Wall Street Rally Cools As Trump Urges Other Nations To Join War: What's Moving Markets Monday?

U.S. equities opened sharply higher Monday, but the rally weakened by midday as President Donald Trump demanded international help to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

The latest cross-border tension underscores the lack of clarity on the U.S.’s strategy in Iran. Last week, Trump, while attending a ceremony for the fallen soldiers, declared, "We’re winning the war by a lot."

This week, he’s asking for help.

Speaking ahead of a Kennedy Center board meeting, Trump urged China, Japan and other Asia-Pacific nations heavily dependent on Hormuz oil flows to help police the waterway. China draws 90% of its oil from the strait, while Japan and South Korea draw 95% and 35%, respectively.

Trump is also looking to NATO for assistance, but so far, no country has confirmed whether they will send warships to help secure the waterway. In fact, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz explicitly stated that his nation would not participate in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Separately, Trump described Kharg Island, a key hub for the export of up to 90% of Iran’s oil products, as “literally destroyed” except for the oil pipelines. He warned the pipelines could be eliminated “with five minutes’ notice” and called Iran a “paper tiger now.”

Still, Trump is reportedly considering deploying U.S. ground forces to Kharg, according to Axios, citing U.S. officials involved in planning.

The geopolitical tension is contributing to volatility in both energy and equity markets. West Texas Intermediate crude, year-to-date, is up more than 62%. As of midday Monday, the price fell 3.6% to $93.30 per barrel.

The following benchmarks are pairing with stronger gains from earlier in the session:

• The S&P 500 rose 1% to 6,698
• The Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.1% to 24,670
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7% to 46,916.
• The Russell 2000 advanced 1.15% to 2,500.

Technology Leads All 11 S&P 500 Sectors

The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) gained 1.5%, driven by AI optimism surrounding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)‘s GTC conference underway in San Jose through March 19, where CEO Jensen Huang is set to address roughly 30,000 attendees.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) rose on reports that it plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 20% due to AI productivity gains.

Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLB) was the sole sector in the red.

Within earnings movers, Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) rose more than 4% after fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $2.56 topped the $2.53 consensus.

Gold eased 0.6% to $4,993.15 per troy ounce.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield held at 4.245% and the 30-year yield settled at 4.878%. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) gained 2.4% to $73,440.

Monday’s Performance In Major US Indices

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) rose 0.76%.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.61%.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (NASDAQ:QQQ) rallied 0.96%.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) traded 0.77% higher.

Russell 1000’s Top 5 Gainers And Losers On Monday

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