US Stocks Mixed as Middle East Deal Hopes Ease Oil Rally

US stocks were mixed on Aug. 11 as oil prices gave up part of their earlier surge after Pakistan said the US and Iran were nearing an agreement.

As of 10 a.m. in New York, the S&P 500 was up 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite was little changed, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%.

Nvidia gained 2%, and SK Hynix ADRs climbed 2.9%.

Intel fell for a second straight day after reports said the company would raise the size of its planned capital increase to $20 billion from the $15 billion previously reported.

SpaceX also moved lower.

Late on Aug. 10, Nvidia announced a $500 billion funding project with major Wall Street asset managers and securities firms to help chip buyers finance purchases using graphics processing units, or GPUs, as collateral.

International oil prices, which had fallen nearly 3% earlier in the session, cut their losses after Pakistan said the US and Iran were close to an agreement. West Texas Intermediate futures traded at $81 a barrel. Brent crude, the global benchmark, climbed as high as $90 before trading at $87 a barrel.

Treasury yields also fell as bond buying picked up ahead of the July consumer price index report due on Aug. 12, with inflation expected to show further easing.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell 3 basis points to 4.668%, while the two-year yield dropped 2.7 basis points to 4.212%.

"Oil prices are shaping the course of the war, and price swings will likely determine the pace of escalation and de-escalation," Elias Haddad of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. said.

Data released earlier on Aug. 11 showed optimism among US small businesses rose in July to the highest level in nearly a year as companies expanded hiring plans and inflation pressures eased.

A resolution to the Middle East conflict could give investor sentiment another lift, Jeffrey Roach of LPL Financial said.

Kim Jung-a, contributing reporter, Hankyung.com, kja@hankyung.com