US Equity Indexes Mixed as Crude Oil, Treasury Yields Rebound Amid Confusion Over Iran Talks

12:51 PM EDT, 03/24/2026 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes traded mixed after midday Tuesday as confusion surrounded the state of truce talks with Iran, belying market expectations, while Israel and Tel Aviv continued to exchange strikes.

The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.5% to 21,830.9, while the S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1% to 6,577.5, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.2% to 46,278.7. Energy, materials, and utilities were among the gainers, while communication services led the decliners.

All three gauges jumped while crude oil futures sank with US government bond yields on Monday after President Donald Trump said in a social media post that the US will not attack Iran's energy infrastructure for five days amid ongoing productive talks between the two countries that could result in a deal to end the war.

CNN reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed Israeli official, that a deal to end the Iran war "does not appear to be tangible right now," as another wave of strikes was carried out across Iran while Tehran launched attacks on Tel Aviv.

The state of talks remains unclear, with Iran disputing Trump's assertion that the US and Tehran held discussions over the weekend, the CNN news report said. Other countries are pushing for a diplomatic solution, with Pakistan offering to host talks involving Iran, Israel and the US, the report added.

"All this underscores the essential fact that we are not dealing with single decision-maker dynamics," Helima Croft, Head of Global Commodity Strategy and MENA Research at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note. "Unlike the case with tariffs or Greenland, multiple stakeholders have a say in how this war ends, and ships, not soundbites, will likely be what ultimately matters for physical markets."

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures jumped 4.5% to $92.12.

"Iran appears to be playing a long game, leveraging regional instability and its asymmetric warfare to impose economic and security costs on its adversaries," Deutsche Bank's Helen Belopolsky said in a note. "This strategy likely means that the Strait of Hormuz will be a contested and volatile chokepoint for some time to come."

Iran has started charging transit fees on some commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported. Payments of as much as $2 million per voyage are being sought on an ad hoc basis, effectively creating an informal toll on the waterway, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive dealings.

Most US Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year up four basis points to 4.38% and the two-year higher by 6.4 basis points to 3.90%.

In precious metals, gold futures rose 0.4% to $4,457.40 and silver futures dropped 1.2% to $70.22.

In US economic news, Redbook same-store sales were up by 6.7% from a year earlier in the week ended March 21 after a 6.4% year-over-year increase in the previous week.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's monthly non-manufacturing activity index fell to minus 23.9 in March from minus 17.3 in the previous month, compared with expectations for an increase to a minus 15.7 reading in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

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