NEW YORK, March 9, 2026, 09:28 EDT
SPY slid roughly 1.3% in premarket trading Monday, tracking the S&P 500. DIA, which follows the Dow Jones Industrial Average, dropped close to 1%. QQQ, tied to the Nasdaq-100, lost about 1.5%, hinting at another sluggish open for Wall Street.
The drop is hitting a market that was already on shaky ground. Oil spiked close to $120 a barrel with Middle East tensions escalating, and Friday’s surprise decline in U.S. payrolls has put stagflation worries—sluggish growth paired with persistent inflation—right back in focus, tightening the Fed’s options.
Dow futures slid 1.18% early Monday, while the S&P 500 gave up 1.05%. Losses in Nasdaq 100 futures ran to 1.13%. The VIX, Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge, hit 32.14—levels not seen since April 2025.
The S&P 500 closed out Friday down 1.33% at 6,740.02, while the Nasdaq slid 1.59% and the Dow ended off 0.95%. That put the S&P in the red by 2.02% for the week—its steepest weekly decline since mid-October.
Selling pressure wasn’t limited to SPY. IVV and VOO—also major S&P 500 trackers—each slipped roughly 1.3% premarket, pointing to a pullback from wide U.S. equity exposure, not just a single product.
Market notes from the past week echo that sentiment. TipRanks linked SPY’s March 6 slide to softer payroll numbers and pricier crude, while Stocktwits flagged DIA edging toward a breach of its 100-day moving average—a medium-term trend line that hasn’t been broken since June 23, 2025. On Seeking Alpha Sunday, Matrixtrade’s chief analyst Andrew McElroy described the S&P 500 as “slow grind lower rather than a collapse,” warning that a close below 6,764 could open the door for 6,500 in coming weeks. TipRanks
Friday’s jobs data jolted sellers into action. Employers slashed 92,000 positions in February—analysts had penciled in a gain of 59,000—and unemployment hit 4.4%. “You can’t sugarcoat this report,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. He pointed to the mix of mounting job losses and rising oil prices as a recipe for heightened stagflation worries. Reuters
Nowhere to run: Diamondback and APA each climbed over 2% in early trading as energy prices pushed higher. Losses deepened for airlines, cruise stocks, and major banks. “The market is grappling with a sharply increased risk of U.S. and global recession as inflation surges,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG. Goldman Sachs warned that a one-point drop in growth could translate to as much as a 4% reduction in S&P 500 profits. Reuters
The outlook for the next phase remains uncertain. G7 finance chiefs are set to talk over a coordinated release of emergency oil reserves, while Saudi Arabia and others are considering moves to boost output. According to David Rees, global economics head at Schroders, some of the payroll shortfall was tied to healthcare strikes that are expected to unwind. Still, if oil prices hold up and relief measures stall, profit margins could come under pressure fast.
All eyes shift to Wednesday’s U.S. CPI release and the upcoming Fed meeting on March 17-18, as markets watch for any sign policymakers might pivot—responding either to softening labor numbers or the fresh inflation hit from energy. Monday’s pullback leaves risks for SPY, DIA, and the S&P 500 unresolved.
