US stock losses accelerated on Friday, while oil prices remained high, as investors weighed the possibility that the US might try to seize a key Iranian energy terminal to unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell roughly 1.4% and 2%, respectively. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slid by a deeper 2.5% following a downbeat day on Wall Street.

Stocks are retreating as investors assess an Axios report that the Trump administration is considering plans to occupy or blockade Kharg Island, vital to Iran's oil exports. The risky operation would aim to put pressure on Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to tanker shipping.

Oil prices are being whipsawed with markets on edge with headlines about the fast-moving Middle East conflict. On Friday, Iran pressed ahead with attacks on Persian Gulf neighbors as analysts warned existing damage would keep oil prices elevated. Brent (BZ=F) futures traded near $105 a barrel after swinging between gains and losses, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures hovered at around $97.

The major US stock gauges are on track for a fourth weekly decline in a row, with the Dow and Nasdaq Composite both nearing correction territory.

Energy (XLE) is on pace to close out the week with gains of more than 3% as oil prices have surged amid the Middle East war.

Most sectors are on track to finish the week in the red, with Materials (XLB) and Utilities (XLU) lagging the most.

The prospect of higher inflation from surging oil prices and delayed Federal Reserve rate cuts has sent the market lower for three days in a row.

The Nasdaq (^IXIC) is ending the week precariously close to correction territory as investors recalibrate their expectations for interest rate cuts amid stronger inflation.

The tech-heavy index is currently trading about 9.3% lower than its recent all-time closing high of 23,857, reached on Jan. 28, as tech stocks were beaten down on Friday. A pullback of 10% or more from a recent high indicates the index is in correction.

The Dow Industrial Average (^DJI) also remained a stone's throw from a correction, with the index down 9.2% from its recent high on Feb. 10. The blue-chip index cracked the 50,000 milestone in early February and held above that level for four days before the high was overtaken by events. As of an hour before the close on Friday, the index traded at 45,552.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC), while farther from entering a correction, flashed a bearish signal on Thursday. The index fell below its 200-day moving average for the first time since June.

Gold futures prices declined to about $4,500 on Friday, on track for their third consecutive week of losses.

Gold has failed to act as a safe-haven asset amid the Middle East war. A strong dollar and lowered expectations of Fed cuts this year have put pressure on bullion prices.

The precious metal is down more than 9% this week, its worst week since 1983, according to Bloomberg data.

Long lines at airports may get worse next week as the ongoing partial government shutdown stretches past 30 days.

Shares of major airlines Delta (DAL), American (AAL), and United (UAL) all fell more than 2% on Friday amid shutdown-induced travel delays and rising jet fuel costs from the war in the Middle East.

Yahoo Finance's Ben Werschkul reports that Trump administration officials are warning that next week may be a crucial inflection point when travel problems begin to cascade even further.

He writes:

“This is going to ‌look ⁠like child's play, what's happening right now,\\" Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a CNBC appearance on Thursday, warning about next week. \\"You're going to see small airports, I believe, shut down. You're going to see extensive lines, and air travel is almost going to come to a grid halt.\\"

What’s more, a two-week recess on Capitol Hill is scheduled to begin next Friday, which could see lawmakers absent from Washington until mid-April.

The root of the problem is the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, the sprawling government agency that includes a range of departments, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Read more here.

Planet Labs (PL) stock took off on Friday after the Earth-imaging company reported record revenue on the back of strong demand for satellite services. Shares of the San Francisco-based company rose 25% in midday trading.

Will Marshall, Planet's CEO, called 2026 a \\"transformational year\\" for the company, adding that Planet ended the year with a $900 million backlog, representing 79% growth over the previous year.

Planet builds and operates a fleet of satellites that monitor Earth daily for a range of uses, from gathering military intelligence and building agricultural maps to tracking wildfire risk for utilities and conducting climate research. Marshall, a former NASA scientist, started the company in 2011 with peers Robbie Schingler and Chris Boshuizen.

In the fourth quarter, revenue of $86 million topped Wall Street's estimates of $78 million. The company broke even on adjusted earnings per share, compared to a $0.05 loss per share the Street expected, according to consensus estimates from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

For the year ahead, Planet forecast revenue of $415 million to $440 million and an adjusted EBITDA profit of approximately $0 and $10 million. The company said it plans to spend $80 million to $95 million on capital investments.

\\"We’re leaning in and investing in the huge market opportunity in front of us,\\" Marshall said. \\"Just as satellite services were transformative last year, we expect AI to be transformative this year, enabling us to unlock massive markets even faster. In all, we’re playing to win.\\"

Yahoo Finance's Jake Conley reports:

The Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates where they are this week was widely expected. But the central bank’s cautious tone — especially from Chair Jerome Powell at his press conference following the Fed's meeting — is pushing Wall Street to reassess the timeline for rate cuts from the central bank.

Strategists say the Fed’s latest messaging suggests policymakers are increasingly reluctant to commit to a clear easing timeline as the geopolitical shock of war ripples through energy markets and inflation expectations.

What had previously been seen as likely to be a gradual pivot toward rate cuts is now being reframed as a prolonged pause — and in some cases a potential return to tightening if price pressures reaccelerate.

\\"The Fed’s balancing act is getting trickier,\\" JoAnne Bianco, senior investment strategist at BondBloxx, said.

Read more here.

The Swiss multinational bank UBS Group AG (UBS) has been granted full approval for a US banking license as the financial firm seeks to expand its North America footprint.

Shares traded down by 2% in the minutes after the bank announced the news in a LinkedIn post.

UBS said it has received approval from the US government to convert its US branch, UBS Bank USA, into a \\"nationally chartered bank.\\"

\\"The charter will strengthen our US banking platform, enhance how we serve clients and Financial Advisors, and position us well for the next phase of growth—while maintaining the high standards that define UBS,\\" the LinkedIn post said.

The financial services firm as a whole has suffered over the past month, with one prominent ETF tracking the sector down by 6.7% over the period. Shares in US banks Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) are down by roughly 5% and 7.5%, respectively, while Bank of America (BAC) has fallen a steeper 11%.

Oil swung on Friday as investors sought to balance a mix of escalatory and deescalatory headlines.

Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international pricing benchmark, and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CL=F) both traded roughly 2% above their levels at 12 a.m. ET, to hold around $104 and $95 per barrel, respectively. Both products had surged earlier in the session before giving back those gains as investors played both sides of the trade.

In separate press conferences on Thursday, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the US and Israel would halt any targeting of Iranian energy infrastructure after strikes by Israel on Iran's South Pars gas field set off a wave of retaliatory attacks from the regime.

At the same time, Iran's strikes against critical energy facilities throughout the Gulf have only continued.

Attacks on Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG export terminal — the largest such terminal in the world — earlier in the week caused \\"extensive damage\\" and took roughly 17% of Qatar's LNG capacity offline, QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters on Wednesday. The damage may force QatarEnergy to declare force majeure on shipments five years out, al-Kaabi said.

Though the paper market has held somewhat flat over the past few days, with Brent and WTI both within 1% of their Sunday opening prices, the cost of physical barrels has soared. Prices on barrels of Dubai and Oman crude oil for prompt delivery were trading at $158.85 per barrel, according to Bloomberg data, a roughly $50 premium over Brent futures.

The US stock market fell into the red on Friday as oil pared gains and Wall Street weighed reports that the US may put troops on the ground to seize key Iranian energy infrastructure.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell a bit less than 1%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell roughly 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell by roughly 0.7%.

On Friday, Iran launched more attacks against energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, even as President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested deescalation in press conferences on Thursday. International benchmark Brent (BZ=F) futures fell to around $104 per barrel, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures held around $95.

The S&P 500’s financial sector (XLF) was down slightly in premarket trading on Friday. The sector has fallen 11% year to date, putting it on track for its worst first quarter since 2020 as investors pull back amid growing worries over cracks in private credit.

Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferré reports:

A string of prestigious giants such as BlackRock (BLK), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Blackstone (BX) have been the latest financial firms to impose redemption limits on private debt funds as investor anxiety builds. Much of the concern is tied to AI-driven disruption in software, a sector with heavy exposure in direct lending portfolios.

While Wall Street does not anticipate a broader systemic fallout, analysts warn that AI-driven disruptions could push up defaults as loans issued during the pandemic’s ultra-low interest rate era reach maturity.

“Overall, we expect direct lending default rates to reach 8%, approaching COVID peak levels,” wrote Morgan Stanley strategist Joyce Jiang earlier this week, noting that roughly 11% of software loans mature by the end of next year, followed by another 20% in 2028.

“We expect defaults to be concentrated within software and AI-adjacent sectors, unlike the COVID cycle where defaults peaked across multiple sectors simultaneously,\\" she added.

Read more here.

Top robotaxi players like Uber and Tesla face the same tech hurdles alongside challenges that are particularly their own.

Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban writes:

The rush to claim a dominant position in the nascent robotaxi market took an EV-inflected turn Thursday, as Uber (UBER) announced it will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian Automotive (RIVN) to help launch up to 50,000 robotaxis.

Uber's new partnership, along with its prior deal to outfit its vehicles with Nvidia (NVDA) technology, highlights the tech industry's excitement around a new kind of commercial transportation. It also underscores how the top players in the space, from Uber to Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Waymo to Tesla (TSLA), all face technological roadblocks even as they must clear obstacles unique to their respective brands and operations.

Well before Tesla's recent pivot to the Cybercab, Uber's endgame was to get to autonomous driving. Through years of labor disputes, regulatory battles, and debate over the \\"gig economy,\\" it became more clear that while Uber's value was deeply reliant on contracted drivers, the next step in its corporate progression was to fully automate the ride-hailing platform.

Tesla is essentially leapfrogging that entire contract driver phase just as Uber is farming out its automotive side to Rivian. But Tesla will need consumer buy-in from all the people who have never owned a Tesla, resent CEO Elon Musk, and wouldn't think to use its app for a ride.

Read more here.

Unlike their global peers, US airlines said they remain confident that record traveler demand will help offset the $11 billion spike in fuel costs caused by the Iran war. US carriers don't pre-buy fuel, and they may have to pass the rise in fuel prices directly on to passengers through higher fares.

Reuters reports:

For many airlines in ‌Europe and Asia, it is also disrupting schedules, complicating operations and clouding outlooks even as they raise surcharges or fares.

Major U.S. carriers this week pointed to resilient demand at an industry conference, with United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby saying the ​revenue environment was \\"really strong\\".

\\"We have a goal this year to fully offset the increase in fuel prices,\\" he said on Tuesday, adding fares booked over the past week were up 15% to 20% and that airlines could, for now, recover \\"100%\\" of the fuel price increase.

United has also trimmed weaker flights, such as some midweek, Saturday and overnight services as the airline would rather leave some demand unmet than keep flying routes that lose money if fuel stays high, Kirby said.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) also said it has the flexibility to cut capacity if fuel prices stay elevated.

Read more here.

Tegna (TGNA) stock rose 9% before the bell on Friday following the news that Nexstar (NXST) has completed its acquisition of Tegna, uniting two of the largest TV station ownership groups in the United States.

Reuters reports

But the deal still faces legal scrutiny: Eight state attorneys general have filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the acquisition.

The state officials, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, say the merger will hurt consumers by hiking prices and weakening local news coverage.

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook says otherwise: “This transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve.”

The big broadcasting merger provoked grave concern from media watchdog groups when it was announced last August, but it was viewed as inevitable by Wall Street analysts who have forecast further consolidation in the beleaguered broadcast TV business.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Iran pressed ahead with attacks on Arab states in the Persian Gulf even after Israel signaled it would refrain from hitting the Islamic Republic’s energy infrastructure, fueling volatility in markets roiled by the war in the oil-rich region.

Kuwait shut several units at its Al Ahmadi refinery after multiple strikes. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia said they intercepted missiles and drones overnight into Friday, while Bahrain reported a fire at a warehouse.

Israel said it struck infrastructure across Iran, including in the capital Tehran, while the Islamic Republic launched a fresh wave of retaliatory missile attacks.

The fighting, which has dragged on for three weeks, has killed more than 4,200 people across the region and brought shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint for about a fifth of global oil and LNG flows — to a near standstill. Iran’s attacks on critical energy sites have eased from a peak earlier this week, helping push oil prices lower after they hit an almost four-year high.

Still, risks of lasting damage to energy supplies remain, with Qatar saying almost a fifth of its LNG production has been knocked out for as long as five years. The fallout of the war is spreading globally, with fuel, shipping and household costs already rising.

Read more here.

Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) stock rose 2% during premarket hours on Friday, following the attacks by Iran on a major Middle East liquefied natural gas hub.

Dell (DELL) stock rose more than 2% during premarket hours today. The tech company's stock is up 24% year-to-date, as the company benefits from rapid growth in its AI server business.

Unilever (UL) stock moved up 1% before the bell on Friday following the news that it's in talks to sell its food business to McCormick & Co (MKC), transforming the owner of Hellmann’s mayonnaise into a maker of beauty and personal care products in the biggest overhaul since it was founded almost a century ago.

The US has charged a Supermicro Computer (SMCI) co-founder — a US citizen — with smuggling Nvidia (NVDA)-powered servers to China, contravening restrictions on the AI technology.

California-based Supermicro is a key assembler of AI servers based on Nvidia components, and it accounts for about 9% of the chip giant's revenue, per Bloomberg.

Shares of Supermicro plunged over 20% in premarket trading after three arrests linked to the case.

Bloomberg reports:

US prosecutors charged Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw in a scheme to send US-assembled servers containing Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips to China in violation of US export controls. Liaw and two others associated with the company allegedly sold the AI tech through a Southeast Asia company knowing it would be sent on to China.

Also charged in the case were Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, who served as a manager in the company’s Taiwan office, and Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun, an outside contractor described by US authorities as a “fixer” who allegedly aided in the diversion.

The indictment marks the biggest chip smuggling case US prosecutors have pursued since first restricting Nvidia shipments to China in 2022. It comes on the heels of several smaller-scale arrests last year, after the Trump administration pledged to crack down on violations of rules imposed to prevent China from using American AI accelerators to gain a military edge.

Read more here.

FedEx (FDX) stock rose 8% before the bell on Friday after raising its full-year outlook due to a rise in revenue and package yields in its fiscal third quarter.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The shipping company’s main Express segment was boosted by higher revenue per package both domestically and internationally, as well as a higher volume of packages in the U.S. It also benefited from cost cutting related to the company’s ongoing turnaround plan, as it prepares to spin off its Freight business in June.

Revenue rose 8% to $24.0 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast revenue of $23.49 billion.

The Memphis, Tenn., company shipped an average of 18.5 million packages a day, up 3% year-over-year, with the average revenue per package rising 6%.

Total U.S. package revenue jumped 10%, while international export sales were up 8%. Volume within the U.S. increased, offsetting a decline in domestic international shipping.

Read more here.

From Bloomberg:

Wall Street equities traders are bracing for an unusually large tally of options expiring on Friday, which risks injecting even more volatility into a market that’s seen weeks of turbulence amid the raging Mideast conflict.

Roughly $5.7 trillion in notional options tied to individual US stocks, indexes and exchange-traded funds are set to expire on Friday in the quarterly event that traders have dubbed the “triple-witching” — the largest March expiry in Citigroup Inc. data going back to 1996. That figure includes $4.1 trillion in index contracts, $772 billion in exchange-traded funds and $875 billion in single-stock options.

The event, which forces traders to close, roll or rebalance positions, has long carried a reputation for triggering abrupt price swings as large pools of derivatives exposure suddenly vanish.

This quarter’s expiration arrives at a particularly fraught moment for markets, with bets on Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts fading as the Iran war has sparked a rally in crude prices and concerns over inflation. Hostilities continued on Thursday amid escalating attacks in the Persian Gulf on energy facilities.

While the S&P 500 Index (^GSPC) is only about 6% below its January record, the Cboe Volatility Index — a key gauge of expected equity swings — is well above its six-month average, underscoring lingering investor angst.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) aims to quintuple cloud and AI revenue to $100 billion annually in five years, setting a high bar for its artificial intelligence endeavors to offset the plateauing of a once pre-eminent e-commerce empire.

Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu proclaimed that goal after his company reported a 67% plunge in quarterly earnings and meagre revenue growth, underscoring the urgency behind Alibaba’s drive to wring more cash out of costly AI endeavors. But Wu didn’t offer specifics on how his company would hit that objective, which suggests at least 35% growth a year — about matching the pace that the cloud division managed in the December quarter. Alibaba’s US-listed shares slid 7.1%, the biggest drop since October.

The picture across most other units appeared bleaker. The company posted a 2% rise in sales to 284.8 billion yuan ($41.3 billion) for the three months ended December, just shy of the average projection. Net income plummeted — its worst performance since early 2024 — hurt in part by heavy spending on promotions to fend off rivals in commerce.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Gold (GC=F) headed for the biggest weekly loss in six years, as war in the Middle East boosted energy and reduced expectations for rate cuts.

Bullion traded near $4,640 an ounce on Friday, down almost 8% this week, the most since March 2020. Soaring crude, natural gas and fuel prices triggered by the conflict are raising inflation concerns, reducing prospects of central banks lowering borrowing costs. That hurts gold as it doesn’t pay interest.

The precious metal — widely viewed as a haven — has dropped every week since the US and Israel attacked Iran last month. The retreat has come as Treasury yields and the US dollar gained ground, investors sold bullion to cover losses elsewhere, and gold-backed exchange-traded funds posted outflows.

Read more here.