Oil prices rise as the Iran war drags on

Tuesday, 19 May 2026 00:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose Monday as the war with Iran threatens to drag on for longer, but the US stock market nevertheless inched toward more records.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 2.9% to settle at $104.21 after President Donald Trump said the US-Iran ceasefire was on “life support” after he rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end their war. The rejection raises the stakes for Trump’s trip this week to China, where he could urge President Xi Jinping to pressure Iran into making concessions. Xi has influence because China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s sanctioned crude oil.

The war has already sent the price for a barrel of Brent up from roughly $70 and delivered a blast of painful inflation through the global economy. That’s because it has shut the Strait of Hormuz and kept oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.

Still, the US stock market has set a run of records on hopes that the war will not keep oil prices high for very long. Companies are meanwhile producing bigger profits than analysts expected, while signals suggest the US economy is holding up even though households are feeling discouraged by expensive gasoline and tariffs.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% from its prior all-time high set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 95 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1% to reach its own all-time high.

The majority of stocks within the S&P 500 fell, even though the overall index rose. Among them was Mosaic, which reported much weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The fertiliser company is benefiting from higher prices for its products, but it’s also contending with much higher prices for sulfur and other raw materials because of logistics snarls created by the war with Iran. Mosaic’s stock fell 1.8%.