A futures-options trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange’s NYSE American (AMEX) in New York City, U.S., March 9, 2026.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to start the week as U.S. crude oil briefly moved above $100 a barrel amid heightened concerns about a stagflationary environment for the U.S. economy of rising inflation and slowing growth.
The 30-stock index lost 373 points, or 0.8%, and is coming off its biggest weekly slide in nearly a year. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.1%. Those losses were far less than earlier in the day. The Dow was down nearly 900 points at its session low, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost as much as 1.5% each.
The broader market was helped off its lows by a rise in semiconductor stocks. Broadcom advanced more than 3%, while Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices increased 2% each. Nvidia climbed almost 1%.
West Texas Intermediate crude broke above $100 per barrel in overnight trading to hit more than $119, its first time above the $100 level since 2022, when investors were reacting to the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was last up 2% at around $92 a barrel. International benchmark Brent crude added 4% to $96 a barrel. U.S. oil prices began the year below $60 a barrel.
Oil prices jumped after major Middle East producers slashed their output due to the continued closure of the key Strait of Hormuz passageway. Kuwait announced cuts but did not say by how much, while Iraq has reportedly seen its production fall 70%.
To tackle the supply disruption, energy ministers from the Group of Seven nations — namely, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. — are going to meet virtually on Tuesday morning to discuss potentially releasing oil reserves. The group’s finance ministers met on Monday to discuss a release, though they did not make a decision.
This comes as the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned that oil tankers passing through the Strait “must be very careful.”
The $100 oil level was seen by many on Wall Street as a breaking point for the economy unless the war is resolved quickly and prices retreat. President Donald Trump posted Sunday evening that a gain in “short term oil prices” was a “very small price to pay” for destroying Iran’s nuclear threat.
The war showed little signs of easing despite Trump’s claim it was “already won” with Iran naming Ayatollah Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, as its new supreme leader, according to reports.
“We can’t rule out a bear market if investors start to anticipate a Stagflating 1970s Redux scenario,” wrote Ed Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist for Yardeni Research. “If the oil shock persists, the Fed’s dual mandate would be stuck between the increasing risk of higher inflation and rising unemployment.”
Though there was a spike in oil prices Monday, the moves in energy stocks were only minimal during the session — a sign that investors may be holding out hope for a favorable outcome of the war, according to John Luke Tyner of Aptus Capital Advisors.
“The market is still kind of pricing that this is going to be rather short-lived,” the portfolio manager and head of fixed income said. However, a quick surge of 10% or 15% in the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) would mean the market is pricing in that the war is “going to take a long time, and there’s a lot of oil supply that’s either stuck or been destroyed.”
If the war indeed continues on longer than anticipated, a drawdown on the S&P 500 to around 6,200 is not “out of the question,” Tyner said.
— CNBC’s Eamon Javers and Spencer Kimball contributed to this report
