Market Midday: Stocks Higher, President Trump Says US & Iran Have Held "Productive" Talks, Oil Prices Fall 3/23/26

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC, President Trump said the U.S. and Iran have held productive

talks and stocks are soaring on Wall Street, although the major averages are off their

earlier highs.

The Dow, up one and a half percent, 649 points, it had been up a thousand.

The S&P 500 index up 80 points, that's one and a quarter percent, and the NASDAQ is

up 297 points, that's one and a quarter percent.

Shares of Invidia are up 1.4 percent this afternoon.

Here's CNBC's Sarah Eisen.

Stocks are roaring back.

The trigger, President Trump coming out, first on social, then speaking to media reporters,

that there have been productive steps in negotiating with Iran, a potential end to this

war.

Oil prices are falling hard, down 10 percent on WTI, and Treasury is rallying.

It's the whole anti-inflation trade really kicking in, and consumer discretionary stocks

are getting the best performance today.

The travel names, those that would be sensitive to these higher gas prices.

And a little more from CNBC's Aiman Javars in Washington.

President Trump said this morning that he will delay bombing Iran's power plants for

a five-day period based on talks that he said are being conducted with the top person

in Iran without naming that person.

Now, Iranian state media, Bear in Mind, put out a statement this morning saying there

have been no negotiations and describing all of this as President Trump simply backing

down.

Here's what the President said.

We're doing a five-day period.

We'll see how that goes, and if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this.

Otherwise, we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out.

Now, in those comments to reporters, the President also said he envisions joint control of the

state of Hormuz, chaired by, quote, me and the Iatola, whoever the next Iatola is.

U.S. crude oil this afternoon, trading around $90 a barrel, tumbling down from 98 earlier.

Prices at the pump went up again overnight by a penny.

Triple A says the national average for a gallon of regular is now $3.95.

Gas prices are up more than a dollar a gallon on average now from a month ago.

Old is plunging as investors lead the safe haven trade.

The metal had a really long run up, but is now back to around where it was last Thanksgiving

about $4,300 an ounce.

Chicago Fed President Austin Goolsbee tells CNBC whether the Fed raises or lowers interest

rates has everything to do with inflation.

If everybody starts expecting inflation is going to remain high, the price of gasoline

specifically has a very high impact on individuals' expectations of what inflation is going

to be over the next year to have already been operating at an inflation rate that was

uncomfortably high and stuck well above the target.

And now to add something that might be a lasting gasoline price shock, I think this

is, as I say, an intense moment.

We have to hope that this does not prove to be a lasting impact on the economy.

Walmart taking digital shelf labels that show an item's price to all of its stores while

some lawmakers are concerned that with the touch of a button, Walmart could engage in

surge pricing for items, even raising them only for certain hours of the day.

Some states already have a ban on dynamic pricing.

Local tags reduce employee time spent updating paper tags.

And Amazon has its biggest hit ever at the box office over the weekend since buying MGM

with Project Hale Mary, Jessica Erringer CNBC.