Dow jumps 200 points, continuing comeback from Iran war lows, as oil prices decline

Stocks rose on Tuesday in choppy trading, building on the comeback from the previous session, as oil prices pulled back and traders kept an eye on the Iran war.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 277 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7%. The Dow had lost as much as 296.57 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, at their lows.

Oil prices, which had been on a tear of late, fell sharply as traders believed a group of countries would tap emergency crude reserves to mitigate disruption caused by the conflict. West Texas Intermediate futures were last down 10% to trade at around $84 a barrel. Brent crude shed 10% to roughly $88 a barrel.

The International Energy Agency said it would meet later on Tuesday to discuss a release of oil stockpiles. The members will “assess the current security of supply and market conditions to inform a subsequent decision on whether to make emergency stocks [...] available to the market,” IEA chief Fatih Birol said in a statement.

That comes after Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. — talked on Tuesday about releasing of strategic oil reserves, though they did not make a decision on the matter.

Wall Street is coming off a wild session in which the Dow erased a more than 800-point deficit as crude prices eased. The turnaround was fueled by President Donald Trump on Monday hinting that the conflict could end soon. He later said, “We’re achieving major strides toward completing our military objective.”