Briefing.com Summary:
- Oil rises back above $90/bbl
- Market eager for more details about IEA’s emergency reserve release plan
- Section 301 tariff investigation begins
The stock market put up a fight on Wednesday but ultimately couldn’t avoid a lower finish as a renewed rise in the price of oil weighed on sentiment. WTI crude is on the rise again this morning, climbing nearly $6.00, or 6.7%, to $93/bbl amid reports of ongoing transit problems in the Persian Gulf, as multiple tankers were attacked overnight. The advance in oil has kept equity futures pressured with futures on the S&P 500 trading 50 points below fair value.
The International Energy Agency confirmed its plan for a 400-million barrel emergency reserve release yesterday, but the market appears more concerned with how quickly the reserves will be made available than the overall amount.
In other news, U.S. Trade Representative Greer confirmed the opening of a Section 301 investigation into 16 trading partners with the market’s general assumption being that the investigation will conclude with the replacement of IEEPA tariffs.
Yesterday’s session saw the release of an in-line CPI report for February while today brought another batch of data, which included reports on housing, employment, and trade.
Total housing starts increased 7.2% month-over-month in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.487 million units (Briefing.com consensus 1.340 million), with single-unit starts down 2.8%. Building permits decreased 5.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.376 million (Briefing.com consensus 1.392 million), with single-unit permits down 0.9%.
The key takeaway from the report is that it beat expectations thanks to strong growth in multi-unit starts while single-unit housing starts were down 2.8% month-over-month.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending March 7 decreased by 1,000 to 213,000 (Briefing.com consensus 215,000). Continuing jobless claims for the week ending February 28 decreased by 21,000 to 1.850 million.
The key takeaway from the report is that claims remain just above the 200,000 mark, reflecting a low-firing environment.
The trade deficit narrowed to $54.5 billion in January (Briefing.com consensus -$67.9 billion) from a revised $72.9 billion deficit (from -$70.3 billion) in December. The narrower gap was the result of exports being $15.8 billion more than December exports and imports being $2.6 billion less than December imports.
The key takeaway from the report is that the monthly trade deficit returned to the $50 billion range, which has been a familiar zone since last year’s implementation of tariffs.
Treasuries have held onto their slim starting losses following the data with the 10-yr yield rising two basis points to 4.22%.
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Originally Posted on March 12, 2026 – Oil continues dictating sentiment
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