Stocks Waver as Oil Falls              07/24 09:31

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks wavered Friday as oil prices slipped for the first 
time in a week, but Wall Street is still heading for a losing week.

   The S&P 500 fell 0.1%. The index is on track for its second consecutive 
losing week, which hasn't happened since March.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 76 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:53 a.m. 
Eastern time. The Nasdaq fell 0.6%., weighed down by sharp losses from several 
big stocks. Both indexes are also on track for weekly losses.

   Micron Technology fell 5.7% and Broadcom fell 2.8%. Both companies have 
large market values that tend to weigh more heavily on the market. They were 
big reasons for the technology-heavy Nasdaq losing more ground and for the 
broader market being kept in check despite more gainers than losers within the 
S&P 500.

   Wall Street is closing out a week of increasing pressure from a sharp 
escalation in the U.S. war with Iran. Heavy fighting in the Middle East again 
threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas.

   Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.8% to $97.89. It has 
generally been rising all week and moved back above $100 on Thursday before 
easing a bit. Before the Iran war began in late February it was trading around 
$72 per barrel.

   Bond yields also eased and relieved some of the pressure on stocks. The 
yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.68% from 4.71% late Thursday.

   Markets in Europe gained ground, while Asian markets closed lower.

   The U.S. is also ramping up its global trade war with a fresh round of 
tariffs on dozens of nations. The new round of tariffs impacts nearly all U.S. 
imports and they are paid by companies importing those goods, who then 
typically pass the added costs along to consumers. That move came just as the 
clock was running out Friday on stopgap levies the president imposed after a 
stinging defeat for other such tariffs at the Supreme Court.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this 
report.

   ---------

   itemid:0b9c3b2aa5ca83eb391c1388efe03c97