A television station broadcasts Kevin Warsh, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, speaking after a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures were lower Wednesday as oil prices spiked after Iran attacked American forces, while a sell-off in index heavyweights sent South Korea’s benchmark Kospi tumbling.
S&P 500 futures declined 0.12% and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0.49%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 60 points, or about 0.1%.
The Kospi reversed course to fall more than 8%, dragged by index heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, triggering a trading halt. The small-cap Kosdaq similarly plunged over 8%. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 2.2% and the Topix lost 0.61%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, bucked the trend, gaining 1.4%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 was down 0.73%.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures advanced about 4% to trade at around $82 a barrel after U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched “multiple ballistic missiles in an attempted surprise attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East.” The missiles were successfully intercepted, Centcom said.
Ford Motor shares jumped 4% in extended trading after the automaker beat earnings expectations and lifted its 2026 forecast. But Visa shares slipped roughly 1% after the payments giant posted underwhelming guidance.
Investors are looking ahead to the Federal Reserve‘s interest rate decision and subsequent press conference with Chairman Kevin Warsh on Wednesday afternoon. Fed funds futures traders are pricing in a nearly 70% likelihood that the central bank holds rates steady at the current targe range of 3.5% to 3.75%, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
Traders sent the Dow surging more than 500 points on Tuesday as they geared up for the decision. It marked the blue-chip average’s third straight winning day, with the recent decline in oil prices providing upward momentum.
But the Nasdaq Composite ended in the red for the fifth consecutive session, dragged down by struggling chip stocks. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) dropped 3.5% in its fourth straight negative session on Tuesday. This decline brought the fund’s one-week loss to more than 9%.
“We continue to believe markets are placing too much weight on inflation risk and too little weight on the economic consequences of further tightening,” said Julia Hermann, global market strategist at New York Life Investment Management. “A more hawkish communication stance would likely test today’s narrow market leadership more than the broader market.”
Prior to the Fed decision, investors will monitor earnings from Procter & Gamble and Humana coming before the bell. Results from megacap tech bellwethers Microsoft and Meta Platforms, as well as chipmaker Qualcomm, will be out in the afternoon.
