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US stocks end volatile week on a positive note

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both ended well in the green, while the Russell 2000 suffered a loss.

10/17/25 4:05PM

Stocks shook off premarket regional banking jitters and bubble fears after comments from President Trump seemed to assuage investors about the risks of trade war escalation with China. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 ended the day up 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively, while the Russell 2000 finished lower for the second session in a row, down 0.6%.

Almost every sector ETF finished in the green, led by consumer staples.

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Stocks that moved higher:

EssilorLuxottica surged to a record high after reporting Ray-Ban Meta glasses helped boost revenue growth.

Stocks that moved lower:

AST SpaceMobile dropped after Barclays cut its rating to “underweight” from “overweight.”
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly fell after the bell on Thursday and stayed in the red Friday following comments from Trump that “the fat loss drug” will go down in price.
Oracle dove as analysts voiced concerns about the company’s huge capex plans, though other analysts had different theories on the stock’s plunge.

Matt Phillips3/13/26

Oil settles Friday at highest level since start of war

US oil prices moved higher in afternoon trading Friday, sapping strength from the stock market as they posted their highest close since the start of the Iran war.

After another day where the Strait of Hormuz was essentially closed to global tanker traffic, US futures for West Texas Intermediate settled up 3.1% at $98.71 a barrel for an 8.6% weekly gain, per Dow Jones data.

American officials have discussed using the US Navy to escort tankers through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, but have said plans for such convoys are not ready yet. However, it is unclear if military convoys would bring an end to the war-related dislocations in the oil market.

“It could help,” Tom Liles, senior vice president of upstream research at energy consulting firm Rystad, told Sherwood News in a recent interview. “It could also go in a lot of different directions if a Navy ship is hit or if a tanker is hit.”

Oil Posts Weekly Gains As Middle East Conflict Drags On

Tasha Matsumoto

3/13/26

Stocks post third straight week of losses as Brent crude surges above $100

Stocks wiped out early gains to close lower amid the ongoing war in Iran.

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Memory stocks rebound off last weeks losses

Memory stocks Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology Holdings rose again Friday, putting these crucial providers of chips for AI inference work on track for big weekly gains after last week’s steep losses following the outbreak of war with Iran.

There’s no obvious trigger for the move higher for these shares this week, other than a bit of a recovery in the AI trade more broadly — AI beneficiaries like IT cable and connections maker Amphenol and custom chip and networking company Marvell Technology clawed back some gains this week — perhaps due Oracle’s earnings earlier, and some mean reversion to boot.

Micron is due to report earnings after the close of trading on Wednesday, with the company catching a couple price target hikes this week, including one from Wedbush on Friday.

Sandisk is something of a different story, as its enormous gains over the last 12 months — roughly 1,200% — have made it a momentum play beloved by the retail crowd.

It was up about 20% this week at around 11 a.m. ET. And its nearly 170% gain this year keeps the stock on top of the S&P 500, in terms of price performance.

Luke Kawa

3/13/26

The S&P 500’s internals are awful... while it’s still less than 5% from its record closing high

The breadth of negative momentum within the index’s constituents is even worse than at the tariff-induced market bottom in April 2025.