Liquidation sale on Wall Street: the week closed with sharp declines, oil jumped

23:00

Wall Street ended the trading week in bright red: The Nasdaq fell more than 2.1%. The Dow lost 1.7% and fell deeper into correction territory. The S&P 500 shed nearly 1.7%.

Brent oil rose by about 4.6% and traded at more than $106.6. WTI oil rose by about 6% and its price is over $100.

The S&P 500 posted its fifth straight weekly decline, falling about 2% for the week. Nasdaq is down more than 3% since the beginning of the week, the Dow Jones is down almost 1% during the week.

The declines come after the Nasdaq fell into a correction yesterday, falling nearly 13% below its October high. The Dow entered correction territory today, down 10.5% from its 52-week high. The S&P 500 is down about 9% from its peak.

22:30

Sharp declines on Wall Street: Nasdaq falls more than 2%. Dow loses 1.6% and falls deeper into correction territory. S&P 500 falls by a similar amount.

Oil surges after Trump extended the deadline for attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure and said he would extend the delay to attack Iran’s energy facilities to April 6, a little more than a week after the original deadline, but even that fails to encourage investors. The price of Brent oil rises by about 3.5% and trades at more than $105. WTI oil rises by about 5% and its price is 99.3 dollars.

The S&P 500 is down for the fifth week in a row, dropping about 2% in the past week. The Nasdaq is down more than 3% since the start of the week, and the Dow Jones is down nearly 1% for the week.

21:28

the declines on Wall Street intensify; Nasdaq down almost 2%, Dow down about 1.6%, S&P 500 down almost 1.5%.

The social media giant’s stock Meta dropped by more than 4.3%. Meta suffered a tumultuous week, during which it lost two crucial legal cases and announced a round of layoffs at Facebook, Reality Labs and other departments. The stock has fallen more than 11% in the past week, heading for its worst weekly performance since October.

19:50

European stock markets were locked in the red: DAX fell by 1.4%, KAC lost about 0.9%, POTSI shed about 0.1%.

Wall Street continues to decline. Nasdaq loses 1.3%, Dow falls about 1%, S&P 500 weakens by almost 1%.

18:50

The Dow is currently down 0.6%, the S&P 500 is losing 0.7%, and the Nasdaq is down about 1%. The price of Brent oil is up about 1.6% and is trading at more than $103. WTI oil is up about 3.3% and its price is at $97.6.

The pharmaceutical giant Astra Zanka up nearly 4% after reporting that its experimental drug, tozorkimab, significantly reduces outbreaks in cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The drug produced results in two late-stage trials, and the company said the full results would be published at an upcoming medical conference.

Travel booking website TripAdvisor Increases by 5% after upgrading from Bank of America to buy from neutral.

17:40

the deepening declines on Wall Street; The Dow is down about 0.9%, the S&P 500 is down about 1% and is about 7% below a record, the Nasdaq sheds 1.4%. The fear index (VIX) jumps over 9%. The Dow briefly fell into correction territory, and is 9.7% off its recent high.

The price of Brent oil rises by about 1.5% and trades at more than $103. WTI oil rises by about 3.5% and its price is 97.7 dollars.

16:30

The Wall Street stock markets opened in the red, on the way to a fifth consecutive week of declines: the Dow falls at the opening of trading by about 0.6%, the S&P 500 falls by a similar rate and is about 7% below the record, the Nasdaq sheds 0.7% of its value. The fear index (VIX) jumps by more than 9%.

The price of Brent oil rises by about 2.4% and trades at more than $104. WTI oil rises by about 2.8% and its price stands at $97.

16:00

Wall Street futures are down and oil prices are up as investors monitor the latest developments in the Iran war. Nasdaq contracts are down about 0.7%, Dow contracts are down about 0.4%, similar to the S&P 500.

Brent crude oil futures rose 2% to more than $110 a barrel. WTI oil contracts also rose 2% to more than $96 a barrel.

Last night trading closed sharply lower on the worst trading day of the year, when conflicting messages between the US and Iran increased the uncertainty surrounding the prospect of talks that would end the conflict in the Middle East, despite Trump extending the negotiations with Iran.

Trump extended the deadline for attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure and said he would extend the delay for attacking Iran’s energy facilities to April 6, a little more than a week after the original deadline. This could indicate that the Trump administration is seeking to speed up the end of the war, which has driven up oil prices, and could affect Republicans in the midterm elections.

Nasdaq, which shed 2.3% yesterday, is in correction territory – a drop of over 10% from the record it set at the end of October, 2025 (closing price – 23,958 points), the Dow Jones by 1.2% and the S&P 500, which fell by 1.7%, are also close to correction.

Oil prices jumped again and this time by 6% to a level slightly less than 108 dollars per barrel, American oil contracts rose by 3.5% to 94 dollars.

In Europe, trade is going down. Dax falls by about 1.5%, Kac loses 0.8%, Putsy sheds 0.3%.

Fears of a recession in the US are growing, as the rise in oil prices threatens to disrupt economic activity and burden consumers who are already under pressure, while markets are trying to assess how much the Fed will consider a spike in energy prices in its interest rate decisions.

Shares of memory chip manufacturers fell sharply for the second day in a row after Alphabet (Google) revealed yesterday a compression technology that may reduce memory consumption in artificial intelligence systems.

Google’s new technology, TurboQuant, makes it possible to compress the key-value cache component (a central component in large language models) to the level of only three bits, and without the need to retrain the models. According to the company, experiments have shown a six-fold reduction in memory consumption and up to an eight-fold performance improvement in some hardware.

Among the analysts, opinions are divided: Wells Fargo stated that if the technology is adopted on a large scale, it may reduce the demand for memory, but emphasized that the uncertainty is still high. On the other hand, Lynx Equity Strategies estimated that advanced compression is not expected to significantly harm the demand for memory in the coming years, mainly due to the supply limitations in the market.

Meta’s stock (Facebook) plummeted and lost about 120 billion dollars in market value after two consecutive legal rulings that determined that the company is responsible for harming young people through its products. In addition, a jury in California found that both Meta and Google (via YouTube) were negligent in operating products that harm children and teenagers. The main concern in the market is that these rulings will open the door to a wide wave of lawsuits, which may force Meta and similar companies to make significant changes to their products – which may harm growth and profitability in the future.

The uncertainty regarding the end of the war with Iran continues to affect the global debt markets as well. A review by investment portfolio management activists stated this week that the yield to maturity on 10-year US government bonds has risen relatively little since the beginning of the war, from 4% to 4.3%, but with considerable volatility. The volatility continued this week as well, and on Thursday there was an increase in government bond yields in both the US, the UK and Europe. This is against the background of rising oil prices and the fact that despite the optimism at the beginning of the week, there is still no progress towards the end of the war.

Government bond yields in the US and Europe rose on Thursday, as the uncertainty surrounding the war with Iran returns the focus to inflationary concerns, mainly through energy prices.

The markets are already pricing in a change in the approach of the central banks: about an 81% chance of an interest rate increase by the Bank of England next month (compared to ~65% the day before), an expected cumulative interest rate increase of about 75 basis points by the Central Bank of Europe by the end of 2026, a sharp change compared to the expectation of stability before the war and regarding the Fed, the market currently estimates a stop, with interest rates in the 3.50%-3.75% range as well in 2026.

The narrative is that an increase in energy prices (due to the geopolitical risk) could permeate the economy through transportation, production and consumer prices, so the central banks are less in a hurry to lower interest rates, and even consider raising them.