Closing Bell - Closing Bell: Stocks Stage Late-Day Surge 3/9/26

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

President Trump told CBS that the Iran War is “very complete, pretty much.” That headline sent stocks higher – after a mostly down day. Plus, oil reversed course – falling as much as 7% during the final hour of trade. We discuss all these big moves with our expert guests, reporters and market correspondents. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And welcome to closing bell. I am Frank Holland in for the judge Scott Wapner. We're live from post nine at the New York Stock Exchange. This make or break hour begins with a big comeback. Stocks there well off their lows as oil pulls back from a historic price spike that sent WTI well above 100 bucks a barrel. Here's your scorecard with 60 minutes to go in this trading session. You can see quite a bit of red on this board. You're looking at the Dow down over 380 points. The S&P down just over a third of 1%. It's the NASDAQ. We saw it very briefly peek into the green earlier. Now, is just fractionally lower. Also take a look at WTI. I crude right now up almost 5%. And we'll look at some of the sectors as well here. Look at tech. It's up just about a third of 1%. Energy up about a quarter of 1%. Are racing earlier losses to move into the green. Health care also holding on to some gains. While the financials remain the worst hit sector in today's pullback and check out what's happening with the treasuries. Also take a look at the 10 year. You see the 10 year yield right now at 4.13. A lot of talk about a lack of activity in the bottom market. We'll talk about that and much more because we are all over the market.

Come back in this final stretch of the trading day. But first, before we get to all the market action, we want to get to what's happening in the oil market. And for that, we turn to CNBC's Aman Jhavers, live in D.C. With the very latest, Aman, what is the latest here? Well, Frank, what we know is this G7 Energy Ministers meeting that everybody's been looking forward to is on the schedule now for Tuesday morning. It's going to be a virtual meeting, I'm told. That is, you're not going to see ministers all around a table somewhere making a decision. But if you're looking for the G7 to sort of do a joint strategic oil release,

that is the decision point where they'll decide whether or not to do that. That comes tomorrow morning, East Coast time here in the U.S. And what I'm told by sources, Frank, is the U.S. position is this. The U.S. is saying that a joint release among the G7 of 300 to 400 million barrels representing 25 to 30 percent of the 1.2 billion total barrels in reserve. would be an appropriate decision. That is, the U.S. feels that's the way to go. We'll see whether the other G7 nations feel that's the way to go. And, of course, Frank, we'll watch to see if the market thinks that any action taken

to release from strategic reserves is enough to wet the demand that's out there in the global market. Yeah, certainly a lot to watch there. Again, that meeting happening tomorrow. Amon Javers live in D.C., Amen, thank you very much. Turning back to the oil market and the price action, oil well off the highs of the day, back below 100 bucks a barrel. Our PIPA Stevens joins us now with much more on that part of the story.

PIPA. Hey, Frank, it was a massive intraday move with WTI jumping 30% overnight and hitting a high of 11948. Now trading at 94 and 94 up just 4%. That reversal coming as the G7 energy ministers are set to meet tomorrow, as you just heard from Aiman Javers. Now, retail traders are taking note of Crude's Climb with Friday, the biggest day of retail buying in the U.S.O on record, according to Vanda research,

which said it may be emerging as the next mean theme. BTIG, Jonathan Krinsky, adding that as of 12 Eastern, the fund had already traded over $8 billion in notional volume by far an all-time record, and quote, another sign that this is a blow-off move. Now, in terms of where oil might head next, Kepler saying stall traffic for another week or two puts $130 very much in play, and the spread between the front month and sixth month Brent price is now above $20, the highest in our data back to 1990, pointing to concerns about a near-term shortfall. Frank? All right, Pippa, thank you very much.

Our Pippa Stevens back at CNBCHQ. For much more in today's market action, let's bring in our panel, Palumbo Wealth's Managements, Phil Palumbo, City, Scott Cronard and Wells Fargo, Scott Wren. Gentleman, thank you all for being here. Phil, since you're here at Post 9, why don't we start with you? We've seen a pullback in oil prices. We've seen equities make some recovery today. Do you think that tomorrow, if we get this release from these strategic reserves from G7 nations,

does that create a positive tailwind for the market? Is the overhang of an extended war? Does that still kind of loom over investors? Yeah, for me, which I said it from the beginning, I really believe it's the duration of the war. It's what's going to matter most, right? So the longer the duration, the longer the issues in the Straits are removes, the high of the price of oil goes, which will create economic issues. I don't know how much the release of the strategic reserves is going to make the overall markets,

maybe in the short term, maybe it's what you've seen today. But, Frank, at the end of the day, in the long term, for me, if it's the longer duration on this war, the more issues we're going to have with the price of oil and the volatility will have in markets in general. We're certainly seeing volatility lessened a bit today. We saw the VIX pulled back a bit. Scott Croner, I want to come over to you. A lot of things happening in the world, the Iran War being the very latest headline. You're sticking with your base price target of 7,700 for the S&P. Are you not concerned about this rise in oil prices? You're not concerned about some of this selling, whether it be oil-related or even before that AI disruption later. We saw it in software. We even saw it in transportation for a day or two.

Frank, thanks for having me on. Definitely concerned. There's no question about it. The list of issues that we have to contend with right now versus where we started the year is getting larger in Iran. And certainly the Strait of Hormuz is the next on this list. So what I would say here very simply, though, is that our view for this year has always been predicated on very strong fundamental trends. And right now, what we're looking at is a trajectory for S&P 500 earnings that is still up into the right. And potentially is going to be enhanced a little bit by some of the strength in oil of late. So the bottom line here is we're certainly monitoring a lot of these issues, looking for that ultimate economic consequence, which we haven't seen just yet. But generally speaking with, let's call it, you know, over nine months to go in the year, we still think it's a bit premature to be taking a shot at our full year base case.

All right, Scott Wren, I'm coming over to you. Just based on the market action today, I want to talk to you about financials. You see a lot of opportunity in the biggest banks. Does that thesis hold steady with the idea of higher oil prices, shaking consumer confidence, and perhaps impacting a lot of parts of their business when it comes to the consumer side? Well, I tell you, Frank, I think you can do all the statistical and modeling work that you want. And then when something like this happens, you have to make some assumptions. And our assumption is that this is a temporary spike in price.

that the Strait of Harmuse will be open, maybe not to 100% regular traffic, but a lot of regular traffic pretty soon. And so really, when we look at the underlying economy, we don't see a lot of negative effects. So financials have obviously performed pretty poorly here. We still think that the yield curve is going to steepen from here. I think there's going to be a better economy. We've got a 2.9% GDP number out there. I think inflation will stay moderate, even with this, what we consider likely a very temporary spike in oil prices, you know, you're going to see more merger and acquisition activity, more IPOs, more demand for loans. So for us, financials, really, we've liked financials. They did well. We all know what bank stocks have done

lately. They've come off a bit. This is a good opportunity. We're looking for opportunities to take advantage of the volatility that's out there because clearly the S&P 500 isn't all that far from the record high. I want to stick with that theme for a second. You say you're looking for opportunities. You say you want to add industrials and also utilities. So what opportunities are you seeing there? Yeah, well, I tell you, here's really the opportunity, Frank, is, you know, for us, we would be trimming energy exposure. I mean, if you're out there and you had an evenweight exposure in energy recently, you're overweight now. We'd trim that back to a neutral weight. We would take that money. We'd buy large cap. We'd buy mid-cap. We'd buy, you know, in industrials. and utilities and really in commodities exposure, which we've carried some commodities exposure. Anything that's energy related, we would back that off to neutral and we'd buy precious metals and industrial metals. So those are some of the opportunities right there. And I think that, you know,

for the market as a whole, what we would do, we want to still play that AI secular trend. That's why we like industrials and utilities. But for the market as a whole, you know, if we get some kind of pullback here, you know, seven to 10 percent kind of range. We think that's a really good opportunity. That's when you step in there to buy the market overall, not necessarily just focusing on the sectors that I just talked about. Scott Croner, a lot of people are trying to figure out where they should put their money. You're overweight when it comes to tech and financials. I want to go to tech for a second. Why tech right now? We've seen a lot of disruptions in tech from AI. Software in particular comes to mind. Where are you seeing the opportunities in tech? Yeah, so spot on.

So, Frank, we've already seen the sell-off on AI disruption concerns in software. We've seen the conviction in forward trajectories on the semiconductor side persist. Yet when you look at the tech sector in aggregate and the lead aid, as we call it, your P.E. to growth ratio is actually the lowest has been in going on 10 years. This is relative to growth expectations, the least expensive part of the market. So while I hear the other Scott in terms of financials, which were also overweight via the banks, I think right now the opportunity is in tech where not only do we have, I think, still very compelling growth opportunities over the next year or two, but additionally, you've sold off harder

in this key component of it, the software area, and should be less sensitive and aggregate to economic disruptions should that fall out from higher oil prices. All right. Everybody stick with me. You already got two Scots. We're going to have two fills in a second. We're looking at airlines right now, being impacted by those higher oil prices, as we mentioned. Our Phil Lobo is here with much more on that. Phil. You know, when you take a look at what's happened with jet fuel prices, Frank, another day where it's up, not a surprise here, given that they've seen the scope of the increase in crude oil prices. Look at jet fuel since the beginning of the year. It's doubled in

price. And for Argus research, they've gone back in their archives and they said, when was the last time we saw jet fuel at these prices? Got to go back to March of 2022, shortly after the beginning of the conflict between the Ukraine and Russia. For the airline stocks, what you're looking at now is another day where they're going to be under pressure. And they have been, although not down as much as they were earlier today. Earlier today, they were down anywhere between 5% and 7%. Now you see they're down anywhere between 1 and 3%, depending on which airline you're talking about. And finally, as you take a look at the airline index, keep in mind, the airline index is down, what, 21% in the last?

last three weeks, not even that, two weeks. So what you're looking at is a huge decline for the airlines overall. The bottom line is this. Here we're at this ISTAT conference in San Diego, Frank, talking with aircraft leasing companies, and almost everybody says the same thing. There's no sense that this is a horrific situation like in 2008, where you sat there and you said, okay, what's going to happen with the finances for a number of airlines? Because the demand remains strong, and there's no general feeling here, at least, or when you talk with airline executives, that this is going to be an extended issue. Certainly it could be.

But at this point, most people are banking on this being an increase in prices. How long it lasts? Nobody knows. But they're not looking at this of being a repeat of what we saw when we saw a huge surge in jet fuel prices, let's say in 2008. And there was an extended period of time with high jet fuel prices. Our Phil LeBelle with Look at the Airlines, Phil. Thank you very much.

We're going to turn back to our panel right now. I'm going to come back to the other Phil on the panel right now talking to you. We keep hearing people say, whether it's our reporters or the guests ever since. It's the biggest spike since this time. It's the biggest spike since that time. So clearly we're talking a lot about disruption, it's what you're looking at as well. You actually see a 10 to 20 percent drawdown in the markets coming up this year. Is it from this oil disruption?

Is it from something else? What are you saying? Yeah, so I've been pretty clear coming through this year. There's a couple of things that I've been looking at of why I believe there could be some volatility where you could see a 10 and 20 percent correction. Number one is any time you have a new Fed share, especially. Especially Kevin Worse, which is interesting because he's looking to bring the Fed balance sheet, I believe, down to mute inflation and bring interest rates down. With that, you're going to see volatility around that with markets. Historically, you've seen a correction with presidential mid-cycle with midterms, you get a correction, you get some volatility around there. And obviously with geopolitical unrest like we're seeing, you also get volatility. So when you put those strings to get three things together, coming off two back-to-backed years of a great, strong markets overall, that's where I think you see some volatility of around 10%. to 20% downside. So you're seeing some volatility, but you'll see some opportunity.

He gave us a couple of picks. Now, this one I thought was interesting. Uber. A lot of that business is discretionary. What are you saying, of course, some of it, you just have to get where you're going, but a lot's discretionary. Why are you seeing Uber as a stock to play here, impacted by higher gas prices, impacted by consumer spending as well? Yeah, so overall Uber is a business, reminds me like Google would search with chatGBT, where people re-rated Google to a low price. It was a great opportunity. We took advantage of that. We did really well. Same thing with software with CRM right now. You've seen the software sector get hit because they're anthropic.

I think Uber's like that with automata's vehicle. That's why you're seeing it get re-rated to a level of a fold multiple of 21 times. But the reality is that Uber has done a great job under the current CEO. It's a margin expansion store. It's a free cash flow generation expansion story. They'll top line revenue up 20%, bookings up 22%, year over year. It's turned into a great, mature business that I think will actually do well under autonomous vehicle. They've done a partnership with Nvidia, other OEMs, and I think their network of 200 million people per month.

I just think it's a great business that you can do well over time. And it's re-rated at a price would make sense. Scott Croner, I want to come over to you. We just had our Phil LeBoe talking about airlines and the impact that these higher fuel prices have caused. A lot of questions about consumer discretionary spending. Some part of airline travel certainly is that, Scott Croner. What's your view on the airlines and the take from Phil that a lot of executives believe that this is transitory, if you will, that these higher prices won't last forever and won't truly dampen consumer demand over the long term.

Well, I do think duration is key here. And that's very difficult to assess at this point. In terms of the state of the consumer, I think you're spot on with this point. You know, our concern, and this is why we've been underway consumer discretion staples all years, is basically that you have a fairly stretched consumer as it is on the heels of last year's tariff impact. some of the labor conditions continue soft out there. So while I do think from a longer-term perspective, yeah, how oil prices go and jet fuel in particular, I think you have to presume it's on a spike right now, and we'll find us way back lower. In terms of the consumer impact on travel, I think it's going to be fairly mitigated, but I think at a level here where we just have to be sensitive, right, that we have a fairly extended consumer that's going to be looking for a trade down off. where it can is the biggest theme going through this year. All right, Scott, Ryan, I want to come over to you. You believe, we've got to come full circle, of course.

You believe this spike in oil prices is temporary. If it is temporary, after this settles down, what sectors, what areas of the market do you see benefiting from, I guess, a side of relief from everyone that we aren't seeing a longer, prolonged escalation, not only in the Middle East, but also a continued escalation of oil prices? Yeah, well, I tell you, I think that for us, you're going to see good, growth here in the U.S. You're going to see good earnings growth. The rest of the world's going to do a little bit better, not a lot better. And so, you know, we want to be in these large-cap and mid-cap U.S. stocks. And from a sector perspective, I still think, I mean, you need to lean into sectors

that are going to benefit from not only AI, but just from a cyclical recovery. And we've seen the market broadening out, you know, big time since the middle of last October. And so I think if you have some confidence that consumer spending is going to stay up here. And, you know, if oil prices don't stay up here and gasoline prices come down, which we think is going to happen, they're going to have big tax rebates. And Americans who have jobs and money in their pocket, they're going to spend it. So I think the consumer discretionary sector, or not the sector, the consumer discretion to consumer spending, and then AI cap X is going to be huge. Those are going to continue to be big drivers here, but it's filtering down through the rest of the economy as well.

So I think you're going to see more stocks participating in terms of earnings, more stocks participating in terms of price within the S&P 500. And so, you know, broadening market is a good thing. And I think we're going to see it over the balance of the year after we get through this oil price spike. All right, gentlemen, we've got to leave the conversation there. Phil, Scott Cronard and Scott Wren, thank you all for your time if you're inside. All right now, look at the markets. By the way, the NASDAQ, very close to being in the green once again with that. Let's send it over to Christina Parts and Evelace for a look at the biggest names moving into the close.

Christina. Who is at the NASDAQ? Well, let's start with Live Nation. Adding roughly 4% after the company reached a settlement with the DOJ over antitrust concerns. The settlement would involve Live Nation's ticket master paying roughly $280 million and rolling back some of its exclusivity agreements to open the ticketing industry to, of course, greater competition. United Therapeutics moving even higher. about 9% after its board authorized a $2 billion buyback

with about roughly $1.5 billion for accelerated repurchase agreements with Citibank and the other $500 million available for additional buybacks just over the next year or so. Shares, though, have climbed roughly 60% just in the past year. And shares of Zinan, the pharmaceutical firm, surging about 45% right now after its seizure drug passed a key efficacy trial.

Zinon said its drug reduced seizure frequency more than the placebo, And it will seek FDA approval in the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald and Steefell both raised their price targets on those results as well. 45%. Now that's a stock move, Christina. That is a stock move right there. Christina Parts on the level list live from the NASDAQ, Christina.

Thank you very much. We'll see you just a bit later in the show. We're just getting started. Coming up next, rising gas prices they could hit retailers in a very big way. The name is most vulnerable to a pump price spike. And we're live from the New York Stock Exchange. You're watching closing bell right here on CNBC. And welcome back to closing bell. We want to take a look at the markets. As you can see right now, a lot of green on this board. A big shift from just a few minutes ago. Take a look. The S&P up about a third of 1%. The NASDAQ up about three quarters of 1%. You're seeing the moves of the NASDAQ in the red most of the day. Now just moving into the green. Similar story for the NASDAQ, big move to the upside as well. We saw the Dow very briefly turned into the green, going positive. Outless back there again. You can see very fractionally higher right now. The Dow will have just a few points. We're going to continue to watch these markets throughout the day and look for any headlines.

that seem to be moving the markets higher right now. Right now we want to turn back to the recent spike in oil prices, though, and how it could take a toll on some consumer-facing names from apparel to beauty to restaurants. Paying at the pump, it might leave a group of retailers at risk. Joining me now with exclusive insights, Michael Gunther, Consumer Edge, Senior Vice President of Research and Market Intelligence. Thank you for being here at Post-9.

Absolutely. So what we wanted to do with this oil price spike and result in gas price increase is look at consumer share of wallet, retailers. So understanding for each set of companies, what percentage of their spend goes to gas every month, every year. And the point of this is to understand if gas prices were to go up and stay up, these retailers could be most at risk because some of those dollars need to be reallocated to gas instead of going to more discretionary items. Okay. So it's basically how much people spend on gas and that they won't potentially have to spend on other goods,

because gas prices are rising. So why don't we start with beauty? What areas of beauty do you see possibly being impacted? Is it makeup? Is it, you know, hair products? I mean, what could potentially be impacted? So I think it's more about the retailer profile and what those consumers are like.

So a company like Sally Beauty could be more at risk than an Alta because, you know, it caters to a lower income consumer. Alta has a relatively high share of wallet toward gas among its consumers because it's in strip malls and things like that and you need to drive there. But Sally is definitely more dependent on that type of consumer. Well, that's kind of what I was getting to. Can you talk to us a little bit about off-priced retailers? That's an area that a lot of people have been talking about potentially being impacted.

And we've seen a leg down in a bunch of those names. Are there any that you expect to benefit or actually see a bigger decline due to these higher gas prices? So from that analysis, you know, Burlington and Ross were definitely high on that list. where their consumers could get most hit, certainly more than a name like TJ. You know, when you start thinking about dollar stores, something like dollar general could be more impacted than a dollar tree, given that it has that more suburban rural footprint than dollar tree. But certainly, you know, they're all catering to a consumer that is going to be on a lower income side of the equation, so they could be more impacted.

Is there one other area very briefly that's going to be especially impacted to the downside? You can see restaurants. I mean, Texas Roadhouse was on our list, Jack in the Box. Those are certainly drive-dependent, lower income, or value-oriented compared to some other names. So those are certainly wants to watch. Michael Gunther, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate that. Let's bring in Cowan Retail analyst Oliver Chen to talk a little bit more about the retail space and some names that could be impacted or possibly benefit even from some of these rising oil prices. Oliver, thank you for being here.

My pleasure. Great being here. Are there any retailers on your list of your coverage universe that can actually benefit from these higher gas prices? Yeah, we're excited about Walmart and Costco as consumers trade down and look for value. You know, the number one principle of Walmart is everyday low prices. And Walmart also has a great technology story. So at Walmart, you're really getting both. Costco we like as well.

It's a subscription model. And it's famous for value. And both of these retailers have low gas prices too. So it's kind of a double benefit. They have lower gas prices if you're part of their membership club. And by the way, you have a buy rating on both of those names. Walmart, you have at about a 145. I want to get to one of your other names that I thought was interesting because we spent a lot of time talking about the K-shaped economy.

One of the names that's on your buy list for retailers, a luxury name is Rishman. They make Van Cleef and Arpels, I believe it is, also Cartier. You have this at a buy. How is this benefiting from higher gas prices? Don't higher gas prices impact everybody. Yeah, what we are seeing with this bifurcation is a much stronger, higher income consumer. and specifically within luxury goods, gold and jewelry and hard luxury, that's been outperforming handbags and soft luxury.

So the higher-end consumer is less impacted by everything that's manifested. However, we're watching consumer confidence and sentiment. Bottom line is we like Richemont as a top luxury pick, and on the value side, we like Walmart and we like Costco. So that's one way to think about it. Oil prices and gas will be a tax on the consumer, it's about $450 per household every 50 cent increase. And that could yield about a 30 basis point headwind to overall spending as well as inflation.

Okay. Our previous guest mentioned ALTA may have more resistance to some of the price pressure from gasoline. I think you agree with that as well. You have a buy and a 725 price target on ALTA. What makes ALTA, I mean, I don't know how to put it other than rising gas price resistant? Well, beauty is a category, as you know, which has so much loyalty. and also beauty in many ways is an essential good. Ulta's a portfolio manager of beauty,

and that half is cosmetics, 20 hair care, 20 skin care, and that customer is very sticky. Also, Ulta has a new CEO. She's doing a great job bringing in new brands as well, and that's an important story to tell. So the beauty industry is generally more resilient. Apparel is going to be a lot tougher, and home and large ticket will be tougher, too,

as discretionary overall. Beauty falls somewhere in between. It is a must-have item. you know, for certain people, and you don't mess with hair. And when you love a skincare product, you're loyal. Cosmetics has a little more volatility. But overall, we like Ulta. We like the growth story.

It's a special specialist. I think that's what I was trying to get to with our previous guest. There's difference between makeup and hair and skincare and things like that. I mean, I think everybody, it's an individual thing, but everybody sees it a bit differently. I want to also talk to you about some other parts of your notes. You're seeing the consumers making decisions choicefully. Yeah. Who benefits from that?

Who gets more hurt from that as a, this choiceful consumer goes out in the world. potentially with less money to spend. What's really hot is private brands like Kirkland at Costco. Consumers are gravitating towards private label. And who benefits is this everyday low price strategy where it's very simple to the consumer. Walmart's executing really well on pricing. Costco is too.

In addition, we're seeing lots of new brands come to these channels. We also structurally like the off-price channel. Those companies, too, benefit. So this choiceful behavior, consumers have money in their pockets. They're just being very selective about when they choose to spend. And unemployment overall is low. The consumer is fundamentally sound but sentimentally weak. That's interesting.

Oliver Chen, great to have you here at Post 9. My pleasure. Thank you very much. My pleasure. All right, we are getting some breaking news out of D.C. Our Aman Javvers has the very latest for us. Amen. Over to you.

Frank, you guys have been highlighting that all major averages have now turned positive. And the reason for that appears to be a social media post by CBS News. Their reporter, their reporter Ouija Jang, has just posted that she's been on the phone with President Trump this afternoon. She says in a phone interview, President Trump told me, the war could be over soon. Quote, I think the war is very complete pretty much. They have no Navy, no communications. They've got no air force.

He added that the U.S. is very far ahead of its initial four to five week estimated time frame. That post from Ouija Jang of CBS News based on her conversation with President Trump a short time ago. And that comment that the war could be over soon, The war is very complete, pretty much, says the president of the United States to CBS. I think that is a clear rhetorical shift for Trump in the most recent days of this war. What he has said over the weekend was he's prepared to do whatever it takes. This will go on as long as it takes to complete the mission. Now a very different signal here from the president.

That's possibly being read by market participants as something bullish for the market, given all the concerns about the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices, and the like. it's going to leave a lot of open questions, Frank. How will the president extricate himself from the war if that's the direction he intends to go? And what will the Iranians do? Will they, in fact, allow traffic to continue in the Strait of Hormuz or will they continue to keep it under siege in order to put pressure on the U.S. administration? And then what's the impact of having an Iran that will now be headed by a new Ayatollah,

whose father and wife were killed by U.S. airstrikes or allied air strikes anyway. That all sort of TBD, but for right now, this does seem to indicate at least a rhetorical shift from the president pointing toward something of an endgame. We'll watch and we'll wait and we'll see. Too early to read more than just that little bit into it, but at least that seems to be affecting the markets right now. Frank? You know, Amon, it's important to point out this is certainly a developing situation. by the way, we're looking at oil, and it's much more than a by the way, down about 2.5% trading at about 8,40 per barrel. I want to go back to some of your earlier reporting.

He talked about the U.S. support for the release of oil reserves. Now, I know you've been working the phones. Is there any sense that the president's thought about that has changed, about releasing the reserves, if he now believes the war could end imminently or shortly? Yeah, it's a good question, Frank. I don't have any reporting that the president has formulated any opinion on that related to, you know, kind of end game for the war and obviously the two things would be on sort of different tracks it's the Department of Energy now that's taking the lead in terms

of the strategic petroleum reserve and where that needs to be going into that G7 energy ministers meeting tomorrow the president obviously working with the Pentagon on all of the war planning and you know I think that if the president does move toward an end game for the for the war maybe he doesn't need the strategic petroleum reserve move tomorrow But it all depends really on the timeline and the timeline is so unpredictable. The president himself has said, you know, in war, things that you don't expect can happen. The enemy gets a vote, of course.

And so, you know, he might not be as in control of that timeline as he might like to be. Amon Javers, live in D.C. with the latest on this very much a developing story right now. Again, looking at oil prices. Oil moving lower in the negative right now. Last check down about 3%. All right. Still ahead, much more on this big market turnaround. Closing Bell. We'll be right back.

All right. Welcome back to closing the bell. We just want to point out oil right now, trading at about 8,40, a barrel, down over or just about 8.5%. You see a lot of movement right there. And then look at the reaction when it comes to the equity market. In the green across the board, the S&P up almost 1%. The NASDAQ up almost 1.5% the Dow, gaining 300 points, quite the turnaround. For more on what's next for the market. Let's bring in Baker Avenue's King Lip.

King, thank you for joining us. Hi, Frank. Thanks for having me. I just want to get your take. I mean, obviously, the decline in oil prices is a big factor in this drop and this turnaround. But just kind of give me your take. Why are we seeing tech see the biggest gains, or specifically the NASDAQ 100, see the biggest gains? Well, you know, tech, first of all, has very little exposure to oil and energy for the most part. But we've seen that sector, you know, sell off quite a bit.

And I think the valuations are quite attractive at these levels, given the recent sell-off. All right. So if the valuations have become more attractive to this recent sell-off, when we're looking at this recovery, that seems to be taking shape at least today with the idea that this war could be ending sooner than later. What areas of the market would you put money to work in? Would you go back to software? Do you see opportunities there? Is it about the chip trade? Where?

Yeah, I think investors are going to be more selective when going back into tech. We don't think it's a buy everything in tech type of market. I first will lean into the AI enablers first. That's the picks and shovels, if you would. So semiconductors, networking, data center infrastructure. There's, as you know, 650 billion in CAPEX going into these industries. Next, I will look at high-quality software. Companies like ServiceNow look very attractive to us.

these CEOs just started buying shares, names like Salesforce, even software names like Viva just reported, those look very attractive, and their earnings growth is also very strong. But King, I want to be clear, if we are seeing a turnaround on this market, under the premise, at least for today, that we could be seeing an end to the war. It'd be software? Because, I mean, I understand the valuation is much lower due to the sell-off in recent days, but aren't there other parts of the market that would benefit if investors believe, once again, we're going to have a strong economy and we are going to see strong consumer spending.

I see some of the other names here, Apple and Amazon coming to mind, two names, very exposed to the consumer. That's exactly right. I mean, one of the major concerns about higher energy prices was how is going to affect the consumer. So if this war is going to, you know, end fairly soon, we hope, then consumer stocks are likely going to benefit. So the apples, the Amazon's, even some of the cyclical, you know, sectors are going to benefit. think from lower inflation outlook. All right, King Lip, thank you very much. Again, some of your picks, Apple and Amazon, and the tech space.

All right, coming up next here on closing bell, we're all over this move higher in stocks. As we head into the close, closing bell. We'll be right back. All right, welcome back to closing bell. Take a look at the price of WTI. Right now you're seeing it pullback just about 6% trading at about 8530 a barrel. The rest of the market, the market, the major indices, I should say, solidly in the green as we've seen oil prices decline.

Right now, the Dow up about a half of percent. The S&P up three quarters of one percent. The NASDAQ, the best performer, up about one and one quarter of one percent. And turn it to one stock that's been in the green all day. That's Hems and HERS. Let's get to Brandon Gomez with much more in the big move for that name, Brandon. Hey, Frank. Yeah, look, shares of Hymns and hers soaring after announcing a new partnership with Novo Nordisk.

Now, if this feels familiar, it is. The two companies struck a deal about a year ago and then split. Now they're getting back together. This time, Novo says Hymns will stop promoting its compounded weight loss drugs that was a major sticking point in the first partnership. Now, Novo was frustrated back then with how slowly Hymns was moving users to its Wagovi and OZempic drugs. CEO Andrew Dutum told me that Novo now has varying dosages and an oral option that meets consumers' affordability and personalization needs, making it easier to move patients over. And in return, Novo is dropping a lawsuit it filed against HIMS. Now, the legal clouds aren't gone just yet, Frank.

No resolution to the Justice Department's investigation into Hymns. Regulatory scrutiny is still in play here, so we'll have to see how the company responds to the D.C. investigation. We will have to see a big, huge stock pop today. Shares of Hems and hers up over 40%. Brandon Gomez, right here at Post 9. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Coming up next on closing bell, we have much more on this big move in the markets and in oil.

That much more. We take you inside the market zone. We're now on the closing bell market zone. Mike Santoli and Crossmark Global is Victoria Fernandez. They're here to break down these crucial moments of the trading day. Plus, our PIPA Stevens, she's here with the late day move in oil. And Christina Pards and Evelyn has a preview of HBE's report that comes out in overtime. Mike, let's start with you.

What do you make of this incredible turnaround? Obviously, we've seen oil prices decline quite a bit. Last check down about 5%. Well, obviously, this market refused for the last week plus to get too far away from the possibility that the Iran crisis could be relatively contained. The spike in oil prices was not going to be something that was with us for very long. So therefore, this very hint that maybe the president could be signaling a wind down or some kind of de-escalation, whether it happens or not, is going to be taken by the market as a signal that maybe, you know,

we are under that benign scenario. So that's what I would take it as. We obviously were spring-loaded on the downside. You already had a big intraday recovery from the overnight lows in equity fuel. and obviously in the highs in oil futures. So it brings the S&P back to levels. We were just out a couple of sessions ago, so it doesn't necessarily fix all the damage or take care of a lot of the other concerns that were weighing on the market aside from Iran, but definitely going to be seen as one thing that might be able to clarify the path ahead and maybe put the market

on a little bit of firmer footing after some pretty significant selling in pockets of the tape. Mike, we're just about six minutes away from closing bell overtime. What do you have coming up? Well, we're obviously going to dissect this whole move. We have Halimacroft from RBC about the whole geopolitics around Iran, as well as Jason Furman, former Council of Economic Advisors Chair, who's going to talk to us a little bit about the inflation story and what it means for the economy. All right, Mike Santoli, OT coming up in just about six minutes. Mike, thank you. We want to send things over to our PIPPA Stevens with a look at this big move when it comes to oil.

Pippa. Really, Frank, a stunning reversal here for oil, sinking now after President Trump told CBS, The war could be over soon, saying the war is very complete, pretty much, adding that he is thinking about taking over the strait of Hormuz. The Trump administration also reportedly weighing a further easing of Russian oil sanctions. That is, according to Reuters. Now, Groot had a massive run-up with the market opening at pretty extreme levels and margin calls that were really forcing the issue for some participants.

That's according to CIBC, private wealth, Rebecca Babin. So not a big surprise to see a pullback here, but she said it will take actual execution, not just announcements, for the oil market to settle WTI now down 5% at 8655. Frank? Our Pippa Stevens. I want to send things over to Christina, well, Christina Parts in Nevelas, with a look at what to watch from HBE coming up in overtime. Well, Frank, HPA has been just navigating a tough memory cost environment, a lot of original equipment manufacturers for that matter. The company builds servers in storage and when memory chip prices spike, so do their costs. The company did take pricing actions late last year, but analysts are just questioning whether those moves went far enough. Networking is expected to be a very bright spot, boosted by HPE's acquisition of Juniper Networks, which expanded its enterprise portfolio.

The two sales forces merged January 1st, and investors want to see early signs that integration is paying off. On AI servers, shipments are back half-weighted, so watch for commentary on demand visibility. rather than results. Near-turn numbers are expected to be solid, though the real question is whether memory headwinds will eat into margins enough to threaten full-year guidance, Frank. All right, Christina Parts in Evelace.

earnings coming up in OT, Christina. Thank you very much. We now want to bring in Victoria Fernandez of Crossmark Global Investments. Victoria, good to see you, especially on a day like this. We've got to start with this move in oil. Huge downside move when it comes to oil.

We see the major indexes moving higher. What is your take? You're saying this is a headline-driven market. It was headlines. They moved us into the green when it comes to the S&P, the Dow and the NASDA. Yeah, I think that's exactly it, Frank. I mean, it was headline-driven and concern around the price of oil when we heard that the straight was going to be closed. We saw what happened there. And especially last night, overnight, looking at what the price of oil did and how that drove the S&P down below that December low. We were getting to the point where we were going to have to be concerned about that 200-day moving average. But I think another

important component of this is look what it did to bond yields. We were up last night over 420, so almost to the top of that four to four and a quarter range that we have been in for so many months. And now we're back down. We were below 410 a moment ago. So really that moved down in yields is telling us one. I think there's less inflationary pressure people are expecting because of the drop in oil. And then obviously lower yields is helping certain components of the equity market. We've seen semis actually do really well this afternoon and pick up. Some of that probably has to do with yields coming down as well. Now, Ventura, someone else you were watching is what you say is a rotation away from tech.

But as I look at the markets recover today, it's all about tech. I'm seeing Nvidia is the biggest point gainer on the S&P, followed by Broadcom, followed by Alphabet, followed by Apple. I could just keep going with tech names down the line. What does that say about investor sentiment that when we do see a moment for a potential recovery, people flood back into tech? They really do. It's a very quick move. So all of that concern that we've had over the last couple of weeks, the Cetrini research report, all of the issues around AI and CAPEX, it almost just disappeared. And people went right back in. So they're looking for where can they go for growth? Where is that component going to be if they think that the larger growth story might start to slow down? If the global economy slows down a little bit because of the issues that we've seen in the Middle East, if so, I think they're looking at some of these techniques. and saying, but wait, this is where we can go in. And if we have yields coming down, that's actually positive for these tech names.

So there's a couple reasons I think people are looking at tech and saying maybe it's worth going back in with valuations having come down as much as they have. Okay, with the headlines we have and the information we have right now, which is the president says he believes that we're close to this war ending. And also there's plans potentially to release petroleum reserves.

You said it was a high-risk bull market. Is it still a high-risk bull market? Is it still a bull market? I do think it's still a high-risk bull market. When we look at what happened before strike started a little over a week ago, you were looking at economy that potentially you could see that bull market continued run because capex was good, productivity was good, earnings were good, that got disrupted for a little bit of time here. If this turns out to be almost over, which again, these relative terms make me a little bit nervous.

But if we're close to having it over, I think investors in the market look back to where we're were before those strikes started and pick up there saying, look, ISMs were doing better, investors were part of that rotation and broadening out, investment-grade spreads were holding their own. There's some elements there that tell you you could still have a bull market, but there's still a lot of questions as to how this plays out, so it is still high risk. All right. I know you don't have a crystal ball, but we are seeing yields go down, oil prices go down. The VIX go down quite significantly. Where do you put money to work right now? if this train continues with the idea that investors believe the war is going to come to an end.

Yeah, so we haven't changed our outlook over the six to 12 month horizon with what we're doing in our portfolios. I think you continue to look at those sectors that over the past few months have been in those uptrends. Energy was doing in an up, was in an up trend before the strikes happened. I think it continues to do that afterwards. You were seeing some promising moves out of healthcare, industrials. I think you continue to put money to work in these areas. Staples have gotten a little over sold or overbought at this point in time, so I wouldn't chase those. But look at those areas where you're seeing up trends, and that's where you're going to put money.