Equity indexes rise with dollar and oil, inflation and Iran in focus

NEW YORK/ LONDON - MSCI's global equities index rose modestly to erase some of the prior session's losses while the dollar rose on Thursday as investors digested the latest inflation data and oil futures rose even as attacks in the Middle East dampened hopes for peace.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States would hit Iran "very hard tonight" and wanted at some point to take Iran's oil infrastructure hub Kharg Island, after strikes by both sides in the Gulf undermined a shaky ceasefire which began in April. Iranian sources and Western officials had said that indirect U.S.-Iranian talks on a preliminary peace deal had intensified but hostilities this week have muddied prospects for a swift resolution.

Meanwhile, on the data side, U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in May, leading to the largest annual gain in 3-1/2 years as the Middle East conflict drove up the cost of energy products. On the labor market side, the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased marginally last week, pointing to continued labor market resilience in early June.

On Wall Street stock indexes stayed mostly green during morning trading after selling off sharply in the prior two sessions. While uncertainty around the Middle East presented a big overhang for investors, Mona Mahajan, head of investment strategy and asset allocation at Edward Jones, said there were signs of "cautious optimism from dip buyers" as well as enthusiasm ahead of the SpaceX market debut, expected on Friday.

"There's a little bit of a bounce but I wouldn't call it an outsized rally or full-blown optimism. Maybe the silver lining is that folks don't yet see a reason for a full-blown bear market because the economy is continuing to hold up," Mahajan said.

While stocks in the volatile chip sector were providing a big boost to Wall Street on Thursday, some of the substantial drags were from software companies including Oracle, whose shares tumbled 11%, after some lofty AI spending forecasts and plans to raise nearly $40 billion in debt and equity unnerved analysts.

On Wall Street at 12:19 p.m. ET (1619 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 420.20 points, or 0.84%, to 50,337.64, the S&P 500 rose 41.40 points, or 0.57%, to 7,308.39 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 208.92 points, or 0.83%, to 25,378.42.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 4.04 points, or 0.37%, to 1,091.02.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.54% after the European Central Bank delivered its first interest rate hike in nearly three years, as expected.

In currency markets, after the ECB's rate hike the euro was down 0.22% at $1.151.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.21% to 100.26 while against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.01% to 160.53.

In fixed income, U.S. Treasury yields were mixed as investor demand tied to quarter- and half-year portfolio rebalancing helped offset concerns over U.S.-Iran escalations and elevated inflation data.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1.2 basis points to 4.528%, from 4.54% late on Wednesday while the 30-year bond yield fell 2.1 basis points to 5.0038%.

But the 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 1.4 basis points to 4.141%, from 4.127% late on Wednesday.

In energy markets, U.S. crude rose 1.17% to $91.08 a barrel and Brent rose to $93.63 per barrel, up 0.57% on the day.

In precious metals, gold prices held nearly steady after hitting a six-month low on Thursday, as the soft U.S. jobs report offset pressure from strong inflation data and increased expectations of higher interest rates ahead of next week's Fed meeting.

Spot gold was steady at $4,081.99 per ounce at 11:27 a.m. ET (1527 GMT), after hitting its lowest point since late November earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures for August delivery were down 0.7% at $4,103.60.

(Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Marc Jones; editing by Deepa Babington and Chris Reese)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 1:00 PM.