Your Evening Briefing

March 11, 2026

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Stocks dip slightly, crude oil climbs amid conflict with Iran

The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 dipped, while the Nasdaq 100 just barely eked out a gain. Despite the largest-ever release of oil from strategic reserves, the price of crude oil continued to climb. Energy was the best-performing sector as oil continued to rise, while consumer staples fared the worst.

February CPI showed that headline inflation rose 0.3% month on month, in line with economists’ estimates. However, these numbers might not be of too much import right now, as the volatility in oil prices following US and Israeli strikes against Iran promises to dominate the inflation outlook in the near term.

Stocks that moved higher:

Oracle jumped after a Q3 earnings beat and guidance raise as its management works to alleviate fears on customer variety and balance sheet health.
Nebius spiked after announcing a $2 billion investment from Nvidia.
Uber moved higher after signing a multi-year deal with Amazon’s Zoox to deploy robotaxis, slated to roll out in Las Vegas in 2026 and LA in mid-2027.
Serve Robotics soared after launching a new partnership with Uber and White Castle for autonomous delivery.
Papa John’s skyrocketed following a $47-per-share take-private offer from Qatari-backed Irth Capital, with support from Brookfield Asset Management.
Hims & Hers continued to gain after a bevy of analyst upgrades following its partnership with Novo Nordisk.
A “Pokémon” game similar to “Animal Crossing” is selling out at US retailers, boosting Nintendo shares.
AI bottleneck stocks Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, Lam Research, KLA Corp, and Applied Materials continued to rise.
Online car retailer CarMax moved higher following reports that activist investor Starboard Value has taken a $350 million stake in the company.

Stocks that moved lower:

AeroVironment dropped after a Q3 revenue miss and downgrading its full-year guidance.
Trucking stocks Old Dominion Freight, XPO, JB Hunt, and Knight-Swift Transportation dropped as fuel costs rose.
Stryker was hit with a suspected Iran-linked cyber attack as the med tech giant said it is experiencing "a severe, global disruption.”
Campbell’s dropped after a Q2 miss and cut its full-year earnings guidance.

Google completes acquisition of Wiz — its biggest ever

The $32 billion cybersecurity startup purchase ranks higher than any of Google’s previous acquisitions. Read more.

Are the tech giants destroying their own golden age by fire-hosing money into AI?

Legendary investor and market skeptic Jeremy Grantham says hyperscalers’ profits are about to get crushed as they spend heavily to veer out of their defined lanes and fight over the same territory.

Read more.

Nvidia is planning on spending $26 billion to train its own AI open-weights models, according to a 2025 financial filing. Wired was first to report the information. Nvidia has released several of its own AI models, including the Nemotron reasoning model, as well as specialized ones for specific tasks. Read more.

Musk blurs the boundaries of his companies even more with joint xAI-Tesla AI agent project
Macrohard is now Digital Optimus.
Meta doubles down on custom inference chips after reportedly scrapping training chip
Meta wants to buy its chips and make them, too.
Tesla accelerates AI agent push as xAI’s Macrohard falters
Painting “MACROHARD” on a building isn’t the same as following through on the project.
Group of retired senior military officers and Microsoft file briefs supporting Anthropic in lawsuit
“In sum, the current disagreement arises despite substantial common ground between the government and Anthropic.”
Western US ski resorts have had a rocky season owing to a record snow drought
Vail Resorts just cut its profit outlook for 2026, as poor weather and low snowfall reduce skier visits.
Perplexity has been left behind in the AI wars
Once touted as a potential Google killer, the AI search engine’s traffic has been flat over the last year, while peers like Claude have surged ahead.
Ethereum is seeing record activity. So why is its price struggling?
Analysts from Citizens JMP Securities expect fundamentals to play a greater role in 2026, despite ethereum’s predicament between network activity and price.

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