{"id":48104,"date":"2026-03-14T11:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/14\/us-stocks-close-in-red-as-sp-500-dips-on-oil-rally-and-geopolitics\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T11:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:35:44","slug":"us-stocks-close-in-red-as-sp-500-dips-on-oil-rally-and-geopolitics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/14\/us-stocks-close-in-red-as-sp-500-dips-on-oil-rally-and-geopolitics\/","title":{"rendered":"US stocks close in red as S&amp;P 500 dips on oil rally and geopolitics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p>US stocks closed red on Friday, despite showing some recovery and optimism after the opening bell.<\/p>\n<p>The benchmark S&amp;P 500 index slipped 0.61%, leaving it about 5% below its most recent peak.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.93%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 119 points, or 0.25%.<\/p>\n<p>Rising oil prices tied to geopolitical tensions have weighed on market sentiment, keeping investors cautious.<\/p>\n<p>Volume picked up late as bargain hunters nibbled after Thursday&#8217;s bloodbath, but traders kept one eye on crude&#8217;s volatile swing and President Trump&#8217;s stark reminder that the Iran conflict shows no signs of abating.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Utilities lead S&amp;P 500 gains<\/h2>\n<p>Six of the S&amp;P 500\u2019s 11 sectors were trading higher on Friday, with utilities leading the gains.<\/p>\n<p>The sector rose about 1.4%, comfortably ahead of energy, which was the second-best performer with an advance of roughly 0.8%.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, five sectors were in negative territory: information technology, communication services, materials, consumer discretionary, and industrials.<\/p>\n<p>Technology and communication services were both down around 1.1% on the day.<\/p>\n<p>For the week, utilities were up close to 1%, while energy was the only other sector on track for gains, climbing about 2.5% over the same period.<\/p>\n<p>Among individual stocks, the tech sector showed considerable weakness with giants Nvidia, AMD, and Tesla ending the day in the red.<\/p>\n<p>Shares of the beauty retailer Ulta Beauty dropped about 12% after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings.<\/p>\n<p>For the fourth quarter, Ulta posted earnings of $8.01 per share, slightly below analysts\u2019 expectations of $8.03 per share, according to LSEG.<\/p>\n<p>Revenue came in at $3.9 billion, topping the Street\u2019s estimate of $3.8 billion.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Judge blocks Powell subpoena<\/h2>\n<p>A federal judge on Friday rejected the Justice Department\u2019s attempt to subpoena Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, delivering a significant legal victory for the central bank.<\/p>\n<p>US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the subpoenas issued by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro were improper and appeared to be politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p>In his decision, Boasberg said the court found the effort was aimed at pressuring Powell amid President Donald Trump\u2019s ongoing criticism of the Federal Reserve and its interest rate policies.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling comes ahead of next week&#8217;s Federal Reserve&#8217;s high-stakes meeting, where investors are expecting the central bank to hold rates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Court finds that the subpoenas were not issued for a legitimate purpose,\u201d Boasberg wrote.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the evidence suggested the primary goal was to harass Powell and push him either to comply with the president\u2019s demands for lower interest rates or step aside so a new Fed chair could be appointed.<\/p>\n<p>The development comes as a boost for the investors as it provides some certainty around the independence of the Federal Reserve amid the economic crisis.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mortgage rates climb to 6.41%<\/h2>\n<p>Mortgage rates climbed to their highest level since September on Friday as bond yields rose amid escalating tensions related to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mortgage News Daily, the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage reached 6.41%.<\/p>\n<p>Mortgage rates tend to track movements in the 10-year US Treasury yield, which moved higher again on Friday, contributing to the latest increase in borrowing costs.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\/news\/2026\/03\/13\/us-stocks-close-in-red-as-sp-500-dips-on-oil-rally-and-geopolitics\/\">US stocks close in red as S&amp;P 500 dips on oil rally and geopolitics<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\">Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US stocks closed red on Friday, despite showing some recovery and optimism after the opening bell. The benchmark S&amp;P 500 index slipped 0.61%, leaving it about 5% below its most recent peak. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.93%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 119 points, or 0.25%. Rising oil prices tied to geopolitical <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-investing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}