By THE NEW YORK TIMES Oil prices rose and stocks fell Monday after peace talks between the United States and Iran ended without a deal. Hours later, President Donald Trump announced plans to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. It is not yet clear what that escalation will mean for the fragile ceasefire the countries agreed to last week, leaving no clear path to ending a war that is now entering its seventh week. That uncertainty continues to rattle investors eager for a path to st

Wall Street stock indexes advanced and oil ⁠retreated ⁠from highs above $100 a barrel on Monday as ⁠President Donald Trump said Iran wanted to make a deal after the United States responded to the ​collapse of peace talks over the weekend by blocking Iran’s ports. A fragile ceasefire that halted six weeks of U.S. and Israeli air strikes still hung in the balance. ‌Trump said 34 ships had passed through ‌the Strait of Hormuz, which handles about 20% of global oil and liquefied

Angie Howard shops for groceries in Portland, Ore. on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. Higher fuel costs are raising food and travel prices, while a shaky stock market tamps down free spenders. “You go into the grocery store, you buy the things you normally would, and then all of a sudden it’s $20 or $30 more there,” Howard said. (Amanda Lucier/The New York Times) By LYDIA DePILLIS Angie Howard lives in a walkable neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, and works from home, so she has not

Investors will seek evidence in the coming week that the U.S. corporate profit engine ​is humming along, and whether threats to that upbeat business outlook are emerging from the Middle East war and the resulting surge in energy costs. First-quarter earnings ‌season kicks off with reports from major U.S. banks. Expectations for a strong quarter and year for profit growth have underpinned bullish outlooks for stocks. Those expectations have remained intact as the conflict in I

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, with the S&P 500 ⁠and ⁠Nasdaq clocking their seventh daily gain, as investors shrugged ⁠off a rise in oil prices and pinned their hopes on the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire extending to Israel and Lebanon ​too. In my column today I look beyond the market euphoria uncorked by Tuesday’s announcement of the ceasefire, and outline why the economic, policy and geopolitical backdrop is still pretty sobering for ‌investors. If you have more time to rea

Global bond markets may rebound after the U.S.-Iran truce ⁠but ⁠are unlikely to fully recover from the war-driven selloff because, ⁠even if there is peace, energy prices and inflation will run hotter for longer. The U.S. and Iran negotiated a ceasefire late on Tuesday, ​with President Donald Trump announcing a two-week pause in attacks and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz a condition of the agreement. But renewed attacks by Israel on Lebanon along with further strikes at

OpenAI’s ChatGPT on a laptop in San Francisco, March 21, 2025. As tech companies prepare to release new and more powerful AI systems in the coming weeks, cybersecurity experts have become increasingly vocal in their warnings that A.I. technologies are fundamentally changing cybersecurity. (Kelsey McClellan/The New York Times) By CADE METZ and KATE CONGER Anthropic said late last year that state-sponsored Chinese hackers had used its artificial intelligence technology in an ef

Global markets have entered a period of heightened uncertainty ahead of a deadline set by ⁠U.S. ⁠President Donald Trump for Iran, with investors weighing various outcomes ⁠ranging from a ceasefire to renewed military escalation and their implications for oil, currencies and risky assets. Iran showed no sign of agreeing to ​Trump’s demand that it open the Strait of Hormuz by the end of Tuesday or suffer massive attacks on its civilian infrastructure in what would be the bigges

A mechanic at work at a garage in Rockville, Md. on Nov. 6, 2025. Employers added 178,000 jobs in March 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on April 3, more than economists had expected. The unemployment rate sank to 4.3 percent. (Caroline Gutman/The New York Times) By LYDIA DePILLIS The labor market put in a strong showing in March as wintry weather receded, strikes concluded and businesses started looking beyond the huge changes of President Donald Trump’s first y

A fresh read on inflation and initial company results next week could start to show ​the Middle East war’s effects on the U.S. economy and corporate America, as investors hope to start moving past a conflict that has consumed markets. Traders were ‌wrestling with conflicting signals about a potential winding down of the war that began over a month ago, with the U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran. The S&P 500 (.SPX), posted a gain in the holiday-shortened week, snapping a f