Travel disruptions continued Tuesday in the U.S. as airlines worked to recover from a powerful storm system that had already snarled flight schedules a day earlier while the partial government shutdown continued to fuel long lines at security checkpoints.
Carriers canceled more than 1,100 U.S. flights on Tuesday and delayed about 7,300 others, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport had over 230 flights canceled and roughly 770 delayed.
The disruptions follow a chaotic Monday for air travel, triggered by powerful storms that dumped snow by the foot in the Midwest and swept through the eastern half of the country, leading to thousands of cancellations at major hubs, including in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. Gusts approached 50 mph (80 kph) in parts of New York, the National Weather Service said.
U.S. stocks are sinking Wednesday after another climb for oil prices raised worries about inflation, which may have been primed to worsen even before the war with Iran began.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5% and was on track for its first loss this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 377 points, or 0.8%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.
Stocks fell under the pressure of a 6.2% climb for the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, to $109.84. Benchmark U.S. oil rose 2.3% to $97.70 per barrel.
Markwayne Mullin, President Donald Trump’s pick for Department of Homeland Security secretary, said Wednesday that Congress needed to put partisanship aside and fund the department as he vowed to get down to work and keep it out of controversies that under Secretary Kristi Noem have kept it on the front pages of the news.
Mullin is appearing before senators on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing, where he faced questions over his vision for a department tasked with carrying out the Republican administration’s push for mass deportations, which has prompted a weekslong funding lapse for the department.
Mullin, an Oklahoma senator, has spent 13 years in Congress and has emerged as a close ally of the president’s. If confirmed, he would replace Noem, who was fired earlier this month amid mounting criticism of her leadership.
Leah Wieneke can be reached at wien7430@stthomas.edu.
