Oil Prices Spike as U.S. and Iran Exchange Fire

Global markets convulsed on Monday after a report in Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the country’s Revolutionary Guards, that Iran would stop engaging in negotiations because of Israel’s actions in Lebanon.The report could not immediately be confirmed and didn’t cite its sources.Still, oil prices moved sharply higher and government bond yields also rose.

Stocks were mixed, sliding in Europe but barely budging in the United States.Israel has continued its military campaign in Southern Lebanon, despite Iranian claims that the region was part of the original cease-fire struck in April.Meanwhile, Iran and the United States also continued to exchange fire.The United States said it carried out a series of “self-defense” strikes in Iran over the weekend, the latest in a series of attacks in the past week.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced that it had struck a U.S.air base in retaliation for a U.S.

attack on a communications facility.Oil jumps.The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose 6.5 percent to about $97 a barrel for August delivery, the most heavily traded contract.West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S.benchmark, jumped more than 7 percent to about $94 a barrel for July delivery, its most popular contract.Stocks are mixed.The S&P 500 traded flat on Monday.

The index finished last week up 1.4 percent, its ninth straight week of gains.Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, were mixed.South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI surged 4 percent higher, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose nearly 1 percent.

Stocks in mainland China declined.In Europe, stocks were broadly lower.The Stoxx 600, a broad-index that tracks the region’s largest companies, fell 1 percent.Gasoline prices slide.Gas prices fell again on Monday, dropping to a national average of $4.32 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club.

Still, the overall increase in gasoline price...