈥� according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.
Much of the tension in financial markets has focused on what will happen to the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran鈥檚 coast that oil tankers use to exit the Persian Gulf. A long-term closure would keep crude oil pent up in the gulf and away from customers worldwide.
Helping to limit Wall Street鈥檚 losses were UnitedHealth Group and other big companies that reported bigger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
UnitedHealth jumped 7% after also raising its forecast for profit over the full year of 2026. That鈥檚 big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and it鈥檚 a double-plus when companies not only top earnings estimates but also forecast better growth ahead.
Quest Diagnostics rose 4.4% after likewise reporting fatter profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected while also raising its profit forecast for the full year.
Amazon added 0.7% after Anthropic said it signed a new agreement and is committing more than $100 billion over the next 10 years to AWS technologies to train and run its Claude chatbot.
But they were all nevertheless overshadowed by a 2.5% drop for Apple, which was the day鈥檚 heaviest weight on the S&P 500. It fell in its first trading after on Sept. 1 and become the iPhone maker鈥檚 executive chairman.
Cook is handing control over to , a company veteran who rose through Apple鈥檚 hardware engineering ranks.
Tractor Supply, meanwhile, dropped 11.7% after reporting profit and revenue for the latest quarter that fell short of expectations.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 45.13 points to 7,064.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 293.18 to 49,149.38, and the Nasdaq composite sank 144.43 to 24,259.96.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. South Korea鈥檚 Kospi rallied 2.7% for one of the world鈥檚 biggest moves.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose after a report on Tuesday morning showed that , the first full month of the war, than analysts expected. Growth was even relatively stable for retail sales when not including those from gasoline stations.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.31% from 4.26% late Monday, and the gains accelerated late in the day with oil prices.
, Trump鈥檚 nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, said that he never promised Trump he would cut interest rates, even though Trump has angrily been for the central bank to do so. Warsh is facing a tightrope walk as U.S. senators consider his nomination because investors want him to maintain the Fed鈥檚 independence from political meddling.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
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