High Oil Prices Weigh on Wall Street   03/20 15:16

   Another climb for oil prices shook stock markets on Friday, as hopes 
collapsed for a possible cut to interest rates this year by the Federal Reserve.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Another climb for oil prices shook stock markets on Friday, 
as hopes collapsed for a possible cut to interest rates this year by the 
Federal Reserve.

   The S&P 500 fell 1.5% to close its fourth straight losing week, its longest 
such streak in a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 443 points, or 
1%, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2%.

   The market's losses deepened after oil prices erased an early dip and 
accelerated in the afternoon. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 
3.3% to settle at $112.19 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 2.3% to 
$98.32 per barrel.

   Stocks also bent under the weight of leaping yields in the bond market. 
Higher yields make mortgage rates and other borrowing more expensive for U.S. 
households and companies, slowing the economy, and they grind down on prices 
for all kinds of investments. Treasury yields have been jumping on worries the 
war with Iran will cause a long-term spike in oil and natural gas prices that 
drives up inflation.

   Worries have gotten so high that traders have canceled nearly all their bets 
that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates this year, according to data 
from CME Group. Some even think the Fed could raise rates in 2026, a nearly 
unthinkable scenario before the war began.

   "I think it would be market shaking," Ann Miletti, head of equity 
investments at Allspring Global Investments, said about a rate hike. But she 
also said that if oil prices stay high for a long time, they would likely drag 
so much on the economy that the Fed would not raise rates.

   Lower interest rates would give the economy and investment prices a boost, 
and they're something President Donald Trump has angrily been calling for. 
Before the war, traders were betting heavily that the Fed would cut rates at 
least twice this year.

   But lower rates risk worsening inflation. And investors now see little room 
for central banks worldwide to cut interest rates to help their economies. 
Besides the Federal Reserve, central banks in Europe, Japan and the United 
Kingdom also held their interest rates steady this past week.

   The price of Brent crude has zigzagged sharply on its way from roughly $70 
per barrel before the war began to as high as $119.50 this week. Big swings 
have struck hour to hour as financial markets try to handicap how long the war 
will last and how much damage it will do to oil and gas production in the 
Persian Gulf.

   The U.S. stock market has a history of bouncing back relatively quickly from 
past conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, as long as oil prices don't 
stay too high for too long. Oil prices aren't at a red-flag point yet, Miletti 
said, but "we're getting close if the duration is long enough."

   "If three months from now, we're in a similar situation, not only myself but 
a lot of other investors will be much more cautious," she said. While companies 
can adjust to gradual rises in oil prices, Miletti said they're less able to 
quickly change their business models after a sudden spike becomes a new normal.

   On Wall Street, Super Micro Computer lost a third of its value and tumbled 
33.3% to help drag the U.S. stock market lower. The U.S. government accused a 
senior vice president of the company and two others affiliated with it of 
conspiring to smuggle billions of dollars of computer servers containing 
advanced Nvidia chips to China.

   The company said it has been cooperating with the investigation and is not a 
defendant in the indictment. It placed its two accused employees on 
administrative leave and terminated its relationship with an accused contractor.

   Roughly three out of every four stocks in the S&P 500 fell. Stocks of 
smaller companies, which can feel the pinch of higher interest rates more than 
their bigger rivals, led the way lower. The Russell 2000 index of smaller 
stocks fell a market-leading 2.3%.

   Among the few winners was FedEx, which rose 0.8% after delivering a much 
stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

   All told, the S&P 500 fell 100.01 points to 6,506.48. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average dropped 443.96 to 45,577.47, and the Nasdaq composite sank 
443.08 to 21,647.61.

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.38% from 
4.25% late Thursday and from just 3.97% before the war started. That's a 
significant move for the bond market.

   The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what 
the Fed will do, leaped to 3.88% from 3.79% late Thursday and is near its 
highest level since the summer.

   When bonds are paying more in interest, they make other investments less 
attractive in comparison. That's particularly the case for things like gold, 
which pay their investors nothing at all. Gold's price finished the week at 
$4,574.90 per ounce, hurting its reputation as a safe place for money during 
uncertain times. Earlier this year, gold was setting records and briefly topped 
$5,400 per ounce.

   Outside of Wall Street, stock indexes fell sharply in Europe following their 
wipeouts on Thursday. Indexes also sank in China, though South Korea's Kospi 
added 0.3%.