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Stocks may be soaring again, but the war in Iran has started to pinch the finances of many Americans.
April 16, 2026, 10:47 a.m. ET
More than six weeks into the war with Iran, investors have repeatedly shrugged off the sky-high price of oil, sending the S&P 500 soaring back to record highs.
That exuberance on Wall Street offers a sharp contrast with the hardships facing many Americans, who are feeling the financial blowback of a conflict that President Trump once promised would be brief but seems to have no end in sight.
With high gas prices cutting deeply into many families’ budgets, the U.S. economy is under increasing strain, raising the odds that inflation will worsen, unemployment will rise and growth will slow this year.
Under Mr. Trump’s original timeline, America’s entanglement in the Middle East was supposed to have been completed by now, paving the way for a swift reduction in energy costs that have roiled consumers and businesses around the world.
Instead, Mr. Trump’s war remains at a standstill, governed by a fragile cease-fire between Washington and Tehran. Among economists, the persistent uncertainty means that it is no longer a question of if, but rather, how much the standoff will come to impede U.S. growth and worsen inflation.
For many families and businesses, some of the economic toll exacted by the war is already evident. The price of Brent crude, the world’s benchmark, has whipsawed above $100 per barrel, while gasoline averages around $4.10 per gallon nationally, according to AAA. That is more than $1 per gallon higher than before the war began.
