04:44 PM EDT, 03/13/2026 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes fell while crude oil futures rose after President Donald Trump said Iran would be hit "hard" as Washington stepped up strikes.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9% to 22,105.36, with the S&P 500 down 0.6% to 6,632.19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.3% lower at 46,558.47.

Technology, materials, and communication services led the decliners, while utilities and consumer staples were among the gainers.

The US said it had stepped up strikes on Iran to unprecedented levels as both sides in the war threatened to escalate a conflict hitting its two-week mark that has upended energy flows and financial markets, Bloomberg reported.

"They're going to be hit. They can talk all they want, but, you know, let's see what they do," the news report cited Trump on Fox News Radio from an interview that aired Friday. "They're going to, maybe, do something having to do with the straits, I don't know, but they are being hit so hard, it'll take them 20 years to rebuild."

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures jumped 3.2% to $98.76, after trading as low as $92.04 earlier in the session.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a news briefing that Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been "wounded and likely disfigured," as he claimed that Iran's leadership has been severely weakened due to US military operations, CNN reported.

US Treasury yields were mixed, with the 10-year yield rising by 1.2 basis points to 4.29%, close to its highest levels since August 2025. The two-year yield dropped 3.3 basis points to 3.73%.

In economic news, the annual headline personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index growth decelerated to 2.8% in January from December's 2.9%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday, and in line with the pace estimated by the Street. Month-on-month, the metric eased to 0.3%, in line with market expectations, from 0.4%.

The Fed's preferred measure, which excludes food and energy, advanced to 3.1% annually from 3% in December, and held steady at 0.4% sequentially. Both measures met the Bloomberg-compiled consensus.

Real gross domestic product grew at a 0.7% annualized rate in the December quarter, according to a second estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Wall Street expected growth to match the initial 1.4% estimate, according to a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

The University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 55.5 in March from 56.6 in February, compared with 54.8 in a Bloomberg-compiled poll. Respondents saw one-year inflation expectations at 3.4%, in line with February, while the five-year inflation forecast slowed to 3.2% from 3.3%.

US job openings increased to 6.946 million in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, above the 6.750 million openings expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg and up from the 6.550 million openings reported in December.

In company news, Ulta Beauty ( ULTA ) shares dropped more than 14%, the steepest decline on the S&P 500, after the company reported lower fiscal Q4 earnings overnight.