WSJ What’s News - Oil Slides in Wild Trading After Trump Suggests Iran War Could End Soon

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

P.M. Edition for Mar. 9. It’s been a stunning day for oil markets. The U.S. oil benchmark dropped to about $85 a barrel, after surging above $119 last night. WSJ reporter David Uberti discusses how the Iran war is scrambling the outlook for fuel. Plus, Pixar’s “Hoppers” had the biggest opening weekend for an original animated movie since 2017. We hear from Journal entertainment reporter Ben Fritz about whether this could be a new franchise for Disney. And Anthropic has sued the Trump administration. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. Oil prices reverse, falling more than 20% from their overnight peak and ending below $100 a barrel. This is some of the wildest commodity trading on record, and it just speaks to the uncertainty in the market of how long the conflict in Iran and the broader Middle East is going to go. Plus, Anthropics sues the Trump administration for trying to end its contracts with the federal government. And could Pixar's latest movie be the big new franchise Disney wants? It's Monday, March 9th. I'm Alex Oslo. for the Wall Street Journal.

This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. It's been a wild day for oil prices, which sank 20% from their peak last night and then fell 5% more in after-hours trading. One big reason, the group of seven advanced economies

is prepared to release strategic oil reserves if they're needed to stabilize the market. And then CBS News reported that President Trump said he believes that, quote, the war is very complete pretty much. At the pump, though, many Americans are already feeling the squeeze. Gas prices have climbed 17% to an average $3.48 a gallon since the war started.

Some experts are predicting that it could hit $4 a gallon by the weekend. And, of course, people are posting about gas prices on social media. So regular has gone up about 70 cents in a week or so. which is kind of crazy. Prices over here. $4.79 on the regular. $4.79 on the regular. Extra $5.59.

Guys, if you have not gotten gas, you may want to, because they're even saying tomorrow that the gas prices are going to go up. To discuss what this means for markets, I'm joined by WSJ reporter, David Uberti. David, in late trading, the U.S. oil benchmark was dropping below $90 down from a high of $100, down from a high of $119 a barrel, what does that tell us about trader's state of mind? In short, that nobody knows what's happening or what the outlook is going forward. This is some of the wildest commodity trading on record,

and it just speaks to the uncertainty in the market of how long the conflict in Iran and the broader Middle East is going to go, and the extent to which that's going to actually snarl physical supplies of oil that manufacturers, farmers, and different types of companies around the world really rely on. And who is benefiting from this huge run-up in oil prices? The winners in the market are the companies that produce oil that are not in the line of fire. So if you're an oil producer in West Texas or New Mexico, you are about to get a windfall profit from some of these price increases that we are seeing. And obviously, the longer it goes on, the more that will boost their bottom lines.

The losers are everyone else who consumes oil, construction crews, manufacturers, big farming companies. oil and all of the byproducts that are created when we produce it go into basically every facet of the modern economy. In addition, natural gas is a very key input for a lot of manufacturers around the world. They are going to experience price increases, if not already. What is the worst case scenario that analysts are envisioning? I mean, Iran is threatening $200 a barrel for oil. Is that possible or even likely? It's certainly possible.

The extent to which it's likely is really an open question. right now, major analysts that we follow suggest that if oil shipments for the Strait of Hormuz are disrupted for weeks longer, it could push prices up to $150 a barrel. And that will have a really big impact on U.S. economic growth and U.S. inflation expectations. That's bad for markets broadly. Yeah, what are some of the political ramifications of that if people are already starting to feel this at the pump? And then it just potentially gets even more exacerbated as this conflict continues. Gasoline prices are the prices that Americans see most commonly in their day-to-day lives. You drive past them on your way to work.

You fuel up your tank of gas. President Trump staked his reelection in large part on bringing down prices, including energy prices, in a very big way. And now we're seeing gasoline and diesel, in particular, along with all the other byproducts of petroleum, they're actually trading higher than they were when Trump took office. But if you look at the global economy broadly, the U.S. might be a net winner. Europe and Asia rely on imports from the Middle East for a lot of their energy. And you're seeing global markets tied to some of those economies fall in a much, much bigger way than they are in the U.S. The impacts are really hard to suss out because you have,

on one hand, those windfall profits to producers, which obviously feed into investors' returns. On the other hand, you have the hit to consumers' bottom lines. That was WSJ reporter, David Uberti. Thanks, David. Thanks. The president's reported comments to CBS also helped. helped lift stocks. The NASDAQ led indexes with a 1.4% gain. The Dow rose half a percent or 239 points after being down almost 900 points in early trading. And in other updates on the war, we're reporting that the president has told AIDS he would back the killing of the new Iranian

Supreme Leader, Moshtaba Hamini, if he's unwilling to accept U.S. demands. That's according to current and former U.S. officials. Hamini is the son of the former Supreme Leader who was killed by an Israeli airstrike during the conflict. He's seen as a hardline successor to his father. President Trump also said in an interview with the New York Post today that he is, quote, nowhere near deploying U.S. troops to Iran to secure nuclear material. Eight U.S. military personnel have been seriously wounded, in addition to the seven that have been killed in the conflict.

More than 36,000 Americans have returned from the Middle East since the conflict began. The air war continues with NATO air defenses intercepting an Iranian ballistic missile that entered Turkish airspace. Separately, two men were charged in federal court today for attempting to carry out a terrorist attack at a protest in New York City over the weekend. They were arrested on Saturday for throwing two improvised explosive devices. One of the men, Emir Balat, told investigators that they had hoped to carry out an attack that was bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. The criminal complaint says both men professed their allegiance to the Islamic State militant group after their arrest. New York City Mayor Zoranam Dani said the men had to be. traveled from Pennsylvania and were protesting an anti-Islamic demonstration near the mayor's residence.

A lawyer for Balat said that his client was 18 years old and had, quote, complicated stuff going on. He said that Balat and the other defendant, Ibrahim Kiyumi, didn't know each other. Coming up, Anthropics sues the Defense Department, Live Nation settles with the Justice Department, and Disney's Pixar brings in a big opening weekend. That's after the break. One Plus One equals more of the greatest stories. Hulu on Disney Plus.

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Bobby Dillard. Blake Pantha. The ultimate soldier. Chicago, I'm all right. The best of the best stories now with even more from Hulu. Amazing. Have it all with Dulu on Disney Plus. Anthropic has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for designating the company a security threat and trying to cancel its federal contracts.

The maker of Claude says the government went beyond its authority and retaliated against it because Anthropic didn't agree on how AI should be used by the Defense Department. The company asked the court to declare the moves unlawful. A White House spokeswoman said the president wouldn't allow a, quote, radical left, woke company to hurt national security by telling the military how to operate. In other legal news, the Justice Department and Live Nation have reached an antitrust settlement. The agreement comes after a week of trial and means Live Nation isn't at risk of having its business broken up. The deal makes it easier for other promoters to compete for business at venues that Live Nation controls. Though several states have agreed to the framework, more than 20 state attorneys general objected to it and want a new trial. And Novo Nordisk says Hymns and Her's health will sell its weight loss drugs through the telehealth company's platform. form. The deal brings an end to the legal dispute between the companies. Wagovi and

Ozenbic will go on sale later this month at Novo Nordisk's self-pay prices of $149 to $499 a month. Hymns and hers shares jumped 41%. Pixar's hoppers debuted at the box office this weekend. The movie is a comedy about a girl who hops her consciousness into a beaver and talks to animals. We created a revolutionary technology that gives us a... unprecedented access to the animal world. We call it hoppers. While existing franchises like the Zootopia and Moana sequels have been raking it in,

the Hoppers opening was different. It was the biggest debut for an original animated movie since 2017 and earned an estimated $88 million worldwide. Even so, it's a far cry from the success of the early odds films like Finding Nemo and Cars. Ben Fritz covers the entertainment industry for the journal and recently saw Hoppers. Ben, how is the movie, and what have critics been saying about it? It's gotten amazing reviews, which is great for Pixar, and it's a bit of a change of course for them. It's more outright funny and zany than most Pixar movies people are used to.

This movie's got a big – in Hollywood, they would call it high concept, like a big hook. In this case, as you said, the girl hopping your unconscious was sent to beavers. Pixar's last few movies have been more kind of autobiographical tales about their directors, and I think they haven't had the commercial hook that audiences are looking for. That big, broad appeal for an original movie? Right, exactly. When you think about the huge Pixar hits from the past,

I could describe them to you in one line and you get it, right? Like, what if your toys talked? What if the monsters in your closet were real? What if your emotions were actual people talking inside your head? You get it really quickly. Pixar's last several original movies like Elio and Turning Red and Luca didn't have that kind of easy sales hook. Can Pixar even have like a Finding Nemo again?

Like what's different about releasing animated films now versus in the past? Post-pandemic people are just not going to theaters as much. And when they do, they strongly prefer franchises that they're already familiar with. The market for original movies of all stripes in Hollywood has really been struggling. And so I think realistically, they have to expect that an original hit may only gross four or $500 million, compared to 6, 7, 8 in the past, which means it won't make much of a profit because these movies cost Pixar like $200 million to make. But nowadays, I think they'd say, well, look, if it gross is $500 million, people like it.

If it gets a lot of views on Disney Plus, that might just be enough, even if it doesn't make a big profit for us to say, all right, this is a franchise, we're going to go ahead with it on the big screen in movies, and then they sell a lot of toys, and then they become theme park attractions, and then they're really well-weigh. watched and rewatched on Disney Plus, and then they create sequels. And it's like, it's a flywheel, as they like to call it in the media business. And if Disney stock is going to go back on the rise, they really need to have new hit franchises that are making money throughout the company and investors are confident are going to make money for years and years to come.

That was Journal Reporter Ben Fritz. Thanks, Ben. Sure, my pleasure. And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bienname with supervising producer Tali Arbell. I'm Alex Osala for the Wall Street Journal. be back with a news show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.