Financial Markets                      07/10 09:38

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks and oil prices are drifting toward a quiet 
finish of the week Friday following their earlier fireworks on worries about 
how the war with Iran will affect the global flow of crude.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and was on track to close out a fourth winning week in 
the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 71 points, or 0.1%, as 
of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was nearly unchanged.

   Oil prices were holding relatively steady, even after a series of unclaimed 
airstrikes hit Iran after the U.S. said it finished its attacks. The price for 
a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, slipped 0.1% to $76.23.

   That's above the $72 it was at the start of the week, when it was back below 
its level from before the war with Iran, but it's still well below its wartime 
peak of nearly $120. The worry is that continued fighting could block oil 
tankers from the Strait of Hormuz and prevent the delivery of crude from the 
Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

   With the wait ongoing for what will happen next with the strait, the focus 
on Wall Street is swinging toward the upcoming reporting season for companies' 
profits during the spring.

   Delta Air Lines said it was able to absorb higher fuel prices from April 
through June because of strong demand from customers to fly, including a wide 
range of corporate travelers. Its profit and revenue topped analysts' 
expectations, and it gave a forecasted range for profit in the summer whose 
midpoint was above analysts' expectations.

   Delta's stock fell 2.2%, though, after coming into the day with a 28.2% rise 
for the year so far.

   Companies across industries will need to produce strong growth in profits to 
justify the big moves for their stock prices, which are broadly near records. 
Next week will feature 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.

   Later in the day on Friday, shares of South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix that 
trade in the United States are set to make their debut on the Nasdaq. The tech 
giant is raising roughly $26.5 billion through its sale of American depositary 
shares.

   Its stock in Seoul has surged 634% over the last year thanks to euphoria 
around artificial-intelligence technology. The boom has created real profits 
thanks to surging demand for computer memory. But it's also raised worries that 
AI stock prices have shot too high and that all the world's spending on chips 
and data centers won't be able to produce enough productivity and profit growth 
to make it worth it.

   Drops for some chip companies were among the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 
Friday, including a 1.8% fall for Micron Technology.

   Helping to offset that was Circle Internet Group, the company behind the 
USDC cryptocurrency that is built to keep the value of $1. Circle rose 7.7% 
after saying it won U.S. regulatory approval to establish a bank, which will 
operate under the name Circle National Trust.

   WD-40's stock jumped 22.8% after reporting much stronger profit for the 
latest quarter than analysts expected.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady as oil prices 
drifted. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.55% from 4.54% late 
Thursday.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in much of Europe and Asia. 
South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.5%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% for two of 
the world's bigger moves.

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   AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

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