Chevron, Hess Drop After Announcing Huge Deal

Wall Street wobbled to a mixed close Monday, continuing a monthslong run where it has obediently followed the cue of the bond market.

• The S&P 500 slipped 7.12 points, or 0.2%, to 4,217.04, coming off its worst week in a month.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 190.87, or 0.6%, to 32,836.41.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 34.52, or 0.3%, to 13,018.3.

All three indexes slumped at the start of trading, hurt by a continued rise for Treasury yields. The 10-year yield again touched its highest level since 2007. But yields eventually eased back after crude oil prices tumbled to take some pressure off inflation. That helped to relax conditions for the stock market, particularly for Big Tech and other high-growth companies.

Easier bond yields tend to most help stocks of companies promising big growth far in the future or those seen as the most expensive. That gave a particular boost to technology and other high-growth stocks: A 3.8% jump for Nvidia and 0.8% rise for Microsoft were the two strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500, the AP reports. A barrel of benchmark US crude oil tumbled $2.59 to settle at $85.49. Brent crude, the international standard, fell $2.33 to $89.83 per barrel. US oil had been above $93 last month, and it's bounced up and down since then amid concerns that fighting in the Gaza Strip could lead to disruptions in supplies from Iran or other big oil-producing countries.

Gold's price, meanwhile, eased after jumping last week on worries about the war. An ounce slipped $6.60 to $1,987.80 as investors felt less need to herd into investments considered safer. Energy giant Chevron is putting some of its strength to work by buying rival Hess. Chevron said it's swallowing up Hess in an all-stock deal valued at $53 billion. Chevron fell 3.7%, and Hess slipped 1.1%. It's still early days for the corporate profit reporting season, but the pace picks up this week when more than 30% of the companies in the S&P 500 will report. They include General Motors, Microsoft, and Amazon.

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