NEW YORK (AP) — The Athletics had the highest success rate using the robot-umpire system to overturn ball/strike calls during the first 10 days of spring training, winning 69.2% of challenges as teams prepared for its regular-season debut March 25.
San Francisco was second at 66.7%, followed by Cincinnati, Miami and San Diego at 61.9% each, Major League Baseball said Monday.
The World Series champion Dodgers had the lowest rate, winning 21.4% of appeals to the Automated Ball-Strike System. Baltimore was at 25%, the New York Mets at 35.3% and Texas at 38.1%.
MLB's overall success rate was 51.3%, with an average of 2.3 challenges per game.
The New York Yankees averaged the most challenges at 3.8 per game, winning 52.6%. Minnesota was second at 3.6 (winning 58.3%), followed by Boston at 3.2 (55.2%) and Colorado (55.6%) and San Francisco at 3.0.
Baltimore averaged the fewest challenges at 1.2. The Dodgers were at 1.4 and Detroit was at 1.5 (46.7%).
MLB experimented with ABS during spring training last year and teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182). MLB began testing in the minor leagues in 2019.
Each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews, which were first used for home run calls in August 2008 and widely expanded to many calls for the 2014 season.
A team out of challenges for a game tied after nine innings would get one additional challenge in each extra inning.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
FILE - A Trackman device used for the Automated Ball/Strike System is posted on the balcony behind home plate before a spring training baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Feb. 22, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
FILE - The Automated Ball/Strike System plays on the scoreboard after a pitch call was challenged during the first inning of a spring training baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the San Diego Padres, Feb. 26, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are leaping Monday with worries that the Iran war will clog the global flow of crude and make inflation even worse. U.S. stocks, meanwhile, are swinging between sharp losses and a tiny gain.
Crude prices jumped more than 5%, which will likely mean higher prices soon at gasoline pumps. That would hurt not only U.S. households, whose spending makes up the bulk of the U.S. economy, but also businesses with big fuel bills.
The S&P 500 fell as much as 1.2% at the start of trading, and cruise lines and airlines led the way lower. But the index quickly erased most of the loss, in part because past military conflicts have not led to sustained drops for markets, and it fell 0.1% in afternoon trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 64 points, or 0.1%, as of 1:39 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
Prices for natural gas remained higher, meanwhile, which could raise heating bills for the remainder of the winter, after a major supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe said it would stop production because of the war. Gold climbed 1.2% as investors looked for safer things to own and as U.S. officials tried to persuade the world that this war will not last forever.
“This is not Iraq,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. “This is not endless.”
Typically, Treasury yields also fall when investors are feeling nervous. But yields instead climbed, in part because higher oil prices will put upward pressure on inflation, which is already worse than nearly everyone would like. That could tie the Federal Reserve’s hands and keep it from cutting interest rates.
Lower interest rates can boost the economy and job market, while also worsening inflation. Higher rates can do the opposite.
Past military conflicts in the Middle East have not caused long-term drops for markets. For this war to knock down U.S. stocks in a significant and sustained way, the price of oil would perhaps need to jump above $100 per barrel, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley led by Michael Wilson.
Oil prices are still well below there. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 5.7% to $70.85. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 6.2% to $77.42 per barrel.
That helped the U.S. stock market pare some of its steep, opening loss. Morgan Stanley says the S&P 500 has climbed an average of 2%, 6% and 8% in the one, six and 12 months following “geopolitical risk events” historically. That's going back to the Korean War, which began in 1950, and the 1956 Suez crisis.
At the moment, though, fear is still running through markets.
Stocks of airlines were some of Monday’s sharpest losers. Not only do higher oil prices threaten their already big fuel bills, the fighting in the Middle East also closed airports and left travelers stranded.
United Airlines fell 2.9%, and American Airlines lost 3.9%.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings fell even more, 9.1%. It needs customers to have plenty of cash to spend after paying for their gasoline bills and other essentials.
The cruise operator also reported weaker revenue for its latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit was better. Its forecast for profit this upcoming fiscal year was lower than analysts expected.
Hotels, discount retailers and other companies that benefit when customers have more cash in their pocket from lower fuel bills also lagged the market. MGM Resorts fell 3.1%, and Dollar Tree lost 4.1%.
Stocks in the housing industry also struggled as higher Treasury yields could translate into more expensive mortgage rates. Paint company Sherwin-Williams fell 2.1%, and homebuilder D.R. Horton lost 4.1%.
Helping to limit Wall Street's losses were oil companies, which benefited from the rising prices for crude. Exxon Mobil climbed 1.2%, and Occidental Petroleum rose 1.6%.
Companies that make equipment for the military also strengthened. Lockheed Martin climbed 2.8%, and RTX rallied 4%.
Palantir Technologies, whose software helps global defense agencies, jumped 6.5% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500.
Big Tech stocks also helped to support the market. Nvidia rose 2.9% and was the strongest single force pushing upward on the S&P 500.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 2.6%, France’s CAC 40 fell 2.2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.1% for some of the world’s larger losses.
Stocks in Shanghai were an outlier and rose 0.5%.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.05% from 3.97% late Friday. A report showing growth for U.S. manufacturing was better than economists expected last month also helped to lift yields.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
James Denaro, center, and others work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Trader John Bishop works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Iraqi Shiite carry a mock coffin of Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Tehran, during a symbolic funeral, in Najaf, Iraq, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, March 1, 2026, in Tokyo.(Yohei Fukai/Kyodo News via AP)
A pedestrian walks outside the New York Stock Exchange during a snow storm, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Fishermen work in front of oil tankers south of the Strait of Hormuz Jan. 19, 2012, offshore the town of Ras Al Khaimah in United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)
Snow falls outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
