How major US stock indexes fared Tuesday, 3/3/2026

Audio By Carbonatix

A sell-off for stocks wrapped around the world and hit Wall Street, while oil prices climbed even higher on worries about the widening war with Iran.

But the big moves that rocked markets in the morning eased substantially as the day progressed. By the end of trading, the S&P 500 had sunk 0.9%. The index had been down as much as 2.5% in the morning because of worries that the war may do more sustained damage to the economy than feared.

The Dow dropped 403 points, having plunged more than 1,200 earlier. The Nasdaq composite pared its loss to 1%.

On Tuesday:

The S&P 500 fell 64.99 points, or 0.9%, to 6,816.63.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 403.51 points, or 0.8%, to 48,501.27.

The Nasdaq composite fell 232.17 points, or 1%, to 22,516.69.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 47.59 points, or 1.8% to 2,608.36.

For the week:

The S&P 500 is down 62.25 points, or 0.9%.

The Dow is down 476.65 points, or 1%.

The Nasdaq is down 151.52 points, or 0.7%.

The Russell 2000 is down 24 points, or 0.9%.

For the year:

The S&P 500 is down 28.87 points, or 0.4%.

The Dow is up 437.98 points, or 0.9%.

The Nasdaq is down 725.30 points, or 3.1%.

The Russell 2000 is up 126.45 points, or 5.1%.