The Rundown - Oil Prices Pull Back, Live Nation Settles Major Antitrust Case

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Market update for March 10, 2026. Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK)Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode:Oil briefly spikes near $120 before plunging back into the $80sLive Nation reaches a settlement with the DOJ and avoids Ticketmaster breakupRivian jumps after an analyst upgrade ahead of its new R2 launchKohl’s stock drops as sales continue to declineAmazon’s Zoox expands robotaxi testing into Phoenix and Dallas

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Tuesday, March 10th. In today's episode, we'll take a look at why oil prices are coming down. We'll also explain the ticket master antitrust settlement and why the company might still get broken up. Then stick around to the end of the show to learn more about Amazon's Robotaxy expansion. We got a great show for you today. Let's go.

Well, the markets had an epic comeback to start the week. Both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ opened Monday down about 1.5% as investors were still reacting to the chaos in the oil markets. But as the day went on, buyers stepped in and stocks ripped higher into the close. By the market closed, the S&P 500 finished up 0.8%, and the NASDAG jumped 1.4%. That turnaround marked one of the biggest intraday revives. reversals we've seen in nearly a year. And a big reason for that comeback was oil prices finally cooled off. In fact, it was a pretty dramatic reversal. At one point, crude oil briefly searched

to around $119 a barrel, which sparked fears that energy prices could spiral out of control. But then prices started suddenly pulling back, and oil is now trading around the mid-80s range. The sell-off in oil yesterday was sparked by comments from President Trump, who told reporters that the conflict involving Iran was very complete. pretty much. That's a direct quote right there. Markets interpreted that as a signal that the worst of the oil supply disruption might be over, and then oil tankers would start sailing through the strait of Hormuz again. In fact, there were reports that a few tankers actually made it through the straight, which is a positive development and likely led to the oil prices selling off.

You know, at this point, the price of oil is basically dictating the direction of the stock market right now. When oil spikes, investors worry about inflation and economic slowdown and higher cost for businesses, but then when oil pulls back, it's like a pressure valve releasing across the entire market. And right now, the market is being pretty optimistic about the situation. Personally, I still think there's a lot of uncertainty. So we might be in for a volatile stretch in the markets over the next couple days. I can't imagine what oil traders are going through right now is seeing oil trade like a meme stock over the last 24 hours. I mean, that is not normal. So in the near term, I think every headline about the war, the straight-of-hormuz or a potential

ceasefire is going to move stocks. We're staying on top of it all, so make sure you guys are subscribed for the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines. Starting with Live Nation. Live Nation is the parent company of Ticketmaster, and they have reached a tentative settlement with the Department of Justice in a high-profile antitrust case.

This is a lawsuit that the government filed back in May of 2024. They accused Live Nation of running an illegal monopoly, across the live music industry. The government said that Live Nation was pressuring venues into exclusive ticket master deals and threatening to pull concerts from arenas that used a rival ticketing company and also drive up prices for fans.

So just to give you a sense of how dominant the company is, Live Nation put on 55,000 events last year. They sold 646 million tickets and they pulled in $25 billion in revenue. That is more revenue than Spotify and Universal Music Groups. All in all, Ticketmaster controls about, 80% of ticketing at major concert venues in the U.S. So at one point, the DOJ was even pushing for a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster

altogether, which merged back in 2010 with the government's approval. Well, that breakup is not happening. Instead, the company settled. Under this settlement, Live Nation will allow venues to use multiple ticket providers instead of being locked into Ticketmaster exclusively. On top of that, some of the exclusive venue agreements that Ticketmaster has will be unwound or limited. Ticketmaster is also capping service fees at 15%. They're paying around $280 million in civil penalties as part of the settlement. Now, this deal still needs to get approval from the court and from several states that were

also part of the lawsuit. And some state attorney generals are already saying this deal doesn't go far enough. These attorney generals want a full breakup and not a slap on the wrist. So Live Nation and Ticketmaster are not completely out of the woods yet. Also, they're facing a separate investigation by the FTC into ticket resale practices. Now, Live Nation stock was up like 5% on Monday following the settlement news, but I wouldn't be surprised if the stock gives that back. You know, there's still a lot of regulatory uncertainty here.

Personally, I would love it if we had cheaper ticket prices, and I wouldn't have to pay 25, 30% on random fees just to buy a concert ticket. Let's shift gears and talk about SpaceX. The SpaceX IPO is right around the corner, and according to a report from Reuters, the company is targeting a valuation of around $1.75 trillion, which would be the biggest IPO ever. Now, according to the same report from Reuters,

SpaceX is leaning towards listing its shares on the NASDAQ exchange. But as a condition of listing, they want early inclusion in the NASDAQ 100 index, which includes companies like Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon. This would be pretty unusual because normally, newly public companies have to wait up to a year before they can join a major index. But NASDAQ is proposing a new rule

that would allow mega-cap IPOs like SpaceX to enter the index in just a few weeks if they're large enough. And that's a big deal because once a company gets added to a major index, every index fund that tracks it has to automatically buy the stock. That means a massive wave of institutional money flowing in automatically, which could be a boost to the stock price. And that could help SpaceX avoid the classic post-IPO hype sell-off

that we've seen with other high-profile IPOs. So yeah, the anticipation for the SpaceX IPO is building. They're targeting a June IPO, so I'm sure we're going to be talking a lot more about it as we get closer to the debut. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Rivian are moving higher this morning after the EV maker got an upgrade from T.D. Cohen. This upgrade is largely about the company's next vehicle, the Rivian R2, which is expected to launch this summer. The R2 is a smaller, more affordable electric SUV with a starting price of around $45,000, which is a huge discount from Rivian's current.

flagship SUV, the R1S, that starts at closer to $80,000. T.D. Cohen thinks this lower price point will be a big boost for the company. They're projecting long-term demand of $212,000 to $335,000 units for the R2. To put that in perspective, Rivian only delivered about 42,000 vehicles in total in all of 2025. So if these numbers are even close to being right, it would be a big boost for the company. Cohen slapped a $20 price target on the stock, which is about 25% upside from where it closed yesterday. As of right now, Rivian shares are up more than 5% this morning and trading around $16 a share. Now, on the flip side, Coles is getting hammered this morning after the retailer reported yet another quarter of falling sales.

Comparable sales dropped 2.8% in the fourth quarter, worse than the 1.5% decline that Wall Street was expecting. And that marks 16 straight quarters of year-over-year decline for Coles. I mean, that is wild when you think about it. The company hasn't grown revenue in four plus years. Now, net income and earnings did beat estimates, but investors don't care about profits when the top line keeps shrinking. And look, the outlook isn't getting much better. Coles expects sales in 2026 to be either down 2% to flat.

So that's not very encouraging. The reality is people just aren't shopping at Coles anymore, myself included. And I think with more and more people working from home, there's just less demand for people to buy the generic dress shirts that Coles is known for. That's why the stock has lost more than 75% of its value in the past five years. and shares are down more than 8% this morning in reaction to the earnings. Actually, quick correction, I just checked Cole's stock again. It was down like 8% this morning, and now it's up like 5% at the open.

So I guess someone came in and bought the dip. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Amazon's Robotaxy Service, Zooks, is expanding to Phoenix and Dallas. Zooks currently only operates in San Francisco in Las Vegas, but they're expanding quickly. They're now testing in 10 different sales. cities. The reason they pick Dallas and Phoenix is pretty interesting. They want to test their sensors and batteries against extreme heat. Then you add in the dust and the wide open sprawling highways. It's a

very different environment from the tight city streets of San Francisco. Now, during the testing phase, they're going to be sending out a small fleet of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders with a safety driver behind the wheel to mat the roads. Once that's done, they'll bring in their custom-built robo taxis, which look way different than Waymo, by the way. These Zook's cars don't have a steering wheel or anything. It's literally a box on four wheels. You know, Zooks doesn't get the same level of buzz as a Waymo or a Tesla does. Amazon bought the company for $1.3 billion back in 2020, and they've served more than 300,000 riders since launching in Las Vegas and San Francisco. Now, to be fair, that's a fraction of the 20 million that Waymo has done, but Amazon is expanding quickly. In fact,

they're building a massive factory in the Bay Area that could eventually pump out 10,000 robotaxies a year. So the Robotaxy Wars are here. So the Robotaxy Wars are here. eating up. And I think that Amazon could be a sleeping giant here. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did, and you have like five extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you are listening on Spotify, don't forget to vote in today's Spotify poll. Leave us a comment on Spotify. All that engagement really does help us out, and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys so much for listening.

watching and commenting shout out to mike and connor for all the work behind the scenes and we'll see you guys back here tomorrow