BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Three straight wins, no goals conceded and top of the league on maximum points.
Aston Villa’s first ever appearance in the Champions League couldn’t be going any better.
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Bologna's fans hold banners at the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Aston Villa's head coach Unai Emery during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Fans unveil a giant banner prior to the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Aston Villa's John McGinn celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (David Davies/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Jhon Duran, left, celebrates scoring his sides second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (David Davies/PA via AP)
Villa’s 2-0 home win over Bologna on Tuesday maintained the 100% start to the English team’s first campaign in Europe’s top club competition since 1983 — when it was called the European Cup, which Villa won in 1982.
“What we are building here is amazing,” said Villa captain John McGinn, one of the scorers against Bologna at a rocking Villa Park.
Villa opened with a 3-0 win at Swiss outsider Young Boys and then beat German giant Bayern Munich 1-0 in its first home game of the revamped competition.
Halfway through the third round of league games, Villa is in first place and no other team has nine points.
“We are playing seriously, we are playing focused, responsible and the team is progressing and mature in everything,” said Villa manager Unai Emery, who took charge two years ago with the team just above the relegation zone.
Key this season has been the form of Jhon Duran, the 20-year-old Colombia international who is enjoying his breakthrough year at Villa.
Duran was handed a rare start against Bologna ahead of first-choice striker Ollie Watkins and was about to be replaced by his fellow center forward when he hooked home a volley in the 64th minute from Morgan Rogers’ cross.
Watkins was on the sideline waiting to come on and was seen applauding the goal by Duran, who now has seven for the season in 12 games — mostly as a substitute. One of them was a memorable long-range winner against Bayern.
“When he was watching that I was thinking of changing him, he accelerated and scored a goal,” Emery said, laughing. “It was fantastic. He was asking for more (time) because he was thinking he could score more goals.”
Duran was not amused at immediately being taken off after his goal. He angrily punched a seat in the dugout and then headed down the tunnel soon after. But he came back at the end of the match to join in with his team's celebrations.
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Bologna's fans hold banners at the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Aston Villa's head coach Unai Emery during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Fans unveil a giant banner prior to the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Aston Villa's John McGinn celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (David Davies/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Jhon Duran, left, celebrates scoring his sides second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Aston Villa and Bologna at the Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (David Davies/PA via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are yo-yoing back up on Tuesday, but the U.S. stock market is holding steadier this time and rising.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% in early trading, coming off its best day since the war with Iran began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 428 points, or 0.9%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.
It’s a break, for now at least, from the usual playbook since the start of the war, where stock prices have gone 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 because of the war could send prices so high for so long that it damages the global economy.
On Tuesday, the price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.1% to $94.53. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.9% to $102.15. But that’s still below where oil prices were at the end of last week.
Delta Air Lines also offered an encouraging signal about the strength of the economy after raising its forecast for revenue for the first three months of 2026. It said it’s seen demand accelerate into March for flights from both businesses and households.
Of course, it’s also having to pay higher prices for jet fuel because of the spike in oil prices. But it said the strong demand for flights could allow it nevertheless to report profit for the start of 2026 that’s in line with its earlier forecast.
Delta’s stock flew 4.9% higher, and it helped other airline stocks trim their own sharp losses for the year so far. American Airlines rose 4%, and United Airlines climbed 3.7%.
Another winner was Uber Technologies, which rose 5.2% after announcing an expansion of its partnership with Nvidia. They plan to launch a fleet of autonomous vehicles using Nvidia’s technology, beginning with Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of next year.
Nvidia added 0.4%. A day earlier, its CEO, Jensen Huang, said he foresaw demand for AI chips through 2027 growing to $1 trillion.
The U.S. stock market has a track record of bouncing back relatively quickly from military conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, as long as oil prices don’t stay too high for too long. Many professional investors are expecting that to be the case again, which has helped keep U.S. stock prices near their record levels.
For all its dramatic swings over the last couple weeks, including several that struck hour to hour, the S&P 500 is less than 4% below its all-time high.
In the meantime, Treasury yields have climbed on expectations that higher oil prices will keep the Federal Reserve from resuming its cuts to interest rates for a while. Higher yields in turn push downward on prices for stocks and all kinds of investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.20% from 4.23% late Monday, but it remains well above the 3.97% level it was at before the war with Iran began.
Cuts to interest rates by the Fed would give the economy and job market a boost, and President Donald Trump has been calling for them angrily. But reductions would also worsen inflation.
The Fed will make its next announcement on interest rates Wednesday afternoon, and traders see virtually no chance of a cut, according to data from CME Group.
In Australia, the central bank is actually moving in the opposite direction. Citing higher fuel prices, the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates for the first time since November 2023.
In stock markets abroad, European indexes rose following a mixed finish in Asia. Stocks rose 0.8% in London and fell 0.9% in Shanghai for two of the world’s bigger moves.
AP Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach and Rod McGuirk contributed.
Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Screens display financial information on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People stand in front of a stock price monitor showing Nikkei index at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person stands near a stock price monitor showing Nikkei 225 index at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person looks at a stock price monitor showing New York Dow and Nikkei indexes also US dollar Japanese yen exchange rate at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks near a stock price monitor showing Nikkei index at a security company Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
