NEW YORK, March 9, 2026, 09:41 (EDT)
Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) slipped 0.84% in Monday’s premarket, TipRanks data showed, despite pulling in $846 million in net inflows over the past five sessions—fresh capital on a net basis. The fund fell 1.45% across those five days and is off 1.15% for the year.
Wall Street found itself on edge as oil spiked and stock futures slumped, setting up an uneasy Monday open. U.S. equity funds bled $21.92 billion for the week ending March 4, according to Reuters.
VTI, according to Vanguard’s latest year-end snapshot, is benchmarked to the CRSP US Total Market Index, carries a 0.03% expense ratio, and, as of Dec. 31, held stakes in more than 3,500 stocks. The fund’s market-cap weighting means giants like Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Broadcom still do most of the heavy lifting for daily returns.
The market felt that sensitivity earlier this month. On March 3, VTI slipped, according to Meyka, as mega-cap tech names and semiconductor stocks—Broadcom among them, leading into its earnings—lost ground. The cap-weighted ETF dropped, and trading volume spiked noticeably higher than usual.
Selling pressure wasn’t isolated to VTI—State Street’s SPY and Invesco’s QQQ both showed losses on delayed market data, signaling weakness across the main U.S. equity funds.
“This year, investors came in betting on growth. A stagflationary shock? Nobody had that penciled in,” said Chris Turner, ING’s head of global markets. For Lale Akoner at eToro, the conflict has turned equities into a play on rates and oil. She flagged a bigger risk if energy keeps inflation stubborn: “multiples, not earnings, are the weak link.” Reuters
If oil prices remain elevated, the risk is obvious. Stock markets are staring at a “vastly increased chance” of recession in the U.S. and globally, according to Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, as inflation picks up speed. Policymakers are talking through possible ways to keep energy costs from spiraling. Reuters
Even so, a bounceback remains in play. Parag Thatte and Binky Chadha at Deutsche Bank, according to a Reuters column by Jamie McGeever, found that geopolitical jolts tend to shave 6% to 8% off U.S. stocks over a roughly three-week span, but those losses have typically reversed inside the following three weeks. Larry Adam, Raymond James’ chief investment officer, noted the S&P 500 has historically been up at the one-, three-, six-, and 12-month marks after these sorts of events.
TipRanks reported Friday that VTI brought in around $1 billion in net flows over the last five sessions, despite the ETF dropping 1.43%. That points to investors continuing to load up on broad U.S. exposure during the downturn.
