Stock Market News for Mar 12, 2026

U.S. stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday as the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran showed no signs of de-escalation. Crude oil prices remained elevated due to severe supply concerns from the Middle East. Earnings reports and key inflation data came in mixed and failed to enthuse market participants. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended in negative territory while the Nasdaq Composite managed to finish in the green.

How Did The Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) tumbled 0.6% or 289.24 points to close at 47,417.27 after a choppy session. At intraday high, the index was up nearly 5 points. Notably, 24 components of the 30-stock index ended in negative territory while six ended in positive territory.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished at 22,716.14, rising 0.1% owing to the good performance by corporate bigwigs. At intraday high, the tech-laden index was up 180.61 points and at intraday low, the index was down nearly 95 points.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1% to finish at 6,775.80. At intraday high, the index was up 0.4%. All 11 broad sectors of the broad-market index ended in the negative territory. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) was down 1.3%.

The fear gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 2.8% to 24.23. A total of 17.79 billion shares were traded on Wednesday, lower than the last 20-session average of 20.09 billion. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.84-to-1 ratio. On the Nasdaq, a 1.38-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues.

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.

The 32 countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed to release 400 million barrels of crude oil to normalize global oil supply. This marked the largest such action in IEA’s history. Moreover, OPEC said that Saudi Arabia has also ramped up oil production.

Despite these measures, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures surged more than 4% to settle at $87.25 per barrel. The global benchmark — the Brent futures — climbed 4.8% to settle at $91.98 per barrel.

Mixed Earnings Results

The global RDBMS giant Oracle Corp. ORCL reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.79 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.29% and surged 21% year over year in dollar terms and 16% in constant currency.

Revenues beat the consensus mark by 1.77% and climbed 22% in USD and 18% in cc year over year to $17.2 billion, driven by explosive growth in cloud infrastructure as Oracle continues to establish itself as the destination of choice for AI workloads.

Defense equipment manufacturer AeroVironment Inc. AVAV came up with quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.64 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.68 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.3 per share a year ago. Quarterly revenues of $408.05 million missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 13.73%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $167.64 million.

Consequently, shares of Oracle jumped 9.2% while shares of AeroVironment tumbled 6.3%. Oracle currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Economic Data

The Department of Labor reported that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.3% in February, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The metric for January was 0.2%. Year over year, the headline CPI advanced 2.4% in February.

The core CPI (excluding volatile food and energy items) rose 0.2% in February, lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 0.3%. The metric for January was also 0.3%. Year over year, the core CPI advanced 2.5% in February.

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