US stocks swing through another shaky day as oil prices keep climbing
[March 31, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks swung Monday as oil prices kept climbing
because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran could end.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% and deepened its loss since the war began to
pull 9.1% below its record set early this year. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average added 49 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%.
Caution was prevalent throughout financial markets. After jumping to an
initial gain of 0.9%, the S&P 500 quickly erased nearly all of it before
seesawing lower. Stock indexes rose in Europe but fell sharply in some
Asian markets, while the price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose
3.3% to settle at $102.88
The mixed movements followed a whirlwind of action in the war over the
weekend, including an entry into the fighting by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
None of it gave any clarity for the main questions weighing on financial
markets: When will oil and natural gas resume their full flows from the
Persian Gulf to customers worldwide, and will it be soon enough to
prevent a brutal blast of inflation?
Shortly before the U.S. stock market opened for trading Monday,
President Donald Trump said on his social media network that “great
progress has been made” with “A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end
our Military Operations in Iran.”
But he also threatened the possibility of “blowing up and completely
obliterating” Iranian power plants if a deal is not reached shortly and
if the Strait of Hormuz, an integral waterway for the flow of oil, is
not opened immediately.
The statement fit and condensed last week’s pattern, where Trump would
tout progress being made in talks and offer some optimism for the
market, only for doubts to rise quickly afterward about whether the war
can end soon.
All the back and forth has some investors saying they’re giving Trump’s
pronouncements less weight than before. But stock prices are
nevertheless cheaper than they were before the war, which has some
investors looking for an opportune time to buy.
The S&P 500 finished last week 8.7% below its all-time high, which was
set in January. The Dow and Nasdaq both were more than 10% below their
records, a steep-enough fall that professional investors call it a
“correction.”
Taking into account how much profits are expected to grow in the coming
year for companies in the S&P 500, the index looks roughly 17% cheaper
than before the war, by one measure. That’s in a similar range as where
prior growth scares for the market ended, as long as they didn’t result
in a recession or the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates, according
to strategists at Morgan Stanley.
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Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in
New York, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
 That’s one of the signs that the
strategists led by Michael Wilson point to as “growing evidence the
S&P 500 correction is getting closer to its ending stages.”
Of course, the Federal Reserve could upset that if it decides oil
prices are threatening to stay high for long enough that it needs to
raise interest rates. Higher interest rates would help keep a lid on
inflation, but they would also slow the economy and push down on
prices for all kinds of investments.
Treasury yields have been leaping in the bond market since the war
began because of such worries, but they eased somewhat on Monday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35% from 4.44% late
Friday. That’s a significant move for the bond market and offers
some breathing room for Wall Street. But it remains far above its
3.97% level from before the war.
On Wall Street, Sysco fell 15.3% to help lead the market lower after
it said it was buying Jetro Restaurant Depot for $21.6 billion in
cash and enough Sysco shares to value the company at about $29.1
billion.
Alcoa rose 8.2% for one of the market’s biggest gains on speculation
it could get more business after attacks damaged rival aluminum
facilities in the Middle East over the weekend.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 25.13 points to 6,343.72. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 49.50 to 45,216.14, and the Nasdaq
composite sank 153.72 to 20,794.64.
In stock markets abroad, the FTSE 100 in London climbed 1.6%, and
the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.9%. That followed drops of 3% for Seoul’s
Kospi, 2.8% for Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and 0.8% for Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott and AP journalist
Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.
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