8 Key Items Shaping the Stock Market Thursday: White House Scrambles to Lower Gas Prices

These are the early headlines and other items poised to influence the market at the start of the trading day. As we share this collection of market drivers, U.S. equity futures point to a modest decline when the stock market opens later this morning.

1. The US-Israeli war on Iran entered a sixth day with little sign of easing, as the Islamic Republic vowed to intensify its retaliation and oil extended gains. (Bloomberg)

Oil prices were rallying early Thursday, having lost steam the day before when traders responded to conflicting reports about an endgame to the U.S.-Iran conflict... Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments Wednesday that fighting “could be six, it could be eight” weeks long may have unnerved oil traders about the length of the war. (Barron’s)

We’ll spare you the comments about the duration of the conflict, but the uncertainty over that timetable is likely to keep the market volatile based on the latest developments and headlines. Market volatility can be our friend, but the day-to-day turbulence can be nerve racking. We’ll follow the data and heed the signals we collect to not get lost in the very near-term and focus on the medium- to longer-term.

2. President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations. The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” said one of the executives, who was granted anonymity to describe internal administration discussions. (Politico)

Per data from AAA, average national gas prices hit $3.251 per gallon on Wednesday, up double digits over the last month, and that is something consumers and businesses are going to feel in their wallets. Given Hegseth’s comments above about a potential six-to-eight-week campaign, a sustained climb in gas prices is likely to deliver another step up in inflation data. Not only would that likely keep the Fed on the sidelines, but it would be a hot topic for the mid-term elections.

3. The war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran has disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key crossroads of the world’s commerce, trapping thousands of oil tankers and container ships. The U.S. government estimates that around 20 million barrels a day of crude oil and petroleum products pass through the strait in times of peace… The widening conflict in the Middle East is hitting the global shipping industry hard, with prices to charter the massive oil tankers that haul the world’s crude nearly doubling in recent days and going up fivefold since the start of the year. (MarketWatch)

More reasons to think we’re less likely to see inflation data falling in the near-term. The question is to what degree companies will be able to pass along incremental price increases to consumers. Will be a headwind for margins?

4. Broadcom expects to deliver 3 gigawatts worth of tensor processing units for AI work to Anthropic in 2027, and plans to ship OpenAI's first AI chip, delivering over 1 GW, in the same year… Broadcom expects second-quarter revenue to be about $22 ⁠billion, above analysts' average estimate of $20.56 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It projects AI chip revenue of $10.7 billion ⁠in the quarter. The company also announced a new share repurchase program of up to $10 billion through the end of the year. (Reuters)

We’ll have more to say on Broadcom’s (AVGO) beat-and-raise quarter in a standalone note later on Thursday morning, including CEO Hock Tan’s comments calling for “accelerated momentum” in the company’s custom AI silicon business and how that has improved its multi-quarter visibility even further. We see those comments supporting Marvell’s (MRVL) earnings after Thursday's market close as does Broadcom’s strong outlook for networking demand.

5. Talks on landmark crypto legislation have hit a new impasse after banks said they could not back a compromise pushed by the White House, a development that cast doubt on whether the bill will pass this year and sparked criticism from President Donald Trump who accused lenders of trying to undermine it. (Reuters)

We’ll continue to follow progress on the Clarity Act bill and what it could mean for the mainstreaming of crypto for the general investing public, but it appears that timetable is going to be extended yet again.

6. Morgan Stanley is cutting about 3% of its workforce, with the global cull impacting employees in its investment banking and trading businesses, as well as its wealth and asset management operations. (Bloomberg)

Some may make more out of this than there really is following the recent headcount chop announced by Block (XYZ) . We see this more along the lines of normal rationalization following the buildup of its businesses in recent years, especially on the wealth management side. As we’ve seen with our position in Bank of America (BAC) , managing the cost side of the equation is key.

7. Economic data today per TipRanks: Import/Export Prices (January), Jobless Claims (Weekly), Productivity & Unit Labor Costs (Q4 2025), Natural Gas Inventories (Weekly)

8. Companies reporting today per TipRanks: AM - Autohome (ATHM), BJ’s Wholesale (BJ) , Burlington Stores (BURL) , Ciena (CIEN) , Kroger (KR) , Victoria’s Secret (VSCO) . PM – Cooper (COO) , Costco (COST) , Gap (GAP) , Marvell (MRVL) , Smith & Wesson (SWBI) .

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At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long AVGO, MRVL, BAC and COST.