NEW YORK, March 19, 2026, 09:08 EDT
U.S. stock futures slid again early Thursday, signaling more losses ahead. Brent crude hovered close to $115 a barrel as Iranian attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure rattled markets, stoking worries about renewed inflation. The slide followed steep declines Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve left interest rates steady and sent the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq tumbling.
Right now, investors are caught juggling both an energy shock and a Fed that’s holding off on rate cuts. The central bank left the policy rate unchanged at 3.50%-3.75%, bumped up its inflation forecast, and stuck to projecting only a single quarter-point cut this year. Morgan Stanley, echoing Goldman Sachs and Barclays, has also pushed its expected timing for the next cut out to September.
S&P 500 futures slipped 0.4% by 7:35 a.m. in New York; Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.53%. The Cboe Volatility Index touched 26, reflecting heightened nerves. Wednesday’s losses dragged both the Dow and Nasdaq beneath their 200-day moving averages, with the S&P 500 settling at a four-month low.
Oil drove the action. Brent spiked as high as $119.13 after Iranian forces struck regional energy sites in response to Israel’s earlier attack on the South Pars field. Prices later retreated, settling in the $113-$115 range. Europe’s STOXX 600 slipped nearly 2% and gas prices surged once more.
Inflation was already throwing off expectations. The Producer Price Index—a gauge of wholesale prices—jumped 0.7% from January to February, and climbed 3.4% over the year. Goods prices posted a 1.1% increase, while energy surged 2.3%, according to the Labor Department’s numbers.
Fed officials described economic growth as solid, with inflation “somewhat elevated.” Their updated forecasts now show 2026 PCE inflation at 2.7%, higher than December’s 2.4%. Growth edged up to 2.4%, and the jobless rate is still at 4.4%. Federal Reserve
Powell admitted “nobody knows” the scale or duration of the economic damage from the conflict. Comerica Bank’s Bill Adams pointed out that the bigger message was the Fed “will not be riding to the economy’s rescue” if fuel prices keep going up. Steve Englander from Standard Chartered described Powell as “extremely vague” about how the Fed might react if the shock ripples out further. Reuters
Company headlines weren’t much comfort. Micron dropped roughly 6% before the bell, despite projecting third-quarter revenue at $33.5 billion—well over Wall Street’s forecast. What rattled investors was the chipmaker’s announcement to bump up fiscal 2026 capital spending by $5 billion. According to chief business officer Sumit Sadana, “construction activity” accounted for a big part of the uptick. Western Digital and Sandisk moved lower as well. Reuters
Accenture slipped over 3% after its revenue outlook for the quarter landed with a midpoint slightly under what analysts had penciled in, as the company flagged ongoing caution from clients around major IT spending. The firm is also bracing for a 1% revenue drag in fiscal 2026 tied to reduced federal spending.
If oil prices settle down and Gulf tensions subside soon, markets might get some relief. Still, as Mark Spindel from Potomac River Capital says, the market feels “trapped” by all the confusion around both the conflict and the Fed. A prolonged supply jolt would just keep energy costs high—pushing up prices elsewhere, denting consumer demand, and forcing the central bank to wait things out. According to LSEG data, investors aren’t pricing in a rate cut until at least mid-2027. Reuters
The latest labor readings didn’t budge sentiment. Weekly U.S. jobless claims slid to 205,000, underscoring persistently low layoffs. Still, traders stuck with oil, inflation, and the Fed as their main concerns.
