NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are climbing Monday following the latest rise of tensions between the United States and Iran, but the moves are more modest than they were earlier in the war. U.S. stocks, meanwhile, are giving back a bit of their record-breaking rally.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% from its all-time high and is on track for just its second drop in 14 days after the United States seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 71 points, or 0.2%, as of 12:43 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.
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Trader Michael Milano, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A broker watches his screens at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 5.3% to $95.21 on worries that Iran could keep petroleum pent up in the Persian Gulf if it continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz.
It’s a turnaround from the last trading day on Wall Street, when stocks soared and oil prices tumbled Friday after Iran said it was reopening the strait to commercial traffic. That enthusiasm vanished quickly after Iran closed the strait again Saturday following the U.S. decision to press ahead with its blockade of Iranian ports.
The next big deadline is looming on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, which is early Wednesday Tehran time, when a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is scheduled to expire.
Still, oil prices remain well below the high points reached so far in the war. Brent crude’s price briefly got above $119 per barrel when fears were at their highest. And the S&P 500 is still above where it was before the war.
The muted moves suggest investors still see a possibility of a U.S.-Iranian agreement that could get oil flowing again from the Middle East to customers worldwide. It would be in both countries’ economic interests to end the war.
Companies with big fuel bills fell to some of Wall Street’s larger losses following the rise in crude’s cost, as they have through much of the war.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings dropped 4.4%, and Carnival lost 1.4%.
United Airlines slipped 2.6%, and American Airlines fell 4.7% after American said it’s not interested in a merger with United. Airline stocks had flown higher last week following a report saying United wanted to combine with its rival.
On the winning side of Wall Street was TopBuild, a distributor of insulation and building products, which jumped 17.7%. QXO is buying it in a deal valued at roughly $17 billion.
QXO said the deal would make it the continent’s second-largest publicly traded building products distributor, and its stock fell 5.8%.
One big reason the U.S. stock market has been so strong recently is the big profits that U.S. companies have been reporting for the first three months of 2026, as well as expectations for continued growth.
While reporting stronger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected, several of the biggest U.S. banks said recently that they see the U.S. economy remaining resilient, particularly because of solid spending by U.S. consumers.
“Despite geopolitical risks, the earnings recovery remains intact,” according to Morgan Stanley strategists led by Michael Wilson. It’s remained so solid that analysts have even raised their profit expectations since the war began for the spring of 2026.
Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and other big banks, about 10% of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported their results for the start of 2026. Nearly nine out of 10 have delivered a bigger profit than analysts expected, according to FactSet.
If the rest of the companies in the index just match analysts' expectations, overall earnings per share for S&P 500 companies will end up 13% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet.
That's big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. Other big companies scheduled to report their results this week include UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a better finish in Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.2%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
Trader Michael Milano, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A broker watches his screens at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan moved ahead Monday with preparations for a new round of talks between the United States and Iran two days before a tenuous ceasefire is set to expire, even as renewed conflict around the Strait of Hormuz raised questions about whether the meeting would take place.
Over the weekend, the U.S. attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond, and its foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, told his Pakistani counterpart that American threats to Iranian ships and ports were “clear signs” of Washington’s disingenuousness ahead of the planned talks, Iran state media reported.
With tensions flaring and the ceasefire due to expire midweek, Pakistan pushed for talks to resume Tuesday as planned. Pakistan said Monday that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi held separate meetings in Islamabad with the Iranian ambassador and the acting U.S. ambassador to discuss arrangements.
Iran throttled traffic through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the open seas, shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war. The U.S. has also instituted a blockade of Iranian ports. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes through the strait.
Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon were set to resume Thursday in Washington, an Israeli official and a U.S. official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes talks.
There was no immediate confirmation from Lebanon.
The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades. Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.
A 10-day ceasefire began Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants broke out two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.
Mediators said fighting in Lebanon, which has killed more than 2,290 people, was undermining efforts to end the conflict between Iran and the U.S.
Hezbollah opposes the talks but has observed the ceasefire.
U.S. President Donald Trump told Bloomberg News he was “highly unlikely” to renew the two-week ceasefire with Iran.
The New York Post reported that Trump said in a phone interview that Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were returning to the Pakistani capital on Monday.
“They’re heading over now,” Trump was quoted as saying.
However, Vance's motorcade pulled up to the White House late Monday morning after Trump's comments were published, indicating the vice president had not left left Washington.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday that there were no plans yet to attend the talks with the U.S. But at the same time, he did not rule it out.
Two Pakistani officials said Monday that Iran has expressed a willingness to send a delegation to Islamabad. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new proposals from the U.S. but suggested that a wide gap remained between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to a new toll released Monday in official Iranian media by Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization. He did not break down casualties among civilians and security forces, instead just saying that 2,875 were male and 496 were female. Masjedi said 383 of the dead were children 18 years old and under.
Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.
Iran’s grip on the strait has also sent oil prices skyrocketing and given rise to one of the worst global energy crises in decades.
Oil prices recovered slightly following Iran’s announcement that the strait was being reopened following the Lebanon ceasefire announcement.
But then Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with Washington. The U.S. military said Monday it has directed 27 ships to return to Iranian ports since the blockage began last week. The U.S. seizure of an Iranian cargo ship Sunday was the first interception under the blockade.
Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a ceasefire violation, the state broadcaster said, and vowed to again enforce restrictions imposed early in the war. Iran on Saturday fired at ships trying to transit.
Oil prices were up again in trading on Monday, with Brent crude, the international standard, at about $93 a barrel — up from about $70 a barrel before the war started.
Iran early Monday warned it could keep up the global economic pain as ships remained unable to transit the strait, with hundreds of vessels waiting at each end for clearance.
“The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” Mohammad Reza Aref, first vice president of Iran, said in a social media post.
In other developments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the defacing of a statue of Jesus Christ by an Israeli soldier in Lebanon, saying he was “stunned and saddened.”
Photos surfaced over the weekend of the soldier using a sledgehammer to smash the head of a toppled Jesus statue. The Israeli military confirmed the images were genuine, setting off a wave of condemnation.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press journalists Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Joshua Boak and Matthew Lee in Washington and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.
A man on his scooter passes next to an Iranian flag placed in front of a destroyed building, following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A man on his scooter passes next to an Iranian flag placed in front of a destroyed building, following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-32 plane approaches landing at Nur Khan airbase ahead of second round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ehsan Shahzad)
Women share a moment as they look at a smartphone at the main gate of the Tehran University as a banner shows portraits of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, and the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Displaced people cross a destroyed bridge as they return to their villages, following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, in Tayr Felsay village, southern Lebanon, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft prepares to land at Nur Khan airbase, ahead of second round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ehsan Shahzad)
A muslim walks outside a mosque where a commemorative religious event in honor of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is taking place, organized by the Shiite Muslim Community of Greece in Athens, on Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)
An army soldier, left, walks as police officer drives motorcycle on an empty road ahead of second round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
