{"id":59691,"date":"2026-03-12T07:09:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaymiddle-east-conflict-and-surging-oil-prices-drag-dow-lower\/59691\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T07:09:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:09:55","slug":"dowjonestodaymiddle-east-conflict-and-surging-oil-prices-drag-dow-lower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaymiddle-east-conflict-and-surging-oil-prices-drag-dow-lower\/59691\/","title":{"rendered":"[DowJonesToday]Middle East Conflict and Surging Oil Prices Drag Dow Lower"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average (^DJI)<\/strong> was down 289.24 (-0.61%)<\/strong> points today, currently trading at 47,417.27<\/strong>, while Dow Futures (YM=F)<\/strong> was down 270.00 (-0.57%)<\/strong> points today. The primary narrative driving today's volatile session is the escalating conflict between the United States<\/strong>, Israel<\/strong>, and Iran<\/strong>, which has severely disrupted energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz<\/strong>. With Brent crude<\/strong> oil prices<\/a> surging toward the $100 per barrel<\/strong> mark despite a massive release of 400 million barrels<\/strong> from the International Energy Agency (IEA)<\/strong> emergency reserves, investors are pivoting toward defensive positioning.<\/p>\n

Chevron (CVX<\/a>)<\/strong> emerged as the standout performer among the blue chips, rising 3.04%<\/strong> to $191.79<\/strong> as the spike in crude futures bolstered profit expectations for the energy giant. UnitedHealth (UNH<\/a>)<\/strong> also managed a modest gain of 0.23%<\/strong> to $285.25<\/strong>, providing one of the few other pockets of stability in a sea of red. However, the broader market struggled to absorb the inflationary pressure of high fuel costs, which threatens to delay anticipated interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The financial and industrial sectors bore the brunt of the sell-off. Goldman Sachs (GS<\/a>)<\/strong> was the day's biggest loser, falling 3.14%<\/strong> to $823.76<\/strong>, as heightened volatility and concerns over private credit quality dampened market sentiment. Other significant decliners included Sherwin-Williams (SHW<\/a>)<\/strong>, which was down 2.82%<\/strong> to $322.74<\/strong>, and Caterpillar (CAT<\/a>)<\/strong>, which was down 2.50%<\/strong> to $707.59<\/strong>. These losses reflect growing anxiety that sustained high energy prices and trade disruptions will squeeze margins for major manufacturers and consumer-facing companies alike throughout the fiscal year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was down 289.24 (-0.61%) points today, currently trading at 47,417.27, while Dow Futures (YM=F) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[17736],"tags":[216,297,298,593,3016,4350,4457,4824,5551],"class_list":["post-59691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-snippets-dow-jones","tag-cat","tag-gs","tag-cvx","tag-shw","tag-dji","tag-dow-jones","tag-oil-prices","tag-geopolitics","tag-iea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}