Stocks Recover from Massive Morning Drop: Stock Market Today

Stocks hit their session lows early Monday in reaction to U.S. airstrikes on Iran, but quickly bounced. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.You are now subscribedYour newsletter sign-up was successfulWant to add more newsletters?Delivered dailyKiplinger TodayProfit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more delivered daily. Smart money moves start here.Sent five days a weekKiplinger A Step AheadGet practical help to make better financial decisions in your everyday life, from spending to savings on top deals.Delivered dailyKiplinger Closing BellGet today's biggest financial and investing headlines delivered to your inbox every day the U.S. stock market is open.Sent twice a weekKiplinger Adviser IntelFinancial pros across the country share best practices and fresh tactics to preserve and grow your wealth.Delivered weeklyKiplinger Tax TipsTrim your federal and state tax bills with practical tax-planning and tax-cutting strategies.Sent twice a weekKiplinger Retirement TipsYour twice-a-week guide to planning and enjoying a financially secure and richly rewarding retirementSent bimonthly.Kiplinger Adviser AngleInsights for advisers, wealth managers and other financial professionals.Sent twice a weekKiplinger Investing WeeklyYour twice-a-week roundup of promising stocks, funds, companies and industries you should consider, ones you should avoid, and why.Sent weekly for six weeksKiplinger Invest for RetirementYour step-by-step six-part series on how to invest for retirement, from devising a successful strategy to exactly which investments to choose. Stocks opened sharply lower Monday in market participants' initial reaction to U.S. airstrikes on Iran over the weekend. However, the main indexes quickly reversed course to end the day mostly higher.At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2% at 48,904, while the broader S&P 500 was up 0.04% at 6,881 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was 0.4% higher at 22,748.While a mixed start to the week and month, it was a notable improvement over the 1%-plus losses the three were facing when the stock market opened this morning.Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special IssuesProfit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.The early drop was in reaction to news that the U.S., in a coordinated effort with Israel, initiated military operations against Iran overnight on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Iran retaliated by striking several Middle East nations that house U.S. and Israeli military bases, including Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan."Events like these are unsettling, and it is natural to feel concern about what they mean for your financial well-being," says Adrian Helfert, chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies at Westwood. But history shows that "it pays to stay invested," considering comparable geopolitical events show a pattern of initial market shock "followed by recovery over the subsequent three to six months."The most important thing for investors to monitor for this specific event, notes Helfert, is what happens with the energy supply. If the Strait of Hormuz, which sees roughly a fifth of global oil pass through it on a daily basis, remains open, the impact will be limited. If it does not, "the impact becomes more meaningful and more sustained."Oil prices jumped Monday in reaction to the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran.

Western Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 8.4% to $72.74 per barrel, their highest settlement since June.Unsurprisingly, energy was the top-performing S&P 500 sector on Wall Street today, with Marathon Petroleum (MPC, +5.9%) and ONEOK (OKE, +4.1%) among the energy stocks seeing notable upside.Tech stocks were also strong performers to start the week. Indeed, Nvidia (NVDA, +2.9%) and Microsoft (MSFT, +1.5%) generated impressive returns amid expectations that the mega-cap blue chip stocks are resilient to geopolitical risk.Apple (AAPL), meanwhile, rose 0.2% after the tech giant unveiled several new products, including the iPhone 17e and the iPad Air M4, at its March product event, which runs for three days this year instead of one.Most defense stocks gained ground today thanks to rising geopolitical risks. AeroVironment (AVAV), which makes unmanned aircraft systems and drone technologies, was nearly 20% higher in early trading, but ended the day 17.4% lower after Raymond James analyst Brian Gesuale downgraded it to Underperform (Sell) from Strong Buy.The double downgrade comes after the U.S. Space Force said it is reopening its $1.4 billion Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource program that was initially awarded to defense contractor BlueHalo, which AVAV bought in late 2024.Looking for more timely stock market news to help gauge the health of your portfolio? Sign up for Closing Bell, our free newsletter that's delivered straight to your inbox at the close of each trading day."This was the company's largest program of record at approximately $1.4B of value," writes Gesuale. AVAV "had $2.8B of total backlog and this may erase $1.0-$1.4B. Backlog is the precursor to revenue and adds uncertainty to our forward estimates."Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) was one of the biggest gainers on Wall Street today, surging 21.7%. Shares have now nearly doubled since last Thursday's close, when the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure specialist reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.The company also said it expects to hit $1 billion in revenue this fiscal year, more than double its 2025 revenue."We see AAOI as a direct beneficiary of soaring optical transceiver demand, driven by AI/Cloud capex, and share shifts away from China-based vendors," says Needham analyst Ryan Koontz. "While we continue to see execution risk, we believe these tailwinds, along with the company's raised capex investments, as likely transformative to results."Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis. Some smart TVs and streaming devices are already losing access. Here’s how to check and what to do next. As a veteran retirement investor, I'm sharing this advice for your own adult children or grandchildren. A 50-year mortgage probably isn’t the answer, but there are other ways to alleviate the continuing sting of high prices As a veteran retirement investor, I'm sharing this advice for your own adult children or grandchildren. Hiding assets or debt from a financial adviser damages the relationship as well as your finances. If you're not being fully transparent, it's time to ask why. Knowing how to deal with a disagreement can improve both your finances and your relationship with your planner. When you're starting a business, it may seem counterintuitive to begin with exit planning. But preparing will put you on a more secure footing in the long run. A weakening dollar and lower interest rates lifted international stocks, which was good news for one of our favorite exchange-traded funds. No stock is completely safe, but we can make educated guesses about which ones are likely to provide smooth sailing. If you miss your RMDs, you could face a hefty fine. Here are four ways to stay on top of your payments — and on the right side of the IRS. The administrative requirements following a death move quickly. This is how to ensure your loved ones won't be plunged into chaos during a time of distress.