Wall Street rises as bond yields ease despite oil spike in US-Iran war

Newyork,UPDATED: Sep 3, 2026 20:06 IST

Wall Street stocks rose in morning trading on Thursday as bond yields eased further, even as oil prices continued to climb with the US war with Iran intensifying. The S&P 500 was up 0.5 per cent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 340 points, or 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7 per cent as of 10.01 am Eastern time.

The gains came after the indexes recorded their first advance following a three-day slide. Nvidia rose 1.9 per cent after the chip company said it would buy the artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face for USD 13 billion.

Oil prices moved higher as the six-month-old conflict between the US and Iran worsened. Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for US bombardments earlier in the week. The fighting had intensified after the US struck Iranian rocket launchers on Sunday on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, saying Iran was planning to use them to send mines into the waterway.

The renewed fighting has pushed US crude prices sharply higher this week, with gains of 11 per cent so far, and that trend continued on Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.6 per cent to USD 96.23 per barrel. Benchmark US crude rose 1.2 per cent to USD 92.12 a barrel. Higher oil prices have added to inflationary pressure and worsened a bond-market sell-off seen earlier this week.

Even so, bond yields showed signs of stabilising. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which tends to influence mortgage rates, fell to 4.75 per cent from 4.79 per cent late Wednesday. It has risen steadily through the year and was as low as 4.20 per cent at the start of 2026. The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for US Federal Reserve interest rate moves, slipped to 4.32 per cent from 4.39 per cent. It too remains much higher for the year after being as low as 3.50 per cent at the beginning of 2026.

In economic news, the Labour Department said more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, though lay-offs remain rare and jobless claims are still at historically low levels. Investors are now looking ahead to the closely watched US employment report for August due on Friday. Markets rose in Europe, while trading was mixed in Asia. Overall, Wall Street moved higher as easing bond yields supported sentiment even as investors kept watch on rising oil prices and the escalating conflict involving the US and Iran.

With PTI Inputs

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