By ELAINE KURTENBACH and MATT OTT, AP Business Writers<\/p>\n
Oil prices jumped and early trading on Wall Street was mixed Monday after the U.S. carried out airstrikes and Iran retaliated.<\/p>\n
Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.3%, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were unchanged and Nasdaq futures tumbled 0.8%.<\/p>\n
Chip and memory companies were dragging indices down, with SanDisk, Western Digital and Micron all falling close to 5% in premarket.<\/p>\n
Energy producers ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron all gained around 1% before the opening bell as fighting in the Middle East pushed oil prices higher.<\/p>\n
Brent crude, the international standard, climbed as much as nearly 5% early Monday before falling back. As of midday in Europe, it was up 3.4%, or $2.58, at $77.72 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude added 3.5%, or $2.48, to $72.92 per barrel.<\/p>\n
Prices for both types of crude oil recently had slipped back to around the levels they were at before the war with Iran<\/a> began after the two sides set an interim agreement on ending the conflict and ships resumed transporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, the United States launched several waves of strikes on Iran<\/a> into Monday morning over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the strait that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing over the weekend. Iran retaliated by targeting countries across the Middle East.<\/p>\n This week will bring earnings reports from many of the biggest U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo on Tuesday alone.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, worries about how continued fighting with Iran will affect the global flow of crude are clouding the outlook both for energy costs and overall inflation.<\/p>\n High bond yields<\/a> have been weighing on financial markets worldwide since more expensive oil and high inflation<\/a> could push the Federal Reserve<\/a> and other central banks to raise interest rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n