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NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks are rising Thursday as oil prices ease, but slumps for influential artificial-intelligence winners are keeping Wall Street in check.

The S&P 500 added 0.2% a day after dropping from its all-time high and coming just short of its longest winning streak in three decades. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 841 points, or 1.7%, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

A clear majority of stocks on Wall Street climbed, including 7 out of every 10 in the S&P 500. They got a boost from a 2.7% drop for the price of Brent crude oil to $95.21 per barrel. That gave back a chunk of its rise this week caused by the latest flare-ups of fighting between Iran and the United States and its allies.

The expectation on Wall Street seems to be that the United States and Iran will ultimately agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. That would hopefully improve the flow of crude, lower oil’s price and remove some of the upward pressure on inflation that’s hurting the world. Such hopes, along with strong profit reports from U.S. companies, helped launch the S&P 500 on a nine-day winning streak that ended Wednesday.

Elanco Animal Health rallied 4.9%, and Zoetis, which sells animal vaccines, climbed 5.1% on expectations for stronger profits after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed Wednesday that the New World screwworm fly has reached south Texas. It’s the first time in decades that the parasite with flesh-eating larvae has threatened the nation’s cattle industry.

Toro added 1.7% after the seller of mowers and other equipment became the latest U.S. company to deliver better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Richard Olson said Toro saw strong demand across its products, and the company raised its forecasts for revenue and profit over its full fiscal year.

Several other companies also joined the long list of those topping analysts’ profit expectations, but many nevertheless dropped, particularly in the high-flying technology industry.

Broadcom sank 13.8%, even though both profit and revenue for the chip company surpassed analysts’ expectations. CEO Hock Tan said its AI semiconductor revenue more than doubled to $10.8 billion during the quarter and that demand is only getting bigger. He is forecasting AI semiconductor growth to top 200% in the current quarter.

Investors, though, may have been expecting even more after Broadcom’s stock came into the day with a 38.5% surge for the year so far. That towered over the already strong 10.3% rise for the S&P 500 index, and Broadcom has grown to become Wall Street’s sixth-biggest stock and one of its most influential.

Analysts have been saying AI stocks may have run too high, becoming too expensive, and that the broad U.S. stock market may be set for a slowdown following an unrelenting streak of nine straight winning weeks for the S&P 500, its longest since 2023.

Other AI winners likewise gave back some of their big gains. Micron Technology, the latest company to see its total value top $1 trillion because of AI euphoria, fell 6.7%.

CrowdStrike Holdings dropped 6.6% even though the cybersecurity company’s profit and revenue for the latest quarter topped analysts’ expectations. CEO George Kurtz said the latest quarter was when “the worlds of cybersecurity and frontier AI collided,” and the company said it’s splitting its stock to make its share price more affordable.

But its stock came into the day with a 59.5% surge for the year so far. And analysts said it beat forecasts for some financial measures by less than it usually does.

Outside of tech, PVH Corp., the company behind the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, tumbled 22.3% even though it also beat Wall Street’s first-quarter sales and profit targets. CEO Stefan Larsson warned that it’s feeling “the prolonged effects of the Middle East conflict, which is putting pressure on” customers in the region.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased with oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.46% from 4.49% late Wednesday. That can lessen the pressure on not only stock prices but also the economy in general.

Easier interest rates can help smaller companies in particular because many need to borrow money to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 1.4%

Reports on the U.S. economy, meanwhile, came in mixed. One said that slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could indicate a slowdown in the relatively solid U.S. job market. Another report said that productivity for U.S. workers improved by less during the first three months of the year than economists expected.

In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.8%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.5% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.4% for some of the larger losses.

(NEW YORKI) --Drivers stung by high gas prices have enjoyed some welcome relief over the last couple of weeks, even as the impact of the Iran war continues to choke off oil supply.

The national average price of a gallon of gas stood at $4.26 on Wednesday, marking a decline of 30 cents, or 6.5%, since a recent peak on May 21.

Still, prices remain well above where they clocked in before a historic oil shock set off by the war. In late February, the average gallon of gas ran less than $3.

The dropoff in gas prices owes to a decline in oil costs over the latter part of last month, which coincided with a slump in demand following Memorial Day weekend, some analysts said.

Still, they cautioned, gas prices may rise again as oil prices jump and the war shows little sign of an imminent resolution. If the war continues, some analysts said, gas price could top $5 a gallon by next month.

"It's so volatile," Patrick Penfield, a professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University, told ABC News. "If the war ended, prices would likely go down. But if it continues, you'll see prices go up."

In Georgia, the state with the lowest average gas prices, a gallon costs about $3.79, AAA data shows. In all, the AAA data says six states currently sell gas at or below an average price of $4 per gallon.

By contrast, the cost of a gallon of gas in California stands at $5.99, making it the state with the highest prices, AAA data shows. Even in California, however, the average price has fallen about 10 cents over the past week.

At the outset of the war, gasoline prices surged in response to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of global crude supply.

Oil prices began to fall in mid-May, however, as Iran and the U.S. appeared willing to strike an agreement that would reopen the strait. Crude oil is the main ingredient in auto fuel, accounting for more than half of the price paid at the pump, according to the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration.

On Friday, U.S. oil prices fell as low as about $86 a barrel, marking a drop of about 20% over a 10-day stretch.

"Gas prices have seen a big push because crude prices have dropped. Crude prices have dropped largely because the president has been indicating that we're close to an agreement with Iran," Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston, told ABC News.

The U.S. is a net exporter of petroleum, meaning the country produces more oil than it consumes. But since oil prices are set on a global market, U.S. prices move in response to swings in worldwide supply and demand.

Oil prices have ticked up in recent days, but they remain below $100 a barrel. As long as oil prices remain under that benchmark, gas prices may continue to hold steady or even decline, Denton Cinquegrana, chief oil analyst at Dow Jones Energy, told ABC News.

A near-term drop in gas prices appears possible because gas sellers are holding onto unusually large profit margins, meaning they could reduce retail prices even if their input costs maintain current levels, Cinquegrana said. Over the past two years, the average margin for sellers came in at about 34 cents per gallon, he added, but it currently stands at 50 cents per gallon.

"There's still some room for gas prices to move down," Cinquegrana said.

Looking weeks or months into the future, however, analysts cautioned about a rise in oil and gasoline prices unless normal tariff resumes in the Strait of Hormuz.

"It's still possible later this summer, even ahead of July 4, we could see the national average pass $5 a gallon," Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, told ABC News Live on Monday.

"We could be seeing much higher gas prices in very short order if the strait doesn't reopen," he added.

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