Calm returns to Wall Street as oil prices retreat below $90 per barrel

Trading steadied early Tuesday and crude prices eased after wild swings this week with investors trying to figure out how long the war with Iran will continue.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% before the opening bell, while S&P 500 futures inched up 0.1%. Futures for the Nasdaq were up 0.2%.

On Monday, markets swung from big losses to finish the day with gains, while oil prices neared $120 per barrel before falling back to about $90. Oil prices inched down further early Tuesday.

Helping to assuage investors’ fears, U.S. President Donald Trump told CBS News on Monday that he thinks “the war is very complete, pretty much.” However, Trump also made other somewhat contradictory comments that seemed to threaten intensified action against Iran if it makes any “attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply.”

Iran launched new attacks on Tuesday at Israel and Gulf Arab countries, keeping pressure on the Middle East in a war started by Israel and the United States 10 days ago that has sent oil prices surging.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell $5.44 to $89.33 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, dipped $6.97 to $91.99 a barrel. Oil prices are still up about 34% since the war began.

The average U.S. price for a gallon of gas continued to climb, rising to $3.54, according to auto club AAA on Tuesday. That average was just under $3 a gallon in the days before the conflict began, and $3.11 last week.

There is a great deal of uncertainty about just how high oil prices will go and how long they will stay there because of disruptions to Middle East energy facilities.

If oil prices stay very high for very long, household budgets already stretched by high inflation could break under the pressure. Companies would see their own bills jump for fuel and to stock items on their store shelves or in their data warehouses.

Concerns have focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s coast that a fifth of the world’s oil sails through on a typical day. Iran has threatened to set fire to ships sailing the strait.

Global shares rebounded Tuesday from their sharp declines a day before.

France's CAC 40 added 2.1% in early trading, while Germany's DAX surged 2.5%. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1.7%.

In Asia, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.9% to finish at 54,248.39 after the government released revised economic data that showed Japan's economy grew slightly faster than initially estimated in the final quarter of last year, boosted by solid business investments.

Japan's economy expanded at an annual pace of 1.3%. The initial estimate was a much weaker 0.2%.

“Today is the rebound, obviously positive comments from President Trump overnight, we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the war," said Neil Newman, a managing director and head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan.

"So volatility is going to remain with us but things are certainly looking a lot brighter today,” he said.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.1% to 8,692.60. South Korea's Kospi jumped 5.4% to 5,532.59.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 2.2% to 25,959.90, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.7% to 4,123.14.

South Korea’s Kospi, where extremely volatile trading set off two circuit breakers in the past week, including Monday, rose more than 5% Tuesday.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 157.78 Japanese yen from 157.67 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1646, up from $1.1636.

AP Videographer Ayaka McGill in Tokyo contributed.

The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Pedestrians mill about outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

U.S. President Donald Trump is seen on a screen as traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency trader react near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), rear left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), rear center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, rear left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian fired drones towards Saudi Arabia and Kuwait early Tuesday as the war in the Middle East shows no sign of abating.

The Saudi Defense Ministry said it has destroyed two drones over the kingdom’s oil-rich eastern region, while in Kuwait, the National Guard said it shot down six drones attacking the county’s northern and southern areas.

Iran's latest attacks on neighboring Gulf States come as U.S. President Donald Trump sends contradictory signals about how long the war could last, fueling uncertainty that’s causing markets to swing.

The president on Monday told Republican lawmakers that the war was likely to be a “short excursion,” but hours later posted on social media that “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”

In an apparent response to Trump’s remarks published in Iranian state media, a spokesperson for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Ali Mohammad Naini, said “Iran will determine when the war ends.”

Kamal Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the supreme leader, told CNN on Monday that Iran is prepared for a long war. He said he sees no “room for diplomacy anymore” unless economic pressure prompts other countries to intervene and stop the “aggression of Americans and Israelis against Iran.”

The U.S. stock market careened through a manic Monday, going from a steep early loss to a solid gain as worries turned into hope that the war with Iran may not last that long. Oil prices whipped from nearly $120 per barrel, the highest since 2022, back toward $90.

But prices later fell and U.S. stocks rose on hopes that the war with Iran may not last much longer.

The war has choked off major supplies of oil and gas to world markets and sent fuel prices rising across the U.S. The fighting has also led foreigners to flee from business hubs and prompted millions to seek shelter as bombs hit military bases, government buildings, oil and water installations, hotels and at least one school.

Iran’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have all but stopped tankers from using the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried, and Iranian drones and missiles have targeted oil and gas infrastructure in major producers. Attacks on merchant ships near the strait have killed at least seven mariners, according to the International Maritime Organization.

Several U.S. diplomatic missions have ordered all but key staff to leave.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials.

A total of seven U.S. service members have been killed.

Magdy reported from Cairo, and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists around the world also contributed to this report.

A man walks past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Mourners pray during the funeral of Mehdi Hosseini, a man killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike, at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The coffin of Mehdi Hosseini, a man killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike, is carried for burial at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

This image taken from video provided by Iran state TV shows Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran's slain supreme leader, who has been named as the Islamic Republic's next ruler, authorities announced Monday, March 9, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)

People gather in a rally to support Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)