The Iran war isn’t just moving crude prices — it’s redrawing the S&P 500’s performance map.
A month-to-date snapshot through Mar. 26 reveals that 15 of the index’s 20 best-performing stocks are direct beneficiaries of the crisis at the Strait of Hormuz.
Twelve names in the top 20 belong to the oil and gas industry — a clear reflection of how rising crude prices translate into energy stocks’ performance.
Three more belong to chemicals — an industry whose margins are being turbocharged by soaring fertilizer input costs and disrupted petrochemical supply chains.
Together, they form the clearest market map yet of who wins when Hormuz goes dark.
Hormuz Owns 75% Of S&P 500’s March Winners
| # | Stock name | MTD % Chg | Industry | Hormuz related? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) | +39.56% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 2 | LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE:LYB) | +34.84% | Chemicals | ✓ |
| 3 | CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) | +32.39% | Chemicals | ✓ |
| 4 | Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) | +28.91% | Chemicals | ✓ |
| 5 | Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) | +24.44% | Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals | — |
| 6 | Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) | +21.72% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 7 | Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) | +21.71% | IT Services | — |
| 8 | Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) | +21.38% | Communications Equipment | — |
| 9 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) | +19.90% | Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals | — |
| 10 | Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) | +18.57% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 11 | Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) | +17.77% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 12 | Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) | +17.54% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 13 | EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) | +16.94% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 14 | Coterra Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRA) | +16.83% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 15 | Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) | +16.06% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 16 | ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) | +15.24% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 17 | Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) | +14.39% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 18 | ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE) | +11.48% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
| 19 | Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) | +10.73% | Software | — |
| 20 | Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) | +10.28% | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | ✓ |
Why Oil Producers And Refiners Are Leading?
The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most critical oil chokepoint, handling roughly 20% of global petroleum trade.
When shipping through the strait is disrupted, crude prices spike — and the stocks of companies that produce, refine, or process hydrocarbons move with them.
The surge in crude prices since the onset of the Iran conflict has been a direct windfall for U.S. upstream producers like APA Corporation or Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
Higher oil means higher realized prices, fatter margins and immediate upward revisions to earnings estimates.
Refiners like Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero are playing a different angle.
Crack spreads — the margin between the cost of crude and the value of the refined products it yields — have widened as product supply tightens while crude access becomes uncertain.
Read also: The Refiner Earnings Supercycle Has Begun: History Says Buy These 5 Stocks Before It’s Too Late
Why Chemicals Are Rallying?
The energy trade is obvious.
But the chemical names — CF Industries Holdings, Inc., LyondellBasell Industries N.V., and Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) — deserve a separate read.
The Hormuz disruption has crimped natural gas flows from the Gulf region, directly squeezing ammonia and fertilizer production capacity worldwide.
For CF Industries Holdings, Inc., the largest U.S. nitrogen fertilizer producer, that supply shock translates directly into margin expansion. LyondellBasell Industries N.V. and Dow Inc. are benefiting from the same naphtha and feedstock premium dynamics that are driving crack spreads higher across the refining complex.
Read Next: Hormuz Turned Fertilizer Into The New Shortage Trade
Photo by Below the Sky via Shutterstock