Wall Street closes down as oil prices spike on Middle East conflict

Wall Street closes down as oil prices spike on Middle East conflict

By Sabrina Valle and Johann M Cherian

Thu March 5, 2026  

It appears that Trump’s move to placate the oil markets by ordering U.S. naval escorts for oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz lasted only one day as today huge rout turned into a repeat of Tuesday’s with the only difference being that Tuesday recovery after a huge morning drawdown began mid-morning whereas an equally huge drawdown today didn’t begin a recovery until mid-afternoon. At 2:30 pm, the Dow was down almost 1200, the Nasdaq 300, the S&P 100 as oil prices went from $65/barrel last Friday to $71 on Monday to $85 today.  

US stocks close up on Iran diplomacy hopes; tech leads rebound

US stocks close up on Iran diplomacy hopes; tech leads rebound

By Sabrina Valle and Johann M Cherian

Wed March 4, 2026  

A day after the great flight to the exits, all three indexes shot straight up right out the gate and stayed there all day once again enjoying nice 3-digit gains that recovered a good deal of yesterday’s lost ground. The catalyst today was the dual punch of Iranian operatives reaching out to the CIA for possible talks and Trump ordering naval escorts for tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.  

Wall Street indexes end lower as Middle East conflict fans inflation fears

Wall Street indexes end lower as Middle East conflict fans inflation fears

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Johann M Cherian

Tue March 3, 2026  

Yesterday on the third day of the war, the sentiment on Wall Street was that the crisis and expected oil spike was nothing to worry about as it was going to be “very temporary” to last a few days or at most weeks.  On this the fourth day, sentiment has taken a 180 as now the war is expected to last quite a while and energy spikes will cause an inflation surge. It was a thorough rout today on all three indexes but it started out a great deal worse. At 10:30 a.m., the Dow was down some 1300 points, the Nasdaq down over 600 and the S&P, which rarely goes into 3-digits, a whopping 170.  

Wall Street ends narrowly mixed, trading volatile after air strikes on Iran

Wall Street ends narrowly mixed, trading volatile after air strikes on Iran

By Sabrina Valle and Pranav Kashyap

Mon March 2, 2026

 

The Iranian crisis and subsequent spiking oil prices (up about 12%) triggered an expected massive selloff right out the gate. The Dow opened down 600, the Nasdaq over 350, the S&P minus 80. But investors almost immediately started buying the dip with an all-day recovery as everyone started buying up tech again, especially the comfortable winners in the AI sector. Tech managed to get into the green by close as did the Dow briefly for about half an hour before falling again and closing down. It didn’t take long for the markets to shrug off the war and oil spike as very temporary. 

Wall St notches monthly declines on combined AI, tariff, geopolitical uncertainty

Wall St notches monthly declines on combined AI, tariff, geopolitical uncertainty

By Stephen Culp and Ragini Mathur

Fri February 27, 2026  

Once again it was that trifecta of angst over AI, tariffs and geopolitical disruptions that triggered another massive selloff. But it was more than just the usual uncertainty but the PPI data showing inflation had increased by more than twice the estimate and putting the odds of no March rate cut at very close to 100%. Both the Nasdaq and S&P ended the month down with their biggest percentage declines in a year.  

Wall St ends lower as tech rally stalls, AI fervor wanes after Nvidia results

Wall St ends lower as tech rally stalls, AI fervor wanes after Nvidia results

By Stephen Culp and Ragini Mathur

Thu February 26, 2026  

Today provided a prime example of why shorting is risky. Though the market liked Nvidia’s numbers yesterday, taking a closer look today was not quite as impressed. As today’s expert put it, “It’s as simple as investors being levered long in Nvidia and short the AI disruption. When that failed to materialize in a large enough scale, they sold out their position, driving Nvidia down and pushing the stocks they were short back up.”  

Wall Street extends tech-powered rally as AI worries abate; Nvidia reports

Wall Street extends tech-powered rally as AI worries abate; Nvidia reports

By Stephen Culp and Shashwat Chauhan

Wed February 25, 2026  

The renewed optimism over AI spilled over into a second day with all three indexes shooting straight up again with very impressive 3-digit gains again, this time more than enough to overcome Monday’s tech losses and almost enough to overcome Monday’s Dow losses. Recent AI good news has put the angst over return-on-investment on the back burner momentarily though major concerns still surround the potential for AI disruption in ancillary industries.