US stocks rise and recover some of their losses from a rare losing week

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Monday and recovering some of their losses from a rare losing week.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% and was on track to break a five-day losing streak. It’s coming off just its second losing week in the last 13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 282 points, or 0.5%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.

Comcast helped lead the way and jumped 9.5% after saying it will split off its NBCUniversal media business, including its theme parks, and Sky from its broadband and wireless business. It came into the day with a loss of 17.3% for the year so far.

Several stocks boosted by the artificial-intelligence boom also rose after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix said they will invest roughly $518 billion in a new chipmaking hub in South Korea, as its president hopes to capitalize on surging AI demand. Applied Materials rallied 4.9%.

AI stocks have been on a roller coaster recently after soaring to tremendous heights in the frenzy around AI technology. They’re under pressure because of worries that their profits can’t possibly keep pace with the huge gains for their stock prices. And the drops have an outsized effect on investors because AI stocks have become some of Wall Street’s largest and most influential, giving them more weight on indexes than others.

SpaceX, which owns the xAI business along with rockets, has already become worth more than $2 trillion after selling its stock for the first time on the Nasdaq earlier this month, even with sharp rises and falls along the way. It’s become big enough that Nasdaq said Elon Musk’s company will join the Nasdaq 100 index before trading begins on July 7, which will force funds tracking the index to buy the stock.

SpaceX rose 1.5%.

That helped offset a 6% drop for Verizon Communications, which said it is paying $625 million as part of a deal to combine its international wireline connectivity and managed network services business with some of London-based BT Group's subsidiaries in a joint venture.

The gains for the stock market came even though oil prices rose. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.2% to $73.46, pulling slightly above where it was before the war with Iran began. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $70.05.

Following attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend, President Donald Trump said Monday on social media that Iran had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts, though one of Iran’s top negotiators said no further talks had been scheduled.

The hope is that an end to the war with Iran will give oil tankers free access again to the Strait of Hormuz, allowing them to exit the Persian Gulf and deliver crude to customers worldwide. That would help lower the price of oil, whose jumps because of the war have sent a punishing wave of inflation around the world.

If oil prices do recede and stay low enough, it could keep enough pressure off inflation to allow the Federal Reserve and other central banks to keep interest rates steady or even cut them instead of hiking them. Higher interest rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments. High yields worldwide have been rattling investors since oil prices burst above $100 per barrel.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.37% from 4.38% late Friday and from 4.56% early this month.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

Stocks jumped 1.6% in Hong Kong and 1.2% in Shanghai for two of the world’s biggest gains, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.2%.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Specialist Philip Finale works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Ravi Bhandari, left, works with fellow options traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Media cover near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer stands near the screen showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A member of media looks at the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A huge screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

LEXINGTON, South Carolina (AP) — Alex Murdaugh was back in court again Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing at a pretrial hearing that will likely be short on substance but long on spectacle as the true crime sensation continues to captivate.

Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The only goals of Monday's hearing are to set deadlines for exchanging evidence between the defense and prosecution, and to figure out dates for other hearings and maybe for the next trial.

Dozens of media outlets, from international agencies to local TV stations to true crime podcasters, were inside the Lexington County courthouse to again chronicle every forehead rub and quizzical look from the once rich and imposing Southern lawyer.

"I see we have a full house,” Judge Debra R. McCaslin said.

It's a rare chance to see up close how life behind bars has changed the 58-year-old Murdaugh, who still has decades to serve in a South Carolina prison after pleading guilty to stealing about $12 million from clients and his family's law firm.

Prosecutors said Murdaugh shot his wife Maggie and younger son Paul, 22, because he believed sympathy over their deaths would buy him time to fix his problems. At that point, his financial crimes were close to being exposed by his law firm and the family of a teen who filed a wrongful death lawsuit after Paul crashed a boat while drinking.

Although he remains in prison, Murdaugh's lawyers want the judge to allow him to wear civilian clothes and not have his wrists or ankles shackled at every hearing and during his retrial. He appeared in court Monday in an orange prison jumpsuit.

“Mr. Murdaugh's convictions for non-violent, white-collar crimes in no way justify presenting him to the jury pool as a shackled prisoner in a prison jumpsuit via video cameras at televised pretrial hearings,” defense attorneys wrote in their request.

Murdaugh's attorneys have already filed other pretrial motions. One asks prosecutors to turn over DNA found under his wife’s fingernails for testing at a private lab. Investigators said was from an unknown and unrelated man.

Defense lawyers want to provide Murdaugh, who was disbarred during his legal troubles, a laptop in prison without internet access to review evidence so they don’t have to print it all. The defense also wants to hold the next trial outside of Colleton County, where the killings happened and the first trial took place.

While admitting he is a thief, insurance cheat, liar and bad lawyer, Murdaugh has adamantly denied shooting to death his wife and son since he said he found their bodies outside their home in 2021.

A jury convicted him of two counts of murder in 2023 and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

But during that trial, a few jurors said the Colleton County clerk of court, assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, told them to watch Murdaugh’s body language when he testified in his own defense and to not be fooled, confused or thrown off by what he might say.

The state Supreme Court ruled that was a suggestion Murdaugh was guilty and overturned his convictions.

The justices were also concerned that days of testimony at the murder trial centered around how Murdaugh stole from clients, many of them in dire straits.

Brief testimony is fine, but details such as how some of the people Murdaugh stole from were disabled or vulnerable could unfairly turn against him jurors who should be focused just on whether he killed his family, the justices said.

Murdaugh remains in a South Carolina prison as he serves a 40-year federal sentence at the same time as a 27-year state sentence for his financial crimes.

FILE - Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021, listens during a hearing on the motion for a retrial, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center, in Columbia, S.C. (Gavin McIntyre/The Post and Courier via AP, Pool, File)