Stocks close lower after fluctuating as traders digest war updates

Stocks pared steeper losses on hopes of US-Iran talks but were unable to maintain gains on reports that the US is deploying 3,000 troops to the Middle East.

Your Evening Briefing March 24, 2026 Stocks close lower after fluctuating as traders digest war updates The S&P 500 fell, paring steeper losses after a midday report that Iran is willing to listen to proposals to end the war, but stocks were unable to keep their momentum as traders digested news that the US is deploying 3,000 troops to the Middle East. The Nasdaq 100 also closed lower, while the Russell 2000 gained. Communications was the worst-performing sector, dragged down by losses in Meta and Alphabet, while energy was the best-performing sector as oil gained. Moving higher: The Fundrise Innovation Fund surged as retail investors clamored to get exposure to high-growth private companies. Jefferies jumped on reports that Japan's Sumimoto Financial Group is exploring a potential takeover. NTGR soared after the FCC banned foreign-made routers over national security concerns. AI buildout stocks Seagate Technology Holdings, Coherent, Sterling Infrastructure, MasTec, Western Digital, Ciena Corp., HP Enterprise, Corning, Lumentum, and Dell rose, shrugging off the broader market's Iran war slump. Moving lower: Coinbase and Circle plunged on reports of proposed legislation that would limit platforms from offering yield on stablecoins. Software stocks Hubspot, Atlassian, Adobe, and Figma fell on news that Anthropic's Claude can control computers via phone prompts. Ares Management dipped on reports that it's limiting withdrawals from a private credit fund. The Trade Desk sank after AdAge reported that Omnicom is commissioning an audit of The Trade Desk's fees. Estée Lauder fell sharply on yesterday's news that the company is in talks to purchase Puig Brands, a Spanish competitor with a market value of over $10 billion. America is officially spending more on building data centers than offices Data center construction spending climbed to a record $3.57 billion in December. Read more. How much does oil matter for inflation anyway? Energy is only about 6% of the Consumer Price Index, but that's not the full picture. Read more. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby expects oil prices to stay higher for longer and warned that airfares, which have already gone up by double digits in the past few weeks, will need to climb another 20% in order for the airline to "break even" on fuel. Read more.  Meta and ARM team up to build a new class of data center chips The "Arm AGI CPU" is the first chip announced from the partnership, which focuses on more efficient AI inference tasks.  With New York's acceptance law coming into effect, could cold hard cash stage a comeback? Though digital payments are now the norm, most US adults remain opposed to the idea of a cashless society. Tesla's European sales rise for the first time in more than a year but still lag BYD Tesla and BYD each represented 1.8% of all car registrations across Europe in February. Analyst: Traders are itching for a reason to start buying bitcoin again Investors are clinging to any bit of good news amid the conflict in the Middle East. Amazon's Zoox to increase San Francisco and Las Vegas footprint and expand service to Austin and Miami this year The service is open widely to the public in Las Vegas and to limited public users in San Francisco.  Nintendo is reportedly cutting back Switch 2 production by 33% as US sales underperform Bloomberg's sources don't think Nintendo's target of 20 million Switch 2 sales this fiscal year will be impacted, but investors aren't holding back from dumping the stock. With Apple Business, Apple is packaging its ecosystem for the office Apple is making its most coherent push yet to turn its ecosystem into a workplace platform. "Fortnite" maker Epic is laying off 1,000 employees amid engagement downturn The move follows Epic's decision earlier this month to increase the cost of in-game currency in "Fortnite." Jensen Huang: We have achieved AGI now... sort of Nvidia's CEO hedged a bit when declaring that artificial general intelligence has been achieved.  NYSE teams up with Securitize to create 24/7 tokenized securities market The platform aims to enable around the clock trading of digital tokens that represent securities.  Was this email forwarded to you? Don't miss out on future stories — subscribe to The Wrap and get your daily dose of financial news straight to your inbox.  Craving more insights in your inbox? Subscribe to Chartr and Snacks for quality reads. We care what you think! If you have any feedback or comments, feel free to reply and let us know your thoughts!  Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more Sherwood Terms and Conditions Our Editorial Standards Contact Us Advertise With Us Unsubscribe Privacy Policy SHERWOOD MEDIA, LLC, 85 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025