Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell on March 18, 2026.
Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. equities fell on Thursday, while oil prices remained elevated as Wall Street watches for more developments in the Iran war.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 344 points, or 0.7%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively. The S&P 500 traded below its 200-day moving average for the first time since May 23.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, surged 3% to $111 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 1% at $97 a barrel.
The spike in international oil follows Iran striking a key liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Qatar as well as an attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field by Israel. Iran then retaliated by hitting Qatari energy facilities.
President Donald Trump warned that if more facilities in Qatar were attacked, the U.S. would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field.”
“The core dilemma of the entire situation remains the same: the U.S. and Israel have ‘won’ the war in a conventional sense, but there doesn’t seem to be a military solution for reopening Hormuz absent the deployment of ground troops, which means the waterway isn’t likely to return to normal without some type a diplomatic settlement (and it doesn’t appear at the moment like much effort is being put into achieving one),” said Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge.
With traffic in the key Strait of Hormuz passageway largely at a standstill, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan expressed in a joint statement Thursday their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.”
Meanwhile, Micron Technology shares came under pressure, losing 2%. Citi analysts in particular attributed the move to just “some profit taking,” given that a memory supply shortage helped the semiconductor company nearly triple its revenue in its most recent quarter.
Wall Street is coming off a dismal trading session. On Wednesday, the 30-stock Dow tumbled to a new closing low for the year. The benchmark, which also touched an intraday low for 2026, even closed below its 200-day moving average, a technical level suggesting the long-term trend for the index is now negative.
The sell-off comes after a surprisingly hot producer prices report, and greater inflation expectations from the Federal Reserve, added to fears that the war in Iran could mean the U.S. economy is headed for a stagflation scenario — or a period of lower growth and higher pricing pressures.
It also lowered expectations for an interest rate cut, even with the Fed signaling one reduction is still coming this year. Markets were last pricing in a 75% probability that the central bank stays on hold in 2026, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.