US stocks close down as oil spikes 12%, job market weakens
By Sabrina Valle and Johann M Cherian
Fri March 6, 2026
It seems the experts yesterday were wrong about the jobs numbers already being discounted as they came in bad and the market reacted badly. All three indexes went straight down right out the gate and stayed there all day with the Dow and Nasdaq suffering major 3-digit losses and the S&P within a stone’s throw of 3-digits. In fact, in the morning, the Dow was down almost 1,000 points again. A boost in new jobs was expected but instead more than 90,000 jobs were lost and unemployment boosted to 4.4%.
After only one week, the war that was initially predicted to last just a few days is now seen as a very prolonged conflict with boots on the ground now a definite possibility, which raises the question of whether there’ll be any rate cuts at all this year. Oil has spiked an additional 12%. A barrel priced at $65 a week ago is now over $90 and now a foregone conclusion that it will soon pass the dreaded $100 benchmark with a new forecast today that it could well go to $150. The VIX closed at nearly 30, its highest in four years and the benchmark at which the market begins to seriously worry. Volume came in at 19.9 billion, still considerably above the 17.8 average.
DJ: 47,954.74 -784.67 NAS: 22,748.99
-58.50 S&P: 6,830.71
-38.79 3/5
DJ: 47,501.55 -453.19 NAS: 22,387.68
-361.31 S&P: 6,740.02
-90.69 3/6
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