Live Nasdaq Composite: Market Volatility Spikes 18 Percent Amid US-Iran War

Quick Read

VIX surged 18.5% as war with Iran triggered sell-off across major indices.
U.S. crude oil jumped over 7% overnight to above $72 per barrel.
Amazon AWS data center in UAE suspended operations after fire from falling debris.
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Live Updates

Tech Stocks Reverse Plight

Mar 2, 2026 at 11:31 AM EST

Technology stocks have reversed some earlier losses, with the Nasdaq Composite off its worst levels of the session. Palantir Technologies (Nasdaq; PLTR | PLTR Price Prediction) is a gainer, rising 5.7% as its AI-powered data analytics takes center stage in the White House Situation Room. Palantir recently reported quarterly revenue of $1.4 billion, surpassing estimates.

The Nasdaq Composite is now lower by 0.21%.

Streaming MCD

Mar 2, 2026 at 10:29 AM EST

McDonald’s has teased a potential partnership with Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), posting on X an image of the two brands side by side alongside the caption, “It smells like adventure!!”

Natural Gas Forecast

Mar 2, 2026 at 9:54 AM EST

With oil prices already soaring, Goldman Sachs has touched on another fossil fuel: natural gas. According to the Wall Street firm, European natural gas prices could more than double if shipping through the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz were halted for one month due to the Mideast war, Bloomberg reported.

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

Now that the U.S. has entered into war with Iran, the markets have entered their latest phase of disruption. In response, the broader markets are tumbling, including the technology sector, while pockets of strength are emerging in oil, defense and precious metal investments. The Nasdaq Composite is down just below 1%, pressured by the likes of AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) and Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is spiraling by over 500 points. On this wild day in the stock market, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is soaring by 18.5%.

U.S. crude oil soared by more than 7% in the overnight hours to over $72 per barrel. The Brent Crude oil price jumped approximately 9% to almost $80 per barrel. Oil majors including Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) are soaring, with CVX nearing the record-level $200-per-share.

Investors are also flocking to safe-haven assets like precious metals, with the gold and silver spot prices each climbing 2% higher in the overnight session. But the Bitcoin (BTC) price is not seeing the same response, falling 1% at last check to hover below $65,500.

Here’s a look at where things stand as of morning trading:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 48,467.97 Down 519.95 (-1.06%)
Nasdaq Composite: 22,446.65 Down 210.70 (-0.93%)
S&P 500: 6,818.20 Down 58.68 (-0.83%)

Market Movers

Tech companies with Mideast operations are also under fire. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has revealed that an AWS data center situated in the UAE was forced to suspend operations after catching fire due to taking a hit from falling debris.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is expected to debut new products today.

ASML Holding (Nasdaq: ASML) has plans to bolster its AI chipmaking tool capacity into new solutions.

Warren Buffett has officiated Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE: BRK-B) final earnings call as CEO, and investors initially ran for the exits. BRK-B stock fell below the $500 threshold in after-hours trading to currently hover at $485.