Markets News, March 16, 2026: Major Indexes Close Sharply Higher as Oil Retreats; Dow Rises Nearly 400 Points

Major stock indexes ended Monday sharply higher, and U.S. oil futures pulled back below $95 a barrel, amid efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, benchmark S&P 500, and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up a respective 1.2%, 1.0%, and 0.8%. The Dow added 388 points.

The leading U.S. indexes closed lower for a third straight week Friday as oil prices continued to climb. On Monday, West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. oil-price benchmark, were down almost 5% to $94 a barrel at 4 p.m. ET after earlier topping $102. Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, ticked higher to about $100.50 a barrel after hitting $106.50 earlier in the day.

The Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump was attempting to build a coalition of nations to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump warned he would consider attacking Iranian oil infrastructure on Kharg Island if the country continues to block the important shipping channel; About 90% of Iran’s crude exports are processed on Kharg, where the U.S. bombed military targets Friday.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that the U.S. is allowing Iranian tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. “Iranian ships have been getting out already, and we’ve let that happen to supply the rest of the world,” he said.

“Stable energy prices will be good for growth and stocks,” Laffer Tengler Investments CEO and CIO Nancy Tengler said in written commentary. “Historically, these ‘events’ have been short-lived. As soon as ships sail through the Hormuz we think oil prices will melt down, and investors’ attention will return to fundamentals.”

Two days ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next decision on interest rates, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects interest rates on all sorts of consumer loans, fell to 4.23% from Friday’s close above 4.28%, its highest closing level since Jan. 20.

Gold futures were down nearly 1% to $5,020 an ounce, while silver edged lower to $81.20 an ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of currencies, slipped 0.6% to 99.73. Bitcoin was trading around $74,200, up from overnight lows below $71,500.

Shares of all the Magnificent Seven tech giants were higher, led by a 2.3% advance by Meta Platforms (META) following a Reuters report that the Facebook and Instagram parent was planning mass layoffs amid substantial AI costs. On Friday, Meta stock fell nearly 4% following a report in The New York Times that the company was delaying the rollout of a new AI model due to performance concerns.

Nvidia (NVDA) stock closed up 1.6% as the world’s most valuable company’s weeklong GPU Technology Conference kicked off with a keynote address from CEO Jensen Huang, who said he expects orders from its Blackwell and Vera Rubin AI systems to hit $1 trillion through 2027.