CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Lower, S&P 500 Index Down 3% This Year, US Crude Oil Pushed Near $100 Per Barrel 3/13/26

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

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I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Monday morning after a losing Friday for stocks and a down week. Major averages actually have arreased all their gains for the year, for that matter. Oil prices are elevated. U.S. crude oil rose to near $100 a barrel on Friday. The Dow was down 119 points on Friday, led lower by shares of Salesforce, which were down 3%. The S&P 500 index dropped 40 points, a half per cent. The Dow was down 10.5.5.5.0. The NASDAQ was down 206 points, 9 tenths of 1%. Everything that's gone on in the last couple of weeks, of course, pushes in the wrong direction, both on consumption and on inflation. That's CNBC's Mike Santoli. Here's Hightower's Stephanie Link on CNBC.

If you wait for certainty, you're going to miss a lot of opportunity. The S&P 500 is down about 3% year to date, but so many stocks and so many sectors are down so much more than that. And I think you have to be looking for bargains if you have a long-term time horizon. And here's a take from 314's Warren Pyes on CNBC. I think oil is driving the whole bus right now. I'm concerned, you know, we downgraded stocks a month ago. You look at the rates market. Cuts are gone.

Look at the crude oil curve. Farther dated contracts are coming up suggesting a longer, more projected route. And I think equities are related to the party. And I think next week is crucial. Oil prices remain elevated because about a fifth of the world's oil supply is stuck, unable to move out of the Middle East. Iran is threatening. The choke point for tankers, the Straits of Hormuz, it's too dangerous for ships to move there.

About a dozen have already been attacked. Here's Kepler's Matt Smith with CNBC's Steve Leesman. There are shoulder-launched missiles that from the land could hit a tanker. Yeah. So what does it mean to secure it? But Steve, it's not even that. It's drones as well. Drones too, right, right.

Our expectation is that you cannot make it safe. And even if you have like a naval escort, again, that's not going to prevent a drone strike either. And so this is the dilemma that we're in. Heading into the weekend, prices at the pump in the U.S. were up 65 cents per gallon for regular since the U.S. first attacked Iran, according to AAA. The war is entering its third week. The war that Trump has embarked on has caused gas prices to go up dramatic. those will continue to rise. When you add that on top of persistently high non-energy inflation,

they're seeing prices rise for food and premiums for health care going up. That's really putting a squeeze on their ability to spend. And consumer expenditures are the driver of GDP growth in this country. Former Biden administration treasury official Kitty Richards on CNBC. U.S. economic growth revised sharply downward for the fourth quarter, and new GDP numbers on gross domestic product, the government shutdown happened during that period. Inflation crept higher in January pre-war, with prices rising 2.8% compared with January of last year. Core inflation, when you take out volatile food and energy, saw prices rise 3.1%, the highest inflation in nearly two years. This is from the PCE personal consumption expenditures data. On the coming week's watch list, the Fed holds a two-day meeting on interest rates.

It's widely expected to hold them steady. We get earnings from Micron, FedEx, Macy's, five below, and more. Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day, and it is the final week of winter. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Ambition. It's got America written all over it. CNBC, live ambitiously.