New York, March 2, 2026, 10:50 EST — Regular session
- Alphabet’s Class C shares (GOOG) fell about 2.4% to $304.06 in early trading.
- Oil jumped as investors priced in a longer Middle East conflict, pushing volatility up and weighing on growth stocks.
- Traders are watching Friday’s U.S. jobs report and Alphabet’s March 9 dividend record date.
Alphabet Inc’s Class C shares (GOOG) were down about 2.4% at $304.06 on Monday, sliding roughly $7.4 from the prior close. The stock traded between $301.06 and $306.14 in the session. 1
The drop came as Wall Street’s main indexes turned lower with crude prices up more than 8% after an escalation in the Middle East raised fears of supply disruptions and renewed inflation pressure. “The market is taking it relatively well,” LPL Financial’s Adam Turnquist said, adding investors had been expecting a conflict; the CBOE Volatility Index pushed to a three-month high, while Wells Fargo’s Ohsung Kwon flagged a scenario where the S&P 500 could fall sharply if oil climbs past $100 a barrel. 2
That matters for Alphabet because higher energy prices feed into inflation and interest-rate expectations. When rates look sticky, investors often pay less for long-duration growth stocks, even if the underlying business does not change much in a single morning.
The Middle East flare-up also lands on a region where big tech has parked fresh capital. Google Cloud and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have said they will invest $10 billion to build and operate a global AI hub in Saudi Arabia, part of a wider push by Gulf states to become an AI and cloud base; Microsoft, Amazon’s AWS and Oracle have also outlined big spending plans there. 3
Away from geopolitics, investors still have Alphabet’s spending arc in the frame. The company has forecast 2026 capital expenditures — money spent on things like data centers and equipment — of $175 billion to $185 billion as it builds out AI capacity. 4
A filing shows Alphabet’s board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.21 per share, payable March 16 to shareholders of record as of March 9, covering its Class A, B and Class C stock. Record date matters because it sets who gets paid. 5
Next up is the macro tape. The Labor Department is scheduled to release the February U.S. employment report on Friday, March 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET, with February CPI due on Wednesday, March 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET. 6
The market’s AI narrative is still twitchy too. “There is very little definitive right now,” Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group, said of who wins and loses from the technology, while BNY’s John Velis described an equity market “trying to find the winners and losers” of a disruptive shift. 7
For Alphabet, the competitive yardstick stays familiar: Microsoft in cloud, Amazon in cloud infrastructure, and Meta in digital ads. Investors are still trying to decide whether AI spending creates a moat — or just bigger bills.
But the risk case is easy to write. If oil stays elevated and inflation worries build, rate-cut hopes can slide and valuation pressure can deepen, with ad budgets and corporate tech spending also at risk if the growth outlook dulls.
What traders watch next is straightforward: headlines on the Middle East and crude, then Friday’s payrolls report — and, for Alphabet holders, the March 9 dividend record date.
