US stocks erase a big early loss and rise after oil prices whip from
nearly $120 back below $90
[March 10, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market careened through a manic Monday,
going from a steep early loss to a solid gain as worries turned into
hope that the war with Iran may not last that long. Oil prices whipped
from nearly $120 per barrel, their highest since 2022, back below $90.
The S&P 500 dropped as much as 1.5% in the morning before flipping to a
gain of 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average clawed back a plunge of
nearly 900 points to rise 239 points, or 0.5%, while the Nasdaq
composite climbed 1.4%.
They’re the latest hour-to-hour swings to pummel financial markets
because of the uncertainty about just how high oil prices will go and
how long they will stay there because of disruptions to the energy
industry in the Middle East. Markets made their remarkable reversals
during the last hour of Wall Street’s trading after President Donald
Trump told CBS News that he thinks “the war is very complete, pretty
much.”
That calmed worries that had built earlier in the morning, when the
price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, briefly
touched $119.50. It hadn’t been that expensive since the summer of 2022
after Russia invaded Ukraine.
If oil prices stay very high for very long, households’ budgets already
stretched by high inflation could break under the pressure. Companies,
meanwhile, would see their own bills jump for fuel and to stock items on
their store shelves or in their data warehouses. It all raises the
possibility of a worst-case scenario for the global economy,
“stagflation,” where growth stagnates and inflation remains high.
Concerns have focused in particular on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow
waterway off Iran’s coast that a fifth of the world’s oil sails through
on a typical day. Iran had earlier threatened to set fire to ships
sailing the strait.
If the strait remains closed for only a few weeks, the price of oil
could push to $150 per barrel of higher, according to oil and gas
strategists at Macquarie Research.
But oil prices pared their gains through the day, initially on talk that
seven of the world’s largest economies could coordinate moves to push
back on the spikes. They then slid sharply after CBS News said Trump
said of Iran that “if you look, they have nothing left. There’s nothing
left in a military sense.”
Trump also added that when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, he’s
“thinking about taking it over,” according to CBS.
A barrel of Brent crude pulled back to settle at $98.96 in the afternoon
and then kept falling afterward below $90. A barrel of benchmark U.S.
crude touched $119.48 during the morning, then pulled back to settle at
$94.77 and then sank toward $85.
The U.S. stock market has a history of bouncing back relatively quickly
from past military conflicts, as long as oil prices don’t stay too high
for too long. Some professional investors continue to suggest that drops
in prices for stocks could ultimately offer opportunities to buy them at
cheaper levels before they rise again.
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Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in
New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
 “We continue to believe that the
current acute shortage of oil will be reversed in the coming months
as new supply comes online and oil should drop significantly,”
according to Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets
at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
Even with all the recent swings in the market, the S&P 500 index
that sits at the heart of many 401(k) accounts is still within 3% of
its record set in January.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 55.97 points to 6,795.99. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 239.25 to 47,740.80, and the Nasdaq
composite gained 308.27 to 22,695.95.
To be sure, prices could reverse again in the coming days given all
the uncertainties about the war. That's what happened through the
huge swings that rocked Wall Street last week.
In stock markets abroad, where economies are more dependent on the
import of oil and natural gas, stocks fell sharply before Trump’s
comments were published. South Korea’s Kospi sank 6%, Japan’s Nikkei
225 tumbled 5.2% and France’s CAC 40 dropped 1%.
Trump’s comments came after he said late Sunday that high oil prices
at the moment were worth the cost.
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction
of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for
U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” he said in a posting on his
social media network.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.10%
from 4.15% late Friday.
Worries about high inflation and oil prices are pushing upward on
Treasury yields, and the 10-year yield briefly rose above 4.20%
early Monday.
But worries about a potentially slowing economy are pulling downward
at the same time. On Friday, a discouragingly weak report on the
U.S. job market showed that employers cut more jobs last month than
they added.
Yields then slid late in the day when oil prices eased.
___
AP Writers Matt Ott, Kim Tong-hyung and Elaine Kurtenbach
contributed.
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