Stock Market Summary – March 03, 2026

1. President Trump has stated that the conflict with Iran will continue until the US’s “objectives” are completed. The justification for the conflict has varied from preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, deposing the Iranian regime, stopping an imminent attack from Iran on US interests, and following Israel’s lead. The changing justification has led to confusion and questions about the US’s motives and how long this battle may last.

2. The conflict between the US and Iran raises questions for investors about whether the old adage of “buy the cannon, sell the trumpet” will hold true this time around. Henry Allen from Deutsche Bank states that usually, geopolitical events have no long-term impact on the market. However, the increased oil and natural gas prices may lead to a significant shift.

3. Apple has increased its prices for its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, attributing the hike to a tighter memory supply. The new MacBook Air now starts at $1,099 and the MacBook Pro at $2,199, carrying a significant price jump from their predecessors.

4. Today witnessed significant stock movements. AeroVironment’s stock jumped 9% after the drone maker announced its continuing talks with the U.S Space Force. Pinterest’s stocks rose over 7% after activist Elliott Management announced a $1 billion investment in the company. However, AutoZone’s stocks fell more than 5% following a disappointing fiscal second quarter.

5. A drone strike on Amazon Web Services’ data centres in the United Arab Emirates has caused outages for apps and digital services in the region. The drone strikes have disrupted services from platforms like Careem, Alaan and Hubpay along with digital banking services.

6. Nvidia announced it would be investing a combined $4 billion in Lumentum and Coherent. Following the announcement, Coherent’s stocks rose more than 15% and Lumentum’s nearly 12%. This caused JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee to view the investment as an “overall positive” for both companies.

7. Blackstone, the world’s largest private credit fund, saw a record redemptions as investors pulled nearly 8% of it in the last quarter. This sparked a sell-off in Blackstone shares which fell about 8.5%. Despite this, Blackstone president Jon Gray has defended the quality of loans within the fund stating the 400-plus borrowers had 10% EBITDA growth last year.

As this is financial news, the request for specific Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq numbers cannot be fulfilled as it requires real-time data.