Stocks down for the third week, S&P 500 low, Brent over $103: results of the 14th day of war

Stocks in the U.S. ended a third straight week of declines. The main U.S. index S&P 500 fell to its lowest level in 2026. The stock market is following the oil market, which continued to grow on Friday: the cost of Brent exceeded $103 per barrel and came close to $104.

- The broad market index S&P 500 fell by 1.6% at the end of the week. It declined for the third week in a row - for the first time in a year, noted CNBC. In trading on March 13, the index fell by 0.6% and reached the lowest level in 2026.

- The Nasdaq Composite Technology Sector Index has declined 1.3% since the beginning of the week. On Friday, it lost 0.93%.

- Dow Jones Industrial Average index of blue chips lost about 2% by the end of the week. During the day it fell by 0.26%.

- The Russell 2000 index of small and mid-cap companies fell 1.8% for the week and lost 0.36% on Friday.

- The VIX index, known as the "Wall Street Fear Index," nevertheless fell a little more than two points - or 7.8% - to 27.19 points over the week. However, it remains well above the psychological level of 20 points, indicating high volatility in the market.

- WTI crude futures rose 3% to close at $98.66 per barrel. Brent added 2.8%, closing at $103.28 per barrel.

- Spot gold prices fell 1.2% to $5019.5 per troy ounce on Friday. Silver fell in price by 3.9%.

- Bitcoin has been rising in value by about 2%. In the last 24 hours, it was up to $73,838.97, CoinGecko shows.

Brent crude oil continued to rise on Friday after ending the day above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022. Investors are losing hope that crude supplies through the crucial Strait of Hormuz will resume soon, with Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei saying on Thursday that the strait should remain closed as "an instrument of pressure on the enemy". Over the past week, more than six ships have been attacked in the Persian Gulf and damaged. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to allay fears that closing the strait once the war begins will remain a long-term problem, CNBC writes. At a Pentagon briefing, he said, "We are on it, and there is no need to worry about it."

Meanwhile, representatives of Italy and France have begun preliminary talks with Iran in a bid to conclude an agreement guaranteeing merchant ships and tankers safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing sources.

This week, the U.S. said it would tap its strategic oil reserve and ship 172 million barrels from it to cushion rising energy prices. It will take about 120 days to deliver that volume of fuel. The International Energy Agency also agreed a record release of 400 million barrels of oil reserves.

All this is happening amid growing fears on Wall Street that rising oil prices will lead to stagflation - a combination of higher inflation and slower economic growth, CNBC writes. These fears have already caused investors to lower expectations for Fed rate cuts this year: trading in rate futures no longer suggests a key rate cut in September.

The "Magnificent Seven" index of tech giants tracked by Bloomberg fell more than 10% from its high. Airlines are raising ticket prices because of rising jet fuel prices. Carriers will soon start revising their forecasts for 2026, analysts warned in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.

The Core PCE index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose by 3.1% year-on-year in January and by 0.4% month-on-month. On an annualized basis, the index was above the FactSet consensus of 2.9%. But economic growth in the final three months of 2025 was much slower than forecast. This suggests that the economy began to lose momentum even before the war, Bloomberg said.

- "Corporate earnings are doing pretty well, but sentiment is difficult," David Aspell, co-director of investments at Mount Lucas Management, told CNBC. - The oil factor is affecting both sentiment and stock valuations, and the interest rate trajectory embedded in the market is now being called into question."

- "There are two scenarios for markets right now, and the best scenario is a shorter war," Northlight Asset Management 's Chris Zaccarelli told Bloomberg. - Conversely, if the military conflict drags on much longer than expected, we could see even more negative consequences for markets."

- Market stress is building at the fastest pace since last April, with the Bank of America index, which measures expected future volatility based on option markets for stocks, rates, currencies and commodities, rising to 0.79, approaching the peak reached after U.S. President Donald Trump announced duties in April 2025. According to Michael Hartnett of BofA, the jump in oil prices and growing concerns around the private finance market are making the markets' behavior increasingly similar to the situation in the run-up to the global financial crisis, Bloomberg writes.

- Latent inflationary pressures will persist or even intensify under the impact of the conflict, said Jeffrey Roach of LPL Financial. "We expect the Fed to emphasize uncertainty on both sides of its dual mandate," he told Bloomberg. - Inflation will be affected by the war, while unemployment will be affected by labor market disruptions. Next week, the Fed's next set of economic projections is likely to feature important revisions."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor