Wall Street slips away from its all-time high as oil prices keep swinging

U.S. stocks drifted below their all-time highs Tuesday as oil prices swung on uncertainty over when crude flows will normalize after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% and remained further from the Friday record close; the Dow was down 145 points (0.3%) and the Nasdaq dropped 0.8%. In commodities, Brent briefly rose above $90 before falling back below $87 and last stood at $88.71, up 1.1% from Monday’s settlement. The Strait of Hormuz closure has kept global supply constrained, driving wider price volatility. Higher oil can worsen inflation; AAA put regular gasoline average at $4.01 a gallon. Attention turns to Wednesday’s inflation release, with economists expecting headline CPI to slow to 3.4% in July from 3.5%.