Financial Markets                      06/29 09:36

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are rising Monday and recovering some of their 
losses from a rare losing week.

   The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% and was on track to break a five-day losing streak. 
It's coming off just its second losing week in the last 13. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average was up 282 points, or 0.5%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and 
the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.

   Comcast helped lead the way and jumped 9.5% after saying it will split off 
its NBCUniversal media business, including its theme parks, and Sky from its 
broadband and wireless business. It came into the day with a loss of 17.3% for 
the year so far.

   Several stocks boosted by the artificial-intelligence boom also rose after 
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix said they will invest roughly $518 billion in 
a new chipmaking hub in South Korea, as its president hopes to capitalize on 
surging AI demand. Applied Materials rallied 4.9%.

   AI stocks have been on a roller coaster recently after soaring to tremendous 
heights in the frenzy around AI technology. They're under pressure because of 
worries that their profits can't possibly keep pace with the huge gains for 
their stock prices. And the drops have an outsized effect on investors because 
AI stocks have become some of Wall Street's largest and most influential, 
giving them more weight on indexes than others.

   SpaceX, which owns the xAI business along with rockets, has already become 
worth more than $2 trillion after selling its stock for the first time on the 
Nasdaq earlier this month, even with sharp rises and falls along the way. It's 
become big enough that Nasdaq said Elon Musk's company will join the Nasdaq 100 
index before trading begins on July 7, which will force funds tracking the 
index to buy the stock.

   SpaceX rose 1.5%.

   That helped offset a 6% drop for Verizon Communications, which said it is 
paying $625 million as part of a deal to combine its international wireline 
connectivity and managed network services business with some of London-based BT 
Group's subsidiaries in a joint venture.

   The gains for the stock market came even though oil prices rose. The price 
for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.2% to 
$73.46, pulling slightly above where it was before the war with Iran began. A 
barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $70.05.

   Following attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend, President Donald 
Trump said Monday on social media that Iran had requested a meeting with U.S. 
counterparts, though one of Iran's top negotiators said no further talks had 
been scheduled.

   The hope is that an end to the war with Iran will give oil tankers free 
access again to the Strait of Hormuz, allowing them to exit the Persian Gulf 
and deliver crude to customers worldwide. That would help lower the price of 
oil, whose jumps because of the war have sent a punishing wave of inflation 
around the world.

   If oil prices do recede and stay low enough, it could keep enough pressure 
off inflation to allow the Federal Reserve and other central banks to keep 
interest rates steady or even cut them instead of hiking them. Higher interest 
rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt 
prices for all kinds of investments. High yields worldwide have been rattling 
investors since oil prices burst above $100 per barrel.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.37% from 4.38% late Friday 
and from 4.56% early this month.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

   Stocks jumped 1.6% in Hong Kong and 1.2% in Shanghai for two of the world's 
biggest gains, while South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.2%.

   ___

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

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