The formalities are over. The women's NCAA Tournament is about to get real.
A tournament marked by blowouts is down to the Final Four, and the teams in Phoenix are the ones everybody expected to be there.
UConn (38-0) has been the No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 since it won the national championship last year. South Carolina (35-3), UCLA (35-1) and Texas (35-3) each have held the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 spots.
This year marks the first time since 1996 that the Final Four is made up of the same teams as the previous year, and it's the first time since 2018 that all four No. 1 seeds made it this far.
The first national semifinal Friday pits South Carolina against UConn in a 2025 championship game rematch. Texas meets UCLA in the second semifinal. The championship game is Sunday.
The average margin of victory through the first 64 games of the tournament is 20.8 points, with 26 games decided by at least 20 points and 17 by less than 10.
The four teams still standing are among the top five in scoring margin for the season and in the tournament.
UConn’s season average of 37.8 points per game is on track to rank third all-time behind its record 40.6 in 2015 and 39.7 in 2016. South Carolina has an average margin of 29.6 for the season and 40.3 in the tournament. Texas' averages are 29.1 for the season and 35.5 in the tournament. UCLA's are 28 and 27, respectively.
Since 2009, only five schools other than UConn or South Carolina have won championships.
UConn has 12 titles and will be making its 25th Final Four appearance, both NCAA records. South Carolina has three titles and will be in its eighth Final Four and sixth in a row, the second-longest streak behind UConn's 14 straight from 2008-22.
Texas' only title came in 1986, and its fifth Final Four is tied for sixth most. UCLA's only Final Fours have been last season and this season, and the Bruins are looking for their first title.
Top candidates for national player of the year include UConn's Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, UCLA's Lauren Betts and Texas star Madison Booker. All four are on the Associated Press All-America first team:
— Strong, the Big East player of the year, leads the Huskies in scoring (18.6), rebounds (7.6), blocks (1.6) and steals (3.4) and has scored in double figures in 51 straight games. The sophomore also is Big East defensive player of the year for a team that allows a nation-low 50 points per game.
— Fudd, a senior, averages 17.5 points per game and is fifth in 3-point accuracy (45.5%) and first in made 3s (115).
— Betts, the Big Ten player and defensive player of the year, has averaged 24 points and is shooting 70% from the field in the tournament,. The senior blocked five shots in each of her last two games and holds the school career record with 239 in 101 games.
— Booker set Texas' NCAA Tournament scoring record with 40 against Oregon in the second round, and the junior averaging 22.5 per game in the tournament and 19.3 for the season.
South Carolina's Joyce Edwards was national high school player of the year in 2024 and followed up with a freshman season that ended with her on the 2025 Final Four all-tournament team. She is one of the top players in the country in her second season.
Her season scoring average of 19.7 points per game is best among Final Four players and she is scoring 20.5 per game in the tournament. With 24 points against TCU on Monday, Edwards tied the program record for 20-point games in a season (22).
Keep an eye on two freshmen who come off the bench, Blanca Quinonez of UConn and Agot Makeer of South Carolina.
Quinonez, a forward from Milagro, Ecuador, was Big East freshman of the year and sixth woman of the year and made the all-region team in Fort Worth. Her average of 17.3 points per game in four tournament games is nearly double her average of 9.9 through the Big East Tournament. She's 8 of 13 from 3-point range over her last three games.
Makeer, a guard from Thunder Bay, Ontario, who prepped at Montverde Academy in Florida, has scored in double figures for four straight games, including a career-high 18 against TCU on Monday.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Texas guard Jordan Lee (7), guard Rori Harmon (3), forward Madison Booker (35) celebrate their win over Oregon in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 22, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
UConn forward Sarah Strong drives against Notre Dame during the second half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks surged to their best day since last spring, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,125 points on Tuesday as doubt swung back to hope on Wall Street about a possible end to the war with Iran.
The S&P 500 leaped 2.9% for its largest gain since May. Just a day before, worries about the war had sent the main measure of Wall Street’s health more than 9% below its all-time high set early this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 2.5%, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 3.8%.
The rebound came as financial markets seized on a couple tenuous signals for hope about a possible end to the war. It’s the latest manic swing following weeks of frenetic back and forth amid uncertainty about the war. The moves also came as Wall Street marked the end of the year’s first quarter, a milestone that can cause a flurry of trading as fund managers close their books.
Analysts said optimism entered markets overnight following a report from The Wall Street Journal saying President Donald Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. The strait is a narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, and a fifth of the world’s oil sails through it on a typical day.
Oil prices then took a sudden and sharp turn lower in midday trading following a news report from the Middle East quoting Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian as saying it has “the necessary will to end the war” as long as certain requirements are met, including “guarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression.”
The worry on Wall Street has been that the war may last a long time and keep oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf out of global markets, which could create a brutal blast of inflation. Following Tuesday’s possible signals of hope, the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 3.2% to settle at $103.97. Benchmark U.S. crude erased a gain from the morning and eased 1.5% to settle at $101.38.
Oil prices could quickly revert to spiking, to be sure, if tankers carrying crude can’t get through the strait easily. Iran attacked a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker in the Persian Gulf in the latest fighting in the region.
And oil prices have already shot high enough that inflation in Europe accelerated to 2.5% in March, up from February’s 1.9%.
In the United States, the price for a gallon of gasoline topped $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022. That’s squeezing budgets for U.S. households and preventing spending on other things. Worries about that and pressured profit margins for companies meant the S&P 500 closed Tuesday with its worst loss for a quarter since the summer of 2022.
The 4.6% loss would have been even worse if not for Tuesday’s easing for oil prices, which helped stocks of companies that have big fuel bills. United Airlines soared 8.1%, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holding steamed 5.9% higher to trim their losses for the year so far.
Tech stocks were the strongest forces lifting the market in a widespread rally where four out of every five stocks within the S&P 500 rose. Marvell Technology shot up 12.8% after Nvidia invested $2 billion in the company and announced a partnership with it. Nvidia rose 5.6% and was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500.
Centessa Pharmaceuticals soared 44% after Eli Lilly said it was buying the company working on treatments for excessive daytime sleepiness and other neurological conditions. Lilly, which is paying up to $7.8 billion if certain conditions are met, rose 3.7%
They helped offset a 6.1% drop for McCormick. The spice company is buying most of Unilever’s food business, including such brands as Hellmann’s, for cash and stock valuing it at $44.8 billion.
All told, the S&P 500 jumped 184.80 points to 6,528.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1,125.37 to 46,341.51, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 795.99 to 21,590.63.
They benefited from easing pressure from the bond market, where Treasury yields sank again. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.32% from 4.35% late Monday and from 4.44% at the end of last week. That’s a significant move for the bond market.
Lower yields should pull downward on rates for mortgages and other loans for U.S. households and businesses, which have been screaming higher since the war began. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at just 3.97% in late February, before worries about high oil prices pushed traders to erase bets for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year.
Yields remained lower following a couple reports Tuesday on the U.S. economy that came in better than economists expected. One said confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly improved. The other said U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of February than expected, though fewer than the month before.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a tougher finish in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi fell 4.3%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.6% for two of the bigger moves.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
James Denaro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Christopher Lagana works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Liberia-flagged tanker Shenlong Suezmax, carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia, that arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, file)
A currency trader reacts near a screen showing international oil prices at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
