By CHAN HO-HIM and MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writers
U.S. futures are mostly lower and oil prices continued to climb with the violence in the Middle East ongoing.
Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for U.S. bombardments earlier in the week. Fighting between the U.S. and Iran intensified after the U.S. hit Iranian rocket launchers Sunday on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, saying Iran was planning to use them to send mines into the waterway.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.1%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were little changed. Nasdaq futures slipped 0.2%.
The renewed fighting has sent U.S. crude prices sharply higher this week, up 11%, a trend that continued Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.8% to $97.33 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.1% to $92.92 a barrel.
Rising oil prices have added to existing inflationary pressures and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury is up 0.94% this week, although it fell to around 4.77% early Thursday. The yield hovered around 4.81% Wednesday, its highest level since 2023. The 2-year Treasury slipped Thursday to 4.36% after reaching 4.41% a day earlier, its highest mark in more than a year and a half.
On Friday, the crucial U.S. employment report for August is released.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX lost 0.1% to 25,819.38, while the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.3%, to 8,257.47. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% to 10,775.13. Asian markets were mixed.
The Japanese yen strengthened sharply against the U.S. dollar, with the dollar trading at 156.07 yen Thursday, down from 158.71 yen late Wednesday. The dollar had surged to above 160 yen earlier in the week, raising expectations that regulators might intervene to prevent the yen from falling further.
The euro traded at $1.1612, up from $1.1588.