Markets News, March 11, 2026: Major Indexes Close Mostly Lower, Oil Surges as IEA to Release 400M Barrels of Reserves

Major stock indexes ended mostly lower Wednesday, while oil rose even though the International Energy Agency decided to release a massive amount of strategic reserves to stabilize prices.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average and benchmark S&P 500 closed down a respective 0.6% and 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished up 0.1%.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. oil-price benchmark, surged 5% to $87.65 a barrel at 4 p.m. ET. The IEA said it would release 400 million barrels—by far the largest release of oil reserves in its history—to bring down prices. U.S. officials earlier said Iran had placed mines in the important Strait of Hormuz and President Donald Trump threatened to retaliate “at a level never seen before” unless they were removed.

The February CPI report, released before the opening bell, said consumer prices rose 2.4% last month and core inflation—which excludes volatile energy and food prices—rose 2.5%. Both figures matched economists’ projections. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects interest rates on all sorts of consumer loans, recently was at 4.22%, up from 4.17% before the reading and Tuesday’s close above 4.16%.

“The good news is that inflation didn’t come in higher than expected in this morning’s CPI report,” said Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Northlight Asset Management. “However, this is backward-looking data from before the war in Iran began.”

In post-earnings moves, Oracle (ORCL) shares soared 9% to finish among the top S&P 500 gainers after the tech firm raised its long-term outlook on strong AI demand, while The Campbell’s Company (CPB) slumped 7% and was among the biggest decliners in the benchmark index.

Shares of the Magnificent Seven tech giants ended mixed, with Tesla (TSLA) the biggest riser at 2.2%. Yesterday, all but Microsoft (MSFT) finished in the green.

Gold futures slipped more than 1% to $5,185 an ounce, while silver pulled back 4% to $86 an ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.4% to 99.23. Bitcoin was trading around $70,700, up from overnight lows around $69,000.