CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, Oil Slips Back Below $100 per Barrel, Gas Prices Rose Again Over The Weekend 3/16/26

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

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I'm Jessica Eddinger. CNBC, Wall Street's in the green this morning. Investors are hopeful that oil prices are pulling back. The Dow up 361 points. Invidia shares leading it higher, they're up 2%. The S&P 500 index up 66 points. That's just about 1% this morning. The NASDAQ up 253 points, more than 1%. Bitcoin, at its highest since early February, at around $74,000. Gold is pulling back, but still above $5,000 an ounce. Silver hovering around $80 an ounce. On oil, here's MCC Global Enterprise's CEO Michelle Caruso-Cbrera on CNBC. WTI is trading at 97. A week ago, it was at 100, so it's lower than it was a week ago. So the market's telling you that they don't think this is a long-term situation.

Why do they think that? First of all, there hasn't been actual real destruction of any important energy. infrastructure, right? That would lead to permanent supply disruption. Number two, when it comes to the very strict military objectives that the U.S. has had to destroy the Navy, destroy their ability with ballistic missiles, destroy their drone capacity, the U.S. and Israel have actually been extremely effective. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says the U.S. is allowing Iranian tankers through the Strait of Hormuz without attacking them to help boost the global oil supply and ease the price of oil. We are seeing more and more the fuel ships start to go through. The Iranian ships

have been getting out already, and we've let that happen to supply the rest of the world. We've seen Indian ships go out now, so the Indians who rely very heavily on Gulf oil, we believe some Chinese ships have gone out. So that, and that should start ramping up. Prices at the pump did go up again over the weekend for U.S. drivers, though. AAA says the national average for a gallon of regular is now $3.72, about an extra 80 cents a gallon since before the U.S. first attacked Iran a little more than two weeks ago. For the average SUV with an 18 to 20 gallon tank, that's about an extra $14 for every fillup that consumers are facing.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Besson told CNBC's Brian Sullivan, the U.S. war in the Middle East is not becoming an oil crisis. The world is really worried about shortages and also the inflationary effect here and abroad. Yeah, Brent, can we just be clear here? It's two weeks. It's two weeks. And I know the media likes to move things along. We see this headlines. And that's part of the Iranian strategy. And it's very unfortunate that because of a dislike for President Trump, not to you, but a lot of mainstream media are trying to speed this up, trying to make it into some crisis that it's not. And on the other side of this, if you look at longer dated crude,

you look at future inflation expectations, they're both very well anchored, and this will end. And I don't know how many weeks it will be, but on the other side of this, the world will be safer and we will be better supplied. President Trump may delay his summit with China's President Xi in Beijing later this month. to stay in Washington for the Iran War. Cotton futures popping higher as fertilizer supplies are stalled out in the Middle East because of the war. This could impact the price of clothing down the road. Invidia's annual GPU technology conference is on today. The keynote is CEO Jensen Wong. Full

coverage here at CNBC. Warner Brothers won battle after another. Won best picture at the Academy Awards last night. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. CNBC Cures, defying rare disease, premieres Thursday, 7 Eastern.