Major Indexes Retreat After Jobs Report Comes in Far Worse Than Expected, Oil Hits $90 a Barrel; Dow Drops 500 Points

Boeing Stock Pops on Report China Nearing Deal for 500 Planes

FROM 18 minutes ago

Boeing stock was easily the best performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Friday following a report that it was nearing one of the largest sales in its history.

Shares surged nearly 4%—no other Dow component was up more than 0.5%—after Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Boeing was closing in on a 500-aircraft order for 737 Max planes, which would be unveiled when President Donald Trump visits Beijing from March 31 to April 2 for his first state visit to China since 2017.

“The two sides are also in talks for a widebody sale that includes about 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X jets,” the report added.

The Dow was down about 550 points, or 1.1%, in the final 30 minutes of trading.

Gas Prices Jump as Iran War Intensifies. What Can You Expect at the Pump?

FROM 48 minutes ago

Drivers will likely experience more pain at the pump after a big jump in gas prices this week sparked by developments in the Middle East.

The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline, according to AAA, stands at $3.32, about 11% higher than a week ago, just before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran that have led to a broader armed conflict in the region. The rise in fuel prices follow a massive jump in oil prices amid concerns that supplies from the resource-rich region could be disrupted.

“Gasoline prices are going to keep going up in the U.S.,” said Ryan Sweet, chief global economist at Oxford Economics, at a press event this week. “Wholesale gasoline prices, which lead retail by two weeks, signal that we’re going to see higher prices, you and I will see higher prices, at the pump in the U.S. over the next couple of weeks.”

The war in the Middle East has expanded in recent days, fueling concerns that it could last longer than some initially anticipated. President Donald Trump said earlier this week the conflict was expected last four to five weeks, though he opened up the possibility that it could last far longer. On Friday, he said only “unconditional surrender” from Iran will end the war.

A prolonged conflict would continue to feed through to the prices consumers pay to fill up the tank.

Read the full article here.

–Terry Lane and Stephen Wisnefski

Iran War Triggers Gas Price Surge—Here’s Where Drivers Are Paying the Most and Least

FROM 1 hr 15 min ago

Oil prices have climbed steeply as the Iran war fuels fears of supply disruptions, and the impact has quickly shown up at the pump. The national average for regular gas has surged 34 cents a gallon in five days, rising from $2.98 on Sunday to $3.32 by Friday.

Prices first rose above $3.00 on Monday after holding below that level for 13 straight weeks—the first sustained stretch under $3 since 2021. Since then, the national average has climbed each day as the Middle East conflict escalates and oil prices rise.

Because gasoline prices tend to track crude, the rally in energy markets has quickly filtered through to drivers.

Read the full article here.

–Sabrina Karl

Snowy Weather Stalled Sales, But Tax Refunds Should Bring Shoppers Back

FROM 1 hr 39 min ago

Snowy weather slowed shoppers in January, but economists expect them to revive spending later this year.

Census Bureau data showed that U.S. retail sales fell in the first month of 2026, according to a report that was delayed due to last year’s government shutdown. Economists attributed the stall to winter weather conditions across the country.

The 0.2% sales decline was not as steep as economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires had expected.

“This suggests that the underlying pace of spending remains solid and would have been even stronger without the temporary weather effects,” wrote Nationwide Senior Economist Ben Ayers.

Read the full article here.

–Terry Lane

Why Some Experts Think ‘Defensive’ Investors Could Lift Costco Stock Back Toward Records

FROM 2 hr 8 min ago

Costco Wholesale’s (COST) latest earnings beat estimates, giving its stock a lift. But what’s next for the retailer’s shares, which haven’t done much over the past year?

The warehouse retail giant said late Thursday it earned $4.58 per share in its fiscal second quarter, on revenue of $69.6 billion. That was better than the Street expected: Analysts had forecast earnings per share of $4.51 with sales of $69.1 billion, per estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

Costco’s shares were up 1% in recent trading on an off day for markets. But they’re down slightly in the last 12 months despite the company posting consistently solid results. Some analysts, however, think there could be more gains ahead after a 15% rally to start this year as investors have flocked to defensive consumer-focused stocks.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Day One Biopharmaceuticals Stock Soars as Firm Acquired for $2.5B

FROM 2 hr 37 min ago

France’s Servier is expanding its pipeline by acquiring Day One Biopharmaceuticals for about $2.5 billion. Shareholders of the latter are witnessing a great expansion of the stock price Friday.

Day One (DAWN) shares added nearly two-thirds of their value in afternoon trading after Servier, an independent pharmaceutical group governed by a foundation, acquired the Brisbane, Calif.-based firm for $21.50 per share in cash, a 68% premium to Day One’s closing price Thursday. Shares recently were trading at around $21.15.

Servier said the deal positions it “as a leader in pediatric low-grade glioma and expands its pipeline with programs targeting adult and pediatric cancers with high unmet needs.”

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, Servier and Day One said.

“This acquisition of Day One Biopharmaceuticals marks another decisive step in strengthening Servier’s position in rare oncology,” Servier president Olivier Laureau said. “It reflects our long-term commitment to investing in science that can make a meaningful difference for patients. This announcement is fully aligned with our 2030 ambition, and we believe that combining our expertise will accelerate innovation for people living with a rare cancer.”

Day One shares have skyrocketed more than 125% year-to-date.

These Dividend-Paying Stocks Have Been a ‘Nice Place to Hide’ This Year

FROM 3 hr 29 min ago

Are dividend stocks back in vogue?

They seem to be having a moment. As geopolitical tensions and worries about AI-driven disruption have rattled markets to start the year, many investors are piling into stocks perceived as safer, AI-proof plays. That includes stocks that pay dividends.

The dividend aristocrats, a subset of S&P 500 companies that have raised their dividends annually for at least 25 years in a row, have outperformed the broader index in 2026. Their roughly 7% total return, which includes dividends, compares to the benchmark index’s about flat performance.

The dividend aristocrats haven’t always outperformed the benchmark index. Last year, the group registered a total return of about 7%, compared to the S&P 500’s 18%. However, the dividend aristocrats retain a reputation for helping investors better weather periods of heightened market volatility, when sentiment becomes risk-off.

Analysts at Wolfe Research called the group their “favorite dividend strategy in periods of market turmoil” in a recent note to clients. “This cohort of stocks has generally outperformed throughout the market cycle—especially into and throughout economic downturns,” they wrote, making them a “good place to ‘hide.'”

There are 69 companies among the dividend aristocrats. Many of them are household names like retail heavyweight Walmart (WMT), fast-food giant McDonald’s (MCD), and maker of household cleaning products Clorox (CLX). All three of those stocks have substantially outperformed the S&P 500 in recent weeks.

–Kara Greenberg

Marvell Technology Boosts Its Sales Forecast on Strong AI Demand. The Stock Is Soaring

FROM 4 hr 45 min ago

Marvell Technology shares surged after the semiconductor firm posted earnings that topped estimates and raised its outlook, thanks in large part to strong AI demand.

Shares of Marvell Technology (MRVL) were up over 16% in recent trading, at a time when broader markets lost ground. The move pulled the stock back into positive territory for the year.

Marvell posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.80 on a 22% year-over-year jump in revenue to a record $2.22 billion for the fourth quarter. Both figures topped analysts’ estimates compiled by Visible Alpha as AI-related orders grew.

CEO Matt Murphy said over the company’s earnings call that Marvell’s revenue is expected to grow more than 30% this year to nearly $11 billion, well above the $9.5 billion mark the company projected at an investor event in September, per an AlphaSense transcript. Marvell also lifted its fiscal 2028 revenue forecast to $15 billion, up $2 billion from last quarter’s forecast.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Every S&P 500 Sector Lower Except for Energy

FROM 5 hr 17 min ago

Much like yesterday, energy shares are a lone bright spot for equities investors.

For a second straight day, the S&P 500 Energy Sector was the only one of the 11 industries tracked by the benchmark index to trade in the green, rising 0.4%.

Seven sector components were up at least 1% on a tough day for stocks, with Diamondback Energy (FANG) the leader with a 1.6% advance.

The S&P 500 was down 1% overall.

The US Economy Lost 92,000 Jobs in February

FROM 6 hr 25 min ago

The job market was supposed to stabilize in February. Instead, it took a nosedive.

February was the worst month for the job market since October, as employers unexpectedly shed 92,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

The job losses and rise in unemployment came as a surprise to forecasters, who had called for a gain of 50,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to stay flat, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

The report was highly anticipated as a barometer of whether the job market was stabilizing after recent slump, or whether the slowdown was continuing. 2025 was the slowest year for job creation outside of a recession in more than 20 years. A surprise upturn in job creation in January raised hopes that the market was looking up, but the loss of jobs in February was a clear signal that the job market is still losing steam.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Time to Go to Med School? Most New Jobs Likely to Be in Health Care

FROM 7 hr 41 min ago

The health care sector has been one of only a few bright spots in the job market lately, and economists see that trend continuing in the near future.

Friday’s report on the job market from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to show, once again, that the sector was hale and hearty while other occupations were on life support in February.

In January, for example, the sector added 137,000 jobs, accounting for nearly all the month’s job growth, while other industries lost ground. The same was true over the course of 2025—job growth would have been in the red last year if not for health care pushing it into positive territory.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

When Homeowners Are ‘Locked In,’ Buyers Get Priced Out

FROM 8 hr 3 min ago

When mortgage rates rise, home prices usually go down. But the exact opposite happened when interest rates climbed after the pandemic, and new research sheds light on how and why.

Normally, higher interest rates push prices down because buyers drop out of the market, reducing demand. But the economy was anything but normal in 2021, and a new paper by Justin Katz, a research fellow at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, examines how and where the “lock-in” effect kept prices soaring even as mortgage rates rose. It turns out renters played a major role in the phenomenon.

Mortgage rates began to rise in 2021 after years of rock-bottom rates, climbing to more than 7% from under 3% in just two years. Because rates were so low for so long during the pandemic, millions of homeowners had rock-bottom mortgage rates, giving them a huge financial incentive not to sell their homes. With fewer houses on the market, the supply-and-demand equation was tilted in favor of sellers, and prices continued to rise.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Robinhood Is Breaking With Wall Street by Paying Dividends Early

FROM 8 hr 34 min ago

Robinhood announced Wednesday that it will roll out a new “Early Dividends” program this spring, giving investors access to their dividend payments sooner than the standard industry timeline.

The move would apply to eligible dividend-paying stocks and breaks from the industry’s standard practice of crediting dividends on the payment date. Robinhood said it is the first and only platform to give investors access to dividends before the payment date—a shift that could matter most for those who rely on steady dividend income.

Under the program, Robinhood said investors will receive dividend payments after a stock’s record date rather than waiting until the payment date, which is when most brokerages typically credit funds.

On average, the brokerage estimates that would make dividends available about 17 days earlier, with some payments arriving as much as a month ahead of the usual schedule. The program is set to roll out in April.

Read the full article here.

–Sabrina Karl

Oil Prices Are Surging—And It’s Making Stock Investors Anxious. Here’s Why

FROM 8 hr 48 min ago

Stocks tumbled again Thursday. You can blame the price of oil.

All three major U.S. indexes finished lower, with Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping nearly 800 points. What’s going up? Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was recently at prices last seen in 2024.

Rising oil prices, fueled by ongoing conflict in the Middle East—and, particularly, disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime shipping route—have fanned concerns of a supply shock that could spark inflation and weigh on economic activity. That has lifted shares of energy companies but otherwise weighed on stocks broadly, unwinding some of the runup indexes had seen as investors shifted away from tech and toward comparably defensive stocks.

“Iran doesn’t need to sink a single U.S. warship,” BCA Research wrote Thursday. “It could inflict much more damage by sinking the U.S. stock and bond markets by disrupting shipping, trade, and oil tankers.”

Read the full article here.

–David Marino-Nachison and Stephen Wisnefski

Stock Futures Point Lower Ahead of Jobs Report

FROM 9 hr 26 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed 0.2% lower.

S&P 500 futures were down 0.3%.

Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.4%.