NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are drifting lower Tuesday in their return to trading from a three-day weekend after the latest fighting in the war with Iran pushed oil prices higher. The S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 575 points, or 1.1 percent, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 percent lower. In the oil market, the price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 0.6 percent to $97.54 after briefly climbing as high as $99.46. It’s jumped from roughly $72 since early July as increased fighting in the Middle East keeps the global flow of oil constricted. More expensive oil has worsened worries about the high inflation weighing on people and companies across the country, which gives extra heft to a couple reports coming later this week. On Thursday, the U.S. government will release its August report for inflation at the wholesale level, which economists expect will show an acceleration to 5.4 percent from 4.7 percent in July. The more closely watched report on inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling will arrive on Friday. That update will sh