Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on International Women’s Day, March 9, 2026.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
of Dow Jones Industrial Average It fell on Wednesday as investors continued to focus on the US-Iran war and developments in oil prices.
The 30-stock index closed at 47,417.27, down 289.24 points (0.61%). of S&P500 It fell 0.08% to settle at 6,775.80. Nasdaq Composite It rose 0.08% to close at 22,716.13.
West Texas Intermediate Futures It rose more than 4% to settle at $87.25 per barrel. brent crude oil It rose about 4.8% to close at $91.98 per barrel. This is even after the International Energy Agency announced it would release 400 million barrels of oil, the largest ever release from the agency’s reserves, to target supply disruptions caused by the war.
Ron Albaharry, chief investment officer at Laird Norton Weatherby, said the IEA’s decision “does not resolve other issues affecting the global economy.” He cited refined products such as jet fuel flowing through the Strait of Hormuz as one of the problems.
“I think the market is wrestling with the idea of what an off-ramp is at this point,” he told CNBC. “Both sides have made desperate efforts, but it is difficult to see how this will translate positively to the other side in the short term.”
If the conflict drags on, oil prices could continue to rise. The US military sunk several Iranian vessels, including 16 minelayers, near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, as the Iranian government attempts to dig landmines in a key shipping lane that is at the center of concerns over oil supplies.
Britain’s Maritime and Trade Services Authority also announced on Wednesday that three cargo ships off the coast of Iran, one of which was in the Strait, were struck by projectiles.
This came days after President Donald Trump said earlier this week that the war would end “soon.”
“President Trump’s suggestion that the war may soon end in the wake of the extraordinary rise in oil prices may be signaling, in our view, that he has reached his ‘pain threshold,'” Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays, said in a note on Wednesday. “The longer oil prices continue to rise, the greater the downside risk to earnings and valuations.”
The consumer price index in February increased by 2.4% compared to the same month last year. This was in line with the expectations of economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The report comes as signs of a weakening labor market have increased in recent months.
Oracle stock was a bright spot on Wednesday, rising 9% after the software vendor’s fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue beat analysts’ expectations. The company also raised its sales forecast for fiscal 2027.
Correction: Eli Lilly’s live update has been corrected to reflect that the Wolfe Research analyst who predicted the company’s obesity sales is Alexandria Hammond. A previous version misspelled her name.
