News Bulletin
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Morning Edition

Economic Numbers:

Time	Event	Actual	Forecast	Previous
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
8:30	Unit Labor Costs (QoQ) (Q4)		2.80%	-1.90%
8:30	Nonfarm Productivity (QoQ) (Q4)		2.80%	4.90%
9:45	S&P Global Manufacturing PMI (Mar)		51.50	51.60
9:45	S&P Global Services PMI (Mar)		52.00	51.70
13:00	2-Year Note Auction			3.46%

Indices

	CLOSE	50 DMA	200 DMA
DJIA	46,208.53	48,684.23	46,582.38
NASDAQ	21,946.76	22,932.76	22,261.74
S&P 500	6,581.04	6,851.37	6,624.89

Earnings Calendar:

(EPS: Earning Per Share / Rev: Revenue / Mkt Cap: market Capital/ BMO: Before Market Opening /AMC: After Market Close)

COMPANY	EPS Act	EPS Fore	Rev Act	Rev Fore	Mkt Cap	Time
GameStop GME:US		0.29		1.31B	$7.05B	PM
Kb Home KBH:US		0.55		1.1B	$3.98B	PM
AAR AIR:US		1.16		800.99M	$3.82B	PM
Worthington Industries WOR:US		0.96		344.5M	$2.4B	PM

Market News:

U.S. stock futures dropped on Tuesday, as investors gauged ongoing strikes across the Middle East as well as contrasting U.S. and Iranian accounts about potential talks to end their nearly month-old conflict.

By 06:33 ET (10:33 GMT), the Dow futures contract had slid by 101 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures had dipped by 9 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had fallen by 19 points, or 0.1%.

The major averages on Wall Street climbed in the prior session. Sentiment was buoyed by President Donald Trump’s announcement of a temporary delay to impending U.S. strikes on Iranian power plants following conversations he described as “very strong.”

However, the speaker of Iran’s parliament rejected the claim, accusing Trump of rolling out the comment to help soothe volatile financial markets.

“Markets are walking a tightrope between fragile optimism and escalating geopolitical risks. The Middle East remains the dominant driver, with oil prices highly sensitive to any supply disruption. As tensions persist, volatility is likely to stay elevated, keeping investors cautious,” Lukman Otunuga, Senior Market Analyst at FXTM, told Investing.com.

Analysts at Vital Knowledge added that while investors remain skeptical the war will come to an end anytime soon, the rally in the benchmark S&P 500 may have “further to run.”

Oil climbs again amid fresh air strikes across Middle East

Oil prices, which have been in sharp focus for markets since the outbreak of the war in late February, once again climbed above $100 a barrel. Futures expiring in May for Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, last rose by 1.2% to $101.12 a barrel.

Authorities in Israel said a barrage of missiles from Iran struck Tel Aviv and other parts of the country, the New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been targeted by drone and missile strikes, while Israel said it had struck targets linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Crucially, the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway south of Iran through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, has remained all but shuttered to tanker traffic. The effective closure of the strait has become a major flashpoint in the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran, crimping the flow of the critical supplies to countries around the world, especially heavy energy importers in Asia.

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose economies depend in large part on energy shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, are now edging toward entering the fight against Iran, the WSJ has reported.

Citing people familiar with a Saudi decision to allow U.S. forces use an air base on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula, the paper noted that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is eager is close to deciding to join in the attacks. The UAE is also beginning to crack down on Iranian-owned assets, the WSJ said.

U.S. PMIs ahead

On the economic calendar, markets will likely be keeping tabs on the U.S. flash purchasing managers index for March.

The initial look at business activity for the month should provide some of the earliest feedback on the extent to which the war in Iran is impacting the economy, analysts at Vital Knowledge said in a note.

Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell argued that it was “too soon to know the scope and duration of the potential effects on the economy” from the conflict, but flagged that higher energy prices will push up overall inflation in the near term.

Separately, a weekly gauge of U.S. employment from payrolls processor ADP is also set to be released. A sputtering American labor market, as well as the threat of an Iran-related energy shock reigniting inflation, have become major concerns for Fed policymakers trying to calibrate interest rate policy.

Elsewhere, in individual stocks, Tesla shares were marginally higher in premarket U.S. trading, after the electric car manufacturer notched its first monthly sales increase in Europe in more than a year.

Jefferies also advanced. The Financial Times earlier reported that Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is exploring a possible takeover of the U.S. bank.

Estee Lauder was also slightly higher after the WSJ reported that the cosmetics giant is in discussions to purchase Spanish peer Puig Brands.

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