Stocks fall and oil prices rise after Trump's latest delay in the Iran war fails to raise much hope

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are falling Friday as Wall Street stumbles toward the finish of a fifth straight losing week, which would be its longest such streak in nearly four years.
The S&P 500 sank 1% and deepened its losses a day after its worst drop since the war with Iran began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 428 points, or 0.9%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% lower.
The losses are a break from Wall Street’s pattern this week, where the U.S. stock market flip-flopped from gains to losses each day as hopes rose and fell about a possible end to the war.
Moments after the U.S. stock market's dismal Thursday of trading finished, President Donald Trump offered another potential signal for hope. He extended a self-imposed deadline to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants to April 6 if it doesn’t allow oil tankers to resume their exits from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean through the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices eased immediately afterward in a sign of hope in financial markets that some normalcy may return to the strait. It was similar to the optimism that swept global markets after Trump said Monday, just before Wall Street opened for trading, that the United States and Iran had held productive talks.
But oil prices resumed their climb as the sun moved westward from Asia to Europe and back to Wall Street on Friday. Despite Trump’s latest announcement of a delay, fighting continued in the Middle East. Iran gave no signs of backing down, while Israel threatened to “escalate and expand” its attacks on Iran.
“The diplomatic dissonance this week between the U.S. and Iran dismayed investors,” said Doug Beath, global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “By the end of the week, risk appetite could not withstand the fog of war.”
“Any further statements by Trump about a deal are white noise to the markets,” Jim Bianco, president and macro strategist at Bianco Research, wrote in a social media post. “Only if the IRANIANS say the talks are going well will it impact markets.”
The price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 1.8% to $103.69 and is up from roughly $70 before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 3.8% to $98.04 per barrel.
The fear in financial markets is that the war will disrupt the Persian Gulf's energy industry for a long time. It could keep so much oil and natural gas out of the world’s markets that it sends a punishing wave of inflation through the global economy. Not only would it raise prices for drivers buying gasoline, it could push businesses that use any trucks, ships or planes to move their products to raise their own prices. It would also make electricity from gas-fired power plants more expensive.