NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market is clawing back some of its sell-off from last week. The S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent early Monday, coming off its third straight losing week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 363 points, or 0.7 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.7 per cent. Stocks got a lift from easing prices for oil. Brent crude fell 5.8 per cent to below US$107 per barrel in its latest yo-yo move on uncertainty around the war with Iran. AI-related stocks, meanwhile, held firmer following their sharp drops last week on worries their prices may have shot too high. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story follows below. U.S. futures are rebounding from a major market sell-off Friday with a boost from sharply declining oil prices on hopes for progress in diplomatic efforts between the U.S. and Iran. Futures for the S&P 500 advanced 0.5 per cent Monday, while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent. Nasdaq futures rose 0.8 per cent. U.S. stocks fell Friday in their worst day since June as investors dumped artificial intelligence and tech stocks. There is growing concern that the massive investments in AI will not pay off, at least not fast enough. Apple will report its latest earnings results after the bell Monday along with Palantir Technologies. Advanced Micro Devices will report its quarterly results on Tuesday. Last week, earnings reports from Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon rattled markets and raised fresh questions over whether their massive AI-related spending. Shares of both Marvell and Lumentum are falling after the announcement of an all-stock deal for Lumentum worth about US$115 billion, including debt. Marvell, despite the aggressive pullback in AI stocks last week, believes the investment is still warranted. Markets appear less certain. Marvell slid more than 1 per cent before the opening bell and Lumentum fell almost 3 per cent. Oil prices dropped Monday, with Brent crude, the international standard, down 4.2 per cent to US$108.68 per barrel. Still, that’s much higher than the roughly US$65 that a barrel of crude was selling for at this time last year. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 4.2 per cent, to US$99.74 a barrel, compared with US$61 per barrel at this time last February. Iran’s top diplomat said in an interview shared on his Telegram channel over the weekend that Iranian negotiators were in Qatar for talks on a proposal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if the U.S. meets several conditions. However, he said no direct talks were being held with the U.S. The final outcome of the diplomatic efforts to avoid a return to all-out war depends on answers provided by the United States to the “Iranian questions,” he said. Wall Street is also waiting for the outcome of Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections. Voters across the political spectrum have shown increasing concerns about AI and data centers, along with inflation and other key issues. There is critical U.S. economic data arriving Friday when the government issues its October jobs report. In September, U.S. employers added a disappointing 29,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2 per cent. In equities trading, shares of both Marvell and Lumentum are falling after an all-stock deal for Lumentum worth about US$115 billion, including debt. Marvell, despite an aggressive pullback in AI stocks last week, believes the investment environment is still active. Markets appear less certain. Marvell slid more than 1 per cent before the opening bell and Lumentum fell almost 3 per cent. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1 per cent to 10,736.14 on Monday. Germany’s DAX climbed 0.1 per cent to 25,847.97, while the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.2 per cent to 7,988.21. Asian markets were mostly higher. The U.S. dollar rose to 157.91 Japanese yen from 157.49 yen. The euro was trading at US$1.1211, up from US$1.1160. --- Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman, The Associated Press
