NEW YORK, March 9, 2026, 13:05 EDT
- Dow slips 0.84%, crude whipsaws—hovering close to $100 after a jump past $119 earlier.
- Shares of airlines and cruise lines dropped, while major banks also lost ground on fresh growth concerns.
- Chipmakers staged a rebound, which helped keep the Nasdaq just about unchanged.
Stocks on Wall Street slipped Monday, pressured by spiking oil that put renewed heat on inflation worries and weighed on travel and bank names, while chipmakers rebounded just enough to keep the Nasdaq mostly stable. By 11:58 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had shed 398.03 points, or 0.84%, landing at 47,103.52. The S&P 500 slipped 0.44%; the Nasdaq Composite edged down just 0.06%. “With oil prices going up 50% in a matter of weeks — that’s a displacement this market hasn’t seen in years,” said Dennis Dick, founder and market structure analyst at Triple D Trading. https://www.reuters.com/business/wall-st-f…
Crude stole the spotlight. Brent surged roughly 10% to $102.29 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate also jumped about 10%, landing at $100.11. Both contracts had earlier spiked to around $119—the highest since 2022. The sharp climb tracks with escalating U.S.-Israeli tensions involving Iran, rattling traders who now worry about “stagflation,” that unwelcome mix of rising prices and sluggish growth. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us…
Group of Seven finance officials opted against tapping emergency oil reserves, saying supply hasn’t tightened enough to warrant action. “We are not there yet,” France’s finance minister Roland Lescure said after an online call. Still, Lescure noted, the group would consider “any necessary tools” to stabilize the market if conditions change. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/no…
Tech shares propped up the S&P 500, helping counter losses elsewhere. SanDisk climbed 3.2%, Broadcom matched that with a 3.2% jump, and Nvidia tacked on 1%. All three bounced back after last month’s sharp declines.
Travel stocks stumbled again. The S&P 500 passenger airlines index sank over 2.6%. Carnival lost 4.3%, with Royal Caribbean down 2.5%.
Big banks took a hit too, with investors shying away from cyclicals amid rising energy prices. Morgan Stanley dropped 2.3%, while Citigroup slipped 3%.
Small caps sent another warning sign. The Russell 2000 slid 1.2%, lingering just shy of a 10% slide from its all-time high—that’s what traders typically define as a “correction.”
Volatility cooled off from the sharp swings seen earlier. The CBOE Volatility Index—Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge—dropped 1.8 points after hitting levels not reached since April.
Outside of stocks, haven trades were anything but straightforward. Gold and other precious metals fell off, with Reuters noting the dollar has been the main safe play since the war started. “The U.S. is a major oil producer and can withstand an oil shock — though there will be political fallout,” Societe Generale’s Kit Juckes said. Rabobank’s Michael Every pointed to deeper supply risks tied to the Strait of Hormuz. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gl…
Traders digested Iran’s abrupt shift at the top, after Tehran tapped Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a U.S.-Israeli strike—a move that regional officials framed as an act of defiance. “Having Mojtaba take over is the same playbook,” said Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/…
Shares of Live Nation jumped 4.6% after the company said it had reached a proposed settlement with the U.S. Justice Department—a notable gain on what was largely a risk-off day for stocks.
Rate-cut timing jumped again. Traders are now eyeing September for a first 25-basis-point move, after briefly favoring June, as rising energy prices muddied the Fed’s inflation calculus.
Here’s the blunt risk: should shipping issues escalate and crude rebound to earlier highs, stocks face fresh downside and the Fed might keep policy steady for longer than traders expect. On the other hand, a pullback in oil—maybe from de-escalation, more barrels hitting the market, or a joint move on reserves—could sap momentum from the equity drop right as new economic numbers arrive this week.
