Wall Street Weakens for Second Consecutive Day as Oil Prices Fluctuate Amid Iran Conflict
NEW YORK - Shares on Wall Street in the United States managed to trim losses at the close of trading on Thursday (19/3/2026) local time (Friday morning WIB), amid weakening oil prices as market participants monitored the latest developments in the Iran conflict.
As quoted from CNBC, the S&P 500 closed down 0.27 percent at 6,606.49. The Nasdaq Composite weakened 0.28 percent to 22,090.69, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average corrected 203.72 points or 0.44 percent to 46,021.43.
Nevertheless, all three indices recovered from their daily lows, with the Dow previously dropping nearly 500 points or about 1.1 percent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had fallen around 1 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.
This decline marks two consecutive days that Wall Street’s major indices have ended in the red.
Meanwhile, Brent crude rose about 1.2 percent to $108.65 per barrel, marking its highest closing level since July 2022.
However, oil prices softened after the market close, following a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming that Israel is assisting the United States, including with intelligence, to open the Strait of Hormuz. He also claimed that Iran has lost its ability to enrich uranium and produce ballistic missiles, and assessed that the conflict could end sooner than expected.
Previously, global oil prices had surged after Iran attacked a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Qatar on Wednesday. The attack was in response to Israel’s strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field.
US President Donald Trump warned that if attacks on facilities in Qatar continue, the United States will respond by massively destroying the entire South Pars gas field.
Vital Knowledge analyst Adam Crisafulli assessed that the current situation still leaves a major dilemma. According to him, although the US and Israel are considered militarily superior, there is no real solution to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without deploying ground troops. This means that the strategic route is unlikely to recover without a diplomatic agreement.
Amid the halt in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, leaders from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan expressed readiness to support efforts to maintain security in that shipping lane.
Chief investment officer at One Point BFG Wealth Partners, Peter Boockvar, said that at the start of the conflict, markets were confident the war would end soon, so supply disruptions were seen as temporary. However, entering the fourth week, that perception is beginning to change.
Investors are now starting to see the possibility of the conflict lasting longer and commodity prices not returning to pre-war levels. “I don’t think oil prices will go back to $65 per barrel,” he said.
In addition to geopolitical factors, Boockvar also believes concerns in the technology sector and private credit that emerged before the war will continue. Therefore, investors need to be more selective in managing their portfolios.
In the technology sector, Micron Technology shares fell 3.8 percent. Citi analysts assessed that this decline was more due to profit-taking, after the company’s revenue nearly tripled in the last quarter thanks to memory supply shortages.