Big market pullback
Stocks just snapped back from highs — S&P ~6% off, Nasdaq ~7% down and the Dow nearly 9% lower from recent peaks — a sharp correction across indices. Individual collapses are brutal: Tesla ~-24%, Meta ~-23%, Coinbase ~-55% and Nike ~-60% reported in the week’s market recap. (youtube.com)
U.S. large-cap indexes have moved close to correction levels this month: the Dow was about 8.6% below its Feb. 10 record close and the Nasdaq roughly 8.7% below its all‑time closing high as of March 20, 2026. (forbes.com) The Federal Reserve on March 18 voted to keep the federal‑funds target range at 3.50%–3.75% and projected only one rate cut for the year in its Summary of Economic Projections. (federalreserve.gov) Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned at the post‑meeting briefing that surging oil prices “can cause trouble for inflation expectations,” a comment markets cited as a catalyst for the selloff. (investopedia.com) Crude surged into triple digits after strikes and shipping disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, with WTI trading near $96–$100 and the IEA saying flows through the strait plunged from roughly 20 million barrels per day to a trickle. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) Market breadth narrowed as investors rotated out of AI‑linked growth names into energy, materials and defensive sectors; analysts described the mid‑March move as a “Great Rotation” away from high‑valuation software and AI plays. (financialcontent.com) Individual-company context this week: Tesla’s market cap was roughly $1.43–$1.47 trillion in mid‑March even as its share price saw sharp swings, Meta’s market value sat near $1.54 trillion amid profit‑taking and an AI valuation reset, Coinbase’s market cap was about $50–$53 billion as bitcoin slipped below $70,000 ahead of large derivatives expiries, and Nike’s market value hovered near $80 billion after a multi‑year fall of more than 50% since 2021 and recent analyst downgrades. (finhacker.cz)
