Stock Market News Today: Dow Slides as Oil Surges and Middle East Tensions Rattle Investors

Wall Street’s major benchmarks retreated Tuesday as renewed Middle-East tensions and a spike in crude prices kept risk appetite in check. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped about 0.9%, or nearly 400 points, while the broader S&P 500 fell roughly 1.0%. Tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the pullback with a loss of about 1.5%. Geopolitics at center stage • Traders continued to position defensively ahead of President Donald Trump’s midnight deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, a standoff that has dominated stock market news for weeks. • CNBC’s live market blog noted that hopes for a quick cease-fire faded after fresh reports of U.S. drone activity near Kharg Island, amplifying safe-haven flows into energy and defense stocks. Oil fuels sector rotation West Texas Intermediate futures jumped above $96 a barrel, their highest since late 2024, according to The Wall Street Journal’s real-time feed. The surge pushed the S&P 500 Energy sector up more than 2%, even as seven of the index’s eleven groups traded lower. Refiners Valero and Phillips 66 each rallied over 4%, cushioning the Dow’s decline. Winners and losers • Health-insurers UnitedHealth and Humana climbed after regulators approved a larger-than-expected 3.3% Medicare Advantage reimbursement increase for 2027. • Semiconductor bellwether Broadcom rose 1% on reports it will supply custom AI chips to Meta, bucking the broader tech slump. • Megacap growth names bore the brunt of rising bond yields; Apple slid 2.4% and Tesla fell 5% as the 10-year Treasury yield touched 4.63%. Economic data mixed The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed vacancies edging down to 8.6 million, hinting at a gradual cooling in the labor market. Conversely, the ISM Services PMI surprised on the upside at 52.9, limiting bets on a near-term Federal Reserve rate cut. What to watch next Investors will parse Wednesday’s release of the March Fed minutes for clues about policymakers’ tolerance for lingering inflation. On the earnings front, Delta Air Lines kicks off airline season before the bell, followed by Micron’s AI-focused analyst day after the close. SEO key phrases incorporated: stock market today, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, stock futures, market news, oil prices, Trump Iran deadline, energy stocks, tech stocks.