Katherine Sullivan

Eli Lilly shares advanced about 1%.

The gain came after the company signed a major drug discovery deal with Insilico.

The Hong Kong-listed company said the deal could be valued at $2.75 billion.

And shares in major oil companies climbed as rising crude prices boosted the energy sector.

ExxonMobil was up 0.3%, and Shell was up 2% in London.

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Here's your Closing Bell Brief for Friday, March 27th.

I'm Katherine Sullivan for The Wall Street Journal.

U.S.

stocks fell sharply again today as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East intensified.

The Nasdaq lost more than 2 percent.

The Dow dropped 1.7 percent to enter correction territory, or more than 10 percent off its high in February.

And the S&P 500 also dropped 1.7 percent today to close out its fifth straight week of losses.

Investors reacted to news of a potentially longer military confrontation between the United States and Iran.

Crude oil prices climbed 4% as the conflict continued to threaten energy infrastructure.

Gold prices rose 2.7%, while the dollar edged higher.

Among individual companies, Lumentum shares rose 2%.

The laser maker plans to build a new manufacturing plant for artificial intelligence data center components.