SpaceX Surges Again After Big Acquisition

Oil prices sank again Tuesday and dropped below $80 per barrel for the first time since early March, while US stocks drifted near their all-time highs in mixed trading.

• The S&P 500 fell 42.94 points, or 0.6%, to 7,511.35.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 328.64 points, or 0.6%, to 51,999.67, setting a record for a second straight day.
• The Nasdaq composite fell 307.60 points, or 1.2%, to 26,376.34.

The market was nearly evenly split between stocks rising and falling, the AP reports. Stocks that had benefited from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology weighed on the market in particular following vicious swings over the last couple weeks.

They've been leading the market up and down amid worries that their stock prices shot too high in the mania around AI. That's taken a toll because chip companies, makers of computer memory and other AI winners have grown so massive that they've become some of Wall Street's most influential stocks. Drops of 2.4% for Nvidia, 4.4% for Broadcom, and 6.2% for Micron Technology were the heaviest weights pulling the S&P 500 lower. Dave & Buster's Entertainment sank 6.2% after reporting a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while Robinhood Markets fell 1.4% after the investing platform said that it's laying off about 10% of its full-time employees.

On the winning side of Wall Street was SpaceX, which rose 4.8% for its third straight gain since its debut on the US stock market. It said it's moving forward with a purchase of Cursor, a popular AI coding assistant, valuing it at $60 billion. Yum Brands climbed 1.9% after it said it's selling the Pizza Hut chain for $2.7 billion. Most of the restaurants will go to LongRange Capital, a private equity firm. Those in mainland China will go to Yum China Holdings.

The strongest action was in the oil market, where optimism continued that a tentative US-Iran deal on their war will reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the week and get the global flow of oil going again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.1% to settle at $78.96. Significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, including what to do with Iran's nuclear program. But the hope on Wall Street is that this agreement will mean a long-term fix to a conflict that has worsened inflation around the world. The price of Brent has come down sharply from its $100-plus level of a few weeks ago, though it could still take months for the energy industry to get back to full speed.

• In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed performance in Asia. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 briefly topped 70,000 for the first time before ending with a modest gain of 0.1% after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to 1%. That's its highest level in three decades, and it followed a similar move by the European Central Bank last week. The Federal Reserve began its own meeting on what to do with interest rates Tuesday, with an announcement on the decision scheduled for Wednesday.