Stock Market Live March 26, 2026: S&P 500 (SPY) Slips on Oil Again

Markets have become a ridiculous rollercoaster ride.

Just yesterday, markets soared on news of a potential peace deal, which was quickly rejected by Iran. That should have destroyed the rally. It didn’t because traders were stuck on the idea of a near-term deal to bring an end to the war. Today, with the war still on and oil prices gushing higher again, markets are turning south again.

The S&P 500 is down 0.91%, or by 61 points. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is down 0.82%, or by $5.40. The Dow is down 0.83%, or by 394 points. The Nasdaq is down 1.07%, or by 262 points. Oil is up about 5%, or by $4.48, at $94.80. Gold is down by $111. Bitcoin is down $1,953.

And unfortunately, the volatility we’re experiencing will continue. Especially with the U.S. now warning Iran that it needs to get serious about ending the war or face a potential “final blow.”

In addition, we also have to remember that “Trump’s five-day pause on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure expires Saturday, and a dramatic military escalation will grow more likely if no progress is made in diplomatic talks, particularly if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed,” as reported by Axios.

That creates more opportunity for oil stocks and related oil exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

There’s also an opportunity in rare earth stocks.

According to The Telegraph, the U.S. is running short of offensive and defensive weapons. “A report from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) showed the US and its allies burned through more than 11,000 munitions in the first 16 days of the conflict at a cost of $26bn,” they added. “It calculated the US is, at most, a month away from running out of some of its most critical weapons: THAAD air defenses, and the ATACMs and PrSM ground-attack missiles.”

As we noted on March 24, there’s an opportunity in rare earth stocks with that shortage. As we said, “Rare earths make up many parts of modern military systems, such as the Tomahawk missile, which relies on samarium-cobalt magnets in its actuators and guidance tail fins to handle high heat.” That’s creating opportunity for rare earth stocks such as REMX, MP, and USAR.

Market Movers: Memory Stocks 

Memory stocks, such as Sandisk, Micron, and Seagate Technology, are pulling back after Google unveiled its new AI model, which they say could cut the amount of memory needed to run large language models. In fact, they unveiled TurboQuant, which “focuses on reducing the key value cache, which stores the past calculations of an AI model so it doesn’t have to run them again. The technique is aimed at making AI models more efficient, a major goal of the leading labs,” as noted by CNBC. “Investors fear that this could reduce the demand for AI memory chips, which have been a critical component to train up huge LLMs from companies like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.”

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