NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding steadier on Wednesday, for now at least, following two days of punishing swings driven by worries about how high oil prices will go because of the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.

Early-morning trends for Wall Street have not held through the day this week, though. Uncertainty about the war has sent prices in financial markets careening up and down hour by hour, with most taking their cues from what the price of oil is doing. Earlier on Wednesday, South Korea’s Kospi stock index plunged 12.1% for its worst day in history.

But oil prices eased as the trading day moved westward from Asia to Europe. By the time Wall Street was trading, Brent crude, the international standard, slipped 0.3% to $81.13 per barrel. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude added 0.7% to $75.10.

An announcement by President Donald Trump on Tuesday afternoon helped stem the surge for oil prices, when he said the U.S. Development Corp. would provide insurance for oil tankers and other ships going through the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast. He also said the U.S. Navy could escort tankers through the strait, “if necessary.”

That helped calm worries that flared earlier following an Iranian threat to set fire to any ship crossing through the narrow passageway. It’s a route typically taken by roughly a fifth of the world’s oil.

To be sure, the promise of insurance and a possible military escort “only mitigate, but do not eliminate, enduring upside risks to oil prices,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. The increased insurance costs filtering through to shipping would ultimately cost an extra $5 to $15 a barrel, it said, adding that the "‘war premium’ remains firmly intact.”

In financial markets, worries are centered on how long the war could last, how high inflation will go because of more expensive oil and how much corporate profits will sink because of it.

“I think the Iran situation is getting out of hand, and I think that U.S. President Donald Trump miscalculated enormously,” said Francis Lun, CEO of Venturesmart Asia. “The situation is very grim.”

But the U.S. stock market also has a history of shaking off military conflicts in the Middle East relatively quickly, though that comes with a caveat that oil prices don’t jump too high. That has some professional investors suggesting patience, as difficult as it may be to muster, through the uncertainty, at least when it comes to financial markets.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rebounded in Europe following sharp drops in Asia. France’s CAC 40 rose 1.1%, and Germany’s DAX climbed 1.6%. That followed losses of 2% for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and 3.6% for Japan’s Nikkei 225.

In the bond market, Treasury yields inched higher after jumping early in the week with worries about worsening inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.07% from 4.06% late Tuesday.

It also got some upward pressure from a report suggesting U.S. employers outside of the government picked up their hiring last month by more than economists expected. That could be an encouraging signal for the more comprehensive report coming Friday from the U.S. government about the strength of the job market.

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AP Writers Matt Ott, Kim Tong-hyung and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.