Stock indexes on Wall Street are losing ground in afternoon trading Friday, as the fallout from the war with Iran keeps pressure on oil prices, destabilizing the global economy.<\/p>\n
The S&P 500 was down 0.6% after having been up as much as 0.9% in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 79 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:54 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% lower.<\/p>\n
The latest choppy trading follows heavy turbulence in the market earlier in the week, which has the major indexes headed for their third straight losing week.<\/p>\n
In the energy market, which has been roiled by the Iran war<\/a> and its impact on supplies of crude oil and gas, the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed back above $100 per barrel after briefly dropping earlier in the day. It was up 1.5% to $101.95 and is up about 40% for the month. <\/p>\n U.S. crude oil rose 2.4% to $98.03 a day after settling at $95.73 per barrel. It\u2019s risen around 46% this month.<\/p>\n Oil prices have been volatile since the Iran war began. Iran\u2019s actions have effectively stopped cargo traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, where a fifth of the world\u2019s oil typically sails. That has oil producers cutting production because their crude has nowhere to go. <\/p>\n If the war continues to hamper the production and transportation of oil from the Persian Gulf, it could cause a surge in inflation<\/a> that could hurt the global economy<\/a>. Analysts have said that if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, oil prices could jump to $150 relatively quickly.<\/p>\n While the International Energy Agency said Wednesday its members would make a record 400 million barrels of oil available<\/a> from their emergency reserves, some economists believe that would do little to reassure markets.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump signaled earlier this week that he would take more action to address the squeeze on oil flows. The move follows the administration\u2019s decision to grant temporary permission for India to buy Russian oil.<\/p>\n A new snapshot of consumer spending Friday shows inflation crept higher in January, even before the Iran war caused oil and gas prices to spike. <\/p>\n The Commerce Department said prices rose 2.8% in January<\/a> compared with a year earlier. But excluding the volatile food and energy categories \u2014 which the Federal Reserve pays closer attention to \u2014 core prices rose 3.1%, up from 3% in the prior month and the highest in nearly two years.<\/p>\n Even so, consumers still lifted their spending at a solid 0.4% pace in January, with their incomes rising at the same pace, according to the report.<\/p>\n Consumer spending powers about two-thirds of the economy, which is why economists keep a close watch on trends in incomes and spending. <\/p>\n The University of Michigan\u2019s latest gauge of consumer sentiment on Friday showed consumer sentiment declined slightly to its lowest reading of the year as gasoline price hikes since the start of the war in Iran. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Labor Department said Friday U.S. job openings<\/a> jumped to nearly 7 million in January, topping economists\u2019 forecasts. <\/p>\n