Mumbai, July 21 -- Wall Street drifted to a quiet finish Monday after stocks of chipmakers and other winners of the artificial-intelligence boom trimmed some of their recent losses.

The S&P 500 dipped 0.2%, coming off its first losing week in the last three and just its third since the end of March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 307 points (0.6%) and the Nasdaq composite was basically flat after slipping by less than 0.1%.

After dropping below $72 early this month, roughly back to where it was before the war with Iran began, the price for a barrel of Brent crude has been jumping recently as fighting continues in the Middle East. On Monday, the price swung between roughly $86 and $91 before settling at $89.22, up 1.3%. The war...