Stocks remain stable even as oil prices rise again

Oil prices resumed their rise on Tuesday because of the war with Iran, but U.S. stocks held steadier this time around.

- BY STAN CHOE

The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.2% to add to its gain from the day before, which was its biggest since the war began. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 46 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.5%.

It is a break, for now at least, from the usual playbook since the start of the war, where stock prices have tended to go in the opposite direction of oil prices. The fear in financial markets has been that a long-term disruption to the global flow of oil could send prices so high for so long that it damages the global economy. Not only would higher gasoline prices sap households’ budgets, they could also push companies to pass on their own higher transportation costs to customers.

On Tuesday, the price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.9% to settle at $96.21. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 3.2% to $103.42. But they pared even bigger gains from earlier in the morning, and they're either roughly where they were at the end of last week or below.