Stocks Open Higher, Oil Prices Climb   09/03 09:31

   Stocks rose in morning trading Thursday on Wall Street as bond yields eased 
further even as oil prices marched higher as the U.S. war with Iran escalates.

   (AP) -- Stocks rose in morning trading Thursday on Wall Street as bond 
yields eased further even as oil prices marched higher as the U.S. war with 
Iran escalates.

   The S&P 500 was up 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 340 points, 
or 0.6%, as of 10:01 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%. The 
indexes are coming off their first gain after a three-day slide.

   Nvidia rose 1.9% after the giant chip company said it would buy the 
artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face for $13 billion.

   Oil prices ticked higher as the six-month long U.S. war with Iran 
intensified.

   Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday in retaliation for U.S. bombardments 
earlier in the week. The fighting between the U.S. and Iran heated up after the 
U.S. hit Iranian rocket launchers Sunday on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, 
saying Iran was planning to use them to send mines into the waterway.

   The renewed fighting has sent U.S. crude prices sharply higher this week, up 
11%, a trend that continued Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, 
rose 0.6% to $96.23 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $92.12 a 
barrel.

   Rising oil prices have added to existing inflationary pressures and 
exacerbated a bond-market sell-off earlier this week.

   But bond yields have shown signs of stabilizing.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which tends to impact mortgage rates, 
dropped to 4.75% from 4.79% late Wednesday. It has been rising steadily 
throughout the year and was as low as 4.20% at the beginning of 2026.

   The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for 
Federal Reserve moves on interest rates, slid to 4.32% from 4.39%. It remains 
significantly higher for the year, though, and was as low as 3.50% at the 
beginning of 2026.

   In economic news, the Labor Department reported Thursday that more Americans 
filed for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs are still rare and 
jobless claims remain at historically low levels.

   On Friday, the crucial U.S. employment report for August is released.

   Markets rose Europe, but were mixed in Asia.