Stock Market News for Mar 18, 2026

U.S. stock markets closed higher on Tuesday despite the lingering war in the Middle East. Market participants ignored elevated crude oil prices. Investors are waiting for the outcome of the Fed’s FOMC meeting, which started yesterday. All three major stock indexes ended in positive territory.

How Did The Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.1% to close at 46,993.26. At the intraday high, the index was up nearly 482 points. Notably, 14 components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory while 16 ended in negative territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished at 22,479.53, gaining 0.5% or 105.35 points owing to the strong performance by technology bigwigs. At intraday high, the tech-laden index was up more than 195 points. The major gainer of the index was Western Digital Corp. WDC.

The stock price of the giant computer storage device manufacturer jumped 9.6%. Western Digital currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.3% to finish at 6,716.09. All 11 sectors of the broad-market index ended in positive territory. The Information Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) rose 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively.

The fear gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 4.9% to 22.37. A total of 16.9 billion shares were traded on Tuesday, lower than the last 20-session average of 19.8 billion. The S&P 500 recorded 21 new 52-week highs and two new 52-week lows. The Nasdaq posted 51 new 52-week highs and 137 new 52-week lows.

Crude Oil Prices Remain Elevated

The geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East remained heightened. Iran continued to retaliate against the U.S.-Israel joint attack and the largest crude oil supply line through the Strait of Hormuz remained heavily disturbed.

President Donald Trump’s effort to organize a coalition of NATO countries to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz is yet to materialize. Trump urged “the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait” to “take care of that passage.” But so far, NATO countries are reluctant to do so and join the Middle East war.

The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 2.9% to settle at $96.21 per barrel. The global benchmark — the Brent futures — settled up 3.2% to $103.42 per barrel.

Fed’s FOMC Meeting in Focus

The Fed started its FOMC meeting yesterday. Today, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will deliver his post-FOMC statement and policy decisions. The CME FedWatch interest rate derivative tool currently shows that no one is expecting an interest rate cut in this FOMC meeting.

An overwhelming 99% respondents expect the Fed fund rate to stay in the current range of 3.5-3.75%, while 1% expect the benchmark lending rate to be hiked by 25 basis points to the range of 3.75-4%. A meaningful probability of a further rate cut is not expected before September.

Market participants will keenly watch Powell’s statement to guess what Fed officials are thinking about the inflation rate, which remains well above the central bank’s 2% target rate. Moreover, the ongoing war in the Middle East and crude oil price shock are likely to influence the central bank’s policy prescription.

Economic Data

The National Association of REALTORS reported that pending home sales increased 1.8% in February, in contrast to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a decline of 1%. The metric for January was revised downward to -1% from -0.8% reported earlier. Year over year, pending home sales fell 0.8% in February.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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