The impact of the war in Iran is becoming increasingly widespread. Rising oil prices continued to weigh on stocks last week, with the Dow and Nasdaq slipping into correction territory, defined by a decline of 10% or more from record highs. The Dow and Nasdaq fell 1.7% and about 2.2%, respectively, on Friday, and only 1% and 3.2%, respectively, for the week. The Dow is down 10% from its recent record high, while the Nasdaq is down about 13%. The S&P 500 fell 1.7% on Friday and 2.1% for the week. The S&P 500 is barely on the right side of the correction range, down 8.7% from its record. It was not just the war that crushed stocks on Friday, but the market witnessed a decline for five straight weeks. The news that Anthropic is testing its powerful new artificial intelligence model has bolstered enterprise software stocks, including cybersecurity names that should never be lumped in with the rest. Social media stocks also struggled after two court rulings in child protection cases went against the Meta platform. Here are three themes that drove another challenging week on Wall Street. War-induced oil surge Iran and the US exchanged proposals to end hostilities. Neither side was that excited. President Donald Trump again extended the deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz oil route or face bombing of its power plants. The new date is 6 April. Jim Cramer has said it will be difficult for stocks to recover as long as the Strait remains closed and oil prices rise due to supply constraints. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 5.5% on Friday to $99.64 a barrel, its highest settlement price since July 2022. Brent international crude jumped 4.2% to $112.57, also its highest settlement price since July 2022. WTI and Brent rose more than 1.3% and 0.3% respectively for the week and are up 48.7% and 55.3% respectively since the war began four weeks ago. According to AAA, the national average for regular unleaded gasoline is a little less than $4 per gallon — up $1 per gallon in a month. We detected two bright spots of higher gas prices for Costco: busier pumps bringing more shoppers into stores, and the retailer’s new standalone gas station experiment to boost membership growth. Costco shares rose 1.2% last week. ‘Anthropic the Impeller’ During the Investing Club’s March monthly meeting on Friday, Jim called Anthropic “Anthropic the Impeller,” because every time there is a development about an AI startup, software stocks get blown out. Friday’s Anthropic headline took a 6% discount on CrowdStrike, and a similar discount for Palo Alto Networks. Both stocks were down more than 9% during the week. The market is worried that Anthropic and other AI tools will replace enterprise software companies. But AI cannot replace best-of-breed cybersecurity. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz explained why on Thursday evening’s “Mad Money.” Kurtz said every company deploying AI needs independent security for compliance and enforcement. “It’s a bit like a dentist trying to do brain surgery,” Jim said during Friday’s meeting. When CrowdStrike came under pressure Tuesday over Databricks’ entry into the security market, we acknowledged that weakness. While he still likes Palo Alto, Jim said the portfolio doesn’t need two cybersecurity stocks and he favors CrowdStrike. No Tobacco, No Asbestos Meta Platform’s stock was our worst performer last week, falling nearly 11.5%, after losing two social media addiction cases — one in California and one in New Mexico. Jim wants to enhance our condition whenever possible. He said during Friday’s meeting: “Did Meta lose some lawsuits involving some of the painful addictions to its product? Yes. But is it hidden asbestos? I believe Meta has the law and the facts and will defend it vigorously.” He also condemned the comparison with tobacco. Jim said the Meta lawsuits remind him of the talc cases against Johnson & Johnson. Jim said, “It’s like J&J, $140 at the peak of the plaintiffs, then went straight to $240.” He expressed his sadness at being fired from J&J because of talc and that he did not want to give up on Meta. Jim said he’s not too thrilled with the huge amount of money Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is spending on AI. But he concluded, “Every time I have doubted him I have been wrong.” (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is Long Cost, PANW, META. See here for a full list of stocks.) As a subscriber to CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after a trade alert is sent before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. 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