US stock futures trod water as the standoff between the US and Iran became more entrenched, raising doubts about progress on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F), the S&P 500 (ES=F), and the Nasdaq-100 (NQ=F) were roughly flat in premarket trading after stocks closed lower on Monday.
Ongoing geopolitical tensions and increasing demands around war compensation put downward pressure on equities. On Sunday, President Trump rebuked Iran’s demand for reparations and said he would wait for economic pressure to build on the country. “We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump told Axios.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, stated that there was “no possibility of restarting negotiations” until the US compensates Iran for violations of the June memorandum of understanding.
Oil prices continued to climb as a result, building anticipation toward Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. After Friday’s softer-than-expected jobs report, bets have shifted toward a Federal Reserve rate hike in September, with Cleveland Federal Reserve president Beth Hammack telling Yahoo Finance on Monday that it may take more than one rate hike to rein in inflation.
At the same time, new fundraising efforts by Intel (INTC), Nvidia (NVDA), and others are renewing scrutiny into the capital-intensive AI build-out. Earnings from cloud computing company CoreWeave (CRWV) and AI server maker Super Micro Computer (SMCI) after the bell are expected to provide insight into the health of the AI hardware business.
