Financial Markets                      04/13 09:29

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices are back above $100 per barrel on Monday after 
21 hours of ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran failed to end 
their war. But U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady, an indicator that 
Wall Street still hopes both sides will ultimately avoid a worst-case scenario 
for the global economy.

   The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading after erasing an 
earlier dip. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 250 points, or 0.5%, as 
of 10:05 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher. The moves 
were much more modest than the extreme swings that have been hitting financial 
markets since the war began in late February.

   The oil market showed more concern, and prices there rose roughly 5%. But 
even there, prices pared bigger, earlier gains as the morning progressed.

   After the weekend's talks failed, President Donald Trump threatened a 
blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a move that raises the pressure on Iran by 
trying to prevent it from making money by selling oil.

   A blockade would keep even more oil off the global market, after prices 
already jumped for everyone worldwide because of shortfalls due to Iran's 
restrictions on traffic in the important strait. That narrow waterway is how 
much of the oil produced in the Persian Gulf area reaches customers worldwide.

   Iran responded by threatening all ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of 
Oman.

   "Security in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is either for everyone or 
for NO ONE," the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported Monday. "NO 
PORT in the region will be safe," according to a statement from the Iranian 
military and the Revolutionary Guards.

   The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose back to $100.18 
per barrel and is well above its roughly $70 price from before the war. But it 
remains below the $119 peak it's touched at times, when worries about the 
U.S.-Iran war have been at their heights. It also pulled back from its nearly 
$104 price reached earlier Monday morning.

   "Markets are taking some encouragement from the fact that the two sides are 
talking and that the broader ceasefire seems to be holding, for now," according 
to Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at Wells Fargo 
Investment Institute.

   And, as with so many pronouncements made so far in the U.S.-Iran war, much 
will depend on the details of the blockade and exactly what gets restricted.

   "Not all blockades are created the same," said Brian Jacobsen, chief 
economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.

   "The developments over the weekend might not be as negative for the markets 
as many fear."

   In the meantime, big U.S. companies are beginning to tell investors how much 
money they made during the first three months of the year.

   Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, said it made $5.63 billion in profit 
during the quarter, more than investors expected. But financial analysts 
pointed to some potentially concerning signals underneath the surface, 
including lower revenue from the trading of fixed income, commodities and 
currencies. Its stock fell 4%.

   Big banks traditionally lead earnings reporting season, and Citigroup, 
JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America will all report later this 
week. So will Johnson & Johnson, Netflix and PepsiCo.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 
10-year Treasury erased an earlier rise and was at 4.31%, where it was late 
Friday.

   A report said that sales of previously occupied homes were weaker in March 
than economists expected. The housing market has taken a hit because of more 
expensive rates for mortgages, which have largely climbed with the 10-year 
Treasury yield on worries that the U.S.-Iran war will keep oil prices and 
inflation high.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Hong 
Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9%, and South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.9% for two of the 
world's larger losses.

   "The outcome of the talks was not really what people were hoping for, that's 
for certain," Neil Newman, Managing Director, Head of Strategy at Astris 
Advisory Japan, said in Hong Kong about the U.S.-Iran negotiations.

   "As we stand here at the moment, it doesn't look very nice. Certainly, the 
oil prices are a big concern."

   ___

   AP journalists Yuri Kageyama, Matt Ott and Mayuko Ono contributed to this 
report.

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