Market update for Wednesday March 18, 2026 Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK) Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions. In today’s episode: Preview of today’s Fed meeting and the impact of oil prices Nvidia restarts AI chip sales in China after regulatory approval Josh D’Amaro takes over as CEO of Disney Swarmer stock explodes up to 700% on IPO debut Amazon tests 1-hour delivery

Nvidia Is Back in China, This Drone Stock Just Exploded 700%

The Rundown

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Rundown

## Participants

- **Zaid Admani** (Public.com)

## Transcript

Public.com presents The Rundown, your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zaid Admani and today is Wednesday, March 18th. In today's episode, we'll preview today's Fed meeting and why oil prices could impact their decision on interest rates. We'll also tell you the latest on Nvidia's attempt to restart sales in China. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why you might be getting your Amazon packages in under an hour.

We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Well, stocks just had their first back-to-back day of gains since the start of the war with Iran on February 28th. Yesterday, the S&P 500 was up a quarter percent, while the Nasdaq was up nearly half a percent. You know, the fact that it took almost three weeks to string together two positive days in a row tells you how shaky the market has been lately. I guess investors are now a little bit less concerned about the situation in the Middle East.

Now, look, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. There are barely any shifts passing through there, and Iran is ramping up attacks on oil infrastructure of other Gulf countries. So things are still escalating, but the market doesn't seem to be panicked about it anymore. What's crazy is I've actually seen some projections that oil could hit $200 a barrel if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed for an extended period of time. So I don't think we're out of the woods just yet. And that brings us to the big event today, which is the Fed meeting.

The market is pricing on a 99% chance the Fed holds interest rates steady at 3.5 to 3.75%. But the real focus from today's Fed meeting will be the dot plot. The Fed releases a dot plot once a quarter, and it shows where each member of the Fed projects interest rates to be for the next few years. And the economic picture has kind of changed over the last three weeks because of the war with Iran and rising oil prices. Remember, the Fed's job is to keep inflation low and employment high.

And right now, inflation is still above the Fed's 2% target and could start going back up again because of rising oil prices. And while all that is happening, the labor market seems to be slowing down. The latest jobs report showed that 92,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. economy for the month of February. So all of that is changing the picture of when the Fed could cut interest rates. You know, about a month ago, the market was expecting a rate cut as early as June.

But now the market thinks we might not get a rate cut at all this year or even a potential rate hike if inflation heats back up. So this is going to be a pretty interesting Fed meeting. Now, typically, the Fed treats oil shocks as temporary, so it might not impact the Fed's decision. That's why I'm really interested to see what the dot plot says. And I'm sure Jerome Powell will get asked a ton of questions about oil and inflation ...

Nvidia Is Back in China, This Drone Stock Just Exploded 700%

Transcript

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Nvidia Is Back in China, This Drone Stock Just Exploded 700%

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.