The DJIA fell about 50 points to near 47,900 after a sharper drop at the open. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% above 6,800 and the Nasdaq gained 0.6% above 23,000, after Dow futures fell more than 500 points overnight following a US blockade announcement for the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
WTI oil rose more than 5% to above $101 per barrel, while Brent jumped as much as 9% to about $102. CENTCOM said the action would not block ships travelling to non-Iranian ports, after talks in Islamabad ended without a deal and mediators from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey planned further discussions.<\/p>\n
Goldman Sachs fell 2.5% despite EPS of $17.55 versus $16.49 and revenue of $17.23bn versus $16.97bn. Equities trading revenue rose 27% year on year to $5.33bn, while FICC revenue fell 10% to $4.01bn, about $900m below StreetAccount estimates.<\/p>\n
Oracle rose 8%, Palantir gained more than 3%, and ServiceNow and Workday rose more than 5%. Existing home sales fell 3.6% to 3.98m, the lowest since June 2025, while the median price rose 1.4% to about $409k.<\/p>\n
The 10-year yield rose 3 basis points to 4.34% and the 30-year rose 2 to 4.93%. March PPI is due Tuesday, seen at 4.6% year on year and 1.2% month on month, with core PPI at 4.2%.<\/p>\n
We remember how the Strait of Hormuz blockade in April of last year sent oil futures soaring over 5% in a single session. That event showed how quickly geopolitical flare-ups can inject volatility into the market, even if equities manage to recover intraday. Considering the renewed tensions in the Middle East, we are watching for similar sharp moves.<\/p>\n
Given this backdrop, we should consider hedging against a sudden oil spike by looking at call options on energy ETFs like the XLE. Last week, the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, already jumped over 30% to nearly 19, showing that fear is returning to the market. Buying VIX calls or puts on the S&P 500 can provide a direct hedge against a broader market downturn.<\/p>\n
The surge in oil back then reignited inflation fears, and we are seeing a parallel today. The recent Consumer Price Index report showed core inflation remains sticky at 3.8%, which has already pushed traders to price out expectations for near-term rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Positions that bet on bond yields remaining elevated, such as shorting Treasury futures, could be effective.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s turmoil triggered a clear rotation out of financials and into enterprise software stocks driven by the artificial intelligence narrative. We see a similar flight to quality in technology now, suggesting a pairs trade could be beneficial. This might involve going long a basket of software leaders while simultaneously shorting a financial sector ETF to capitalize on this divergence.<\/p>\n
We also saw last year how rising rates choked off the housing market, with existing home sales hitting a nine-month low in March 2025. With 30-year mortgage rates once again climbing back above 7% according to Freddie Mac, rate-sensitive sectors remain vulnerable. Exploring put options on homebuilder ETFs could be a prudent way to position for continued softness in this area.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stocks mixed after Hormuz blockade news; oil surges past $101; Goldman slips despite earnings; yields rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"josephine","author_link":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/author\/josephine\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}