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US stock futures were jittery on Monday as concerns about escalation in the Iran war eclipsed optimism stoked by strong quarterly earnings growth.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) dropped 0.4%, as those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) slipped 0.1%. Meanwhile, contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) were flat following a strong finish to last week by Wall Street stocks.
Markets briefly slid into the red following reports that two Iranian strikes hit a US patrol boat and that a US warship was turned back in the Strait of Hormuz. But the US denied the reports from Iranian media outlets.
The developments come after President Trump said the US would start helping trapped ships to exit the key Gulf waterway on Monday, in a plan dubbed “Project Freedom”.
“If, in any way, this Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully,” Trump wrote Sunday in a social media post. In response, Iran warned it would take action against US ships.
Oil prices jumped as worries about fresh US-Iran hostilities rattled markets, with Brent (BZ=F) crude futures up over 3% to nearly $112 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) rose to almost $105.
Looking ahead, the week brings the April US jobs report, due Friday. Economists expect job growth to slow, with forecasts calling for 60,000 new positions compared with March’s 178,000. The unemployment rate is projected to hold steady at 4.3%.
On the corporate front, earnings from major semiconductor manufacturers Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (LSCC), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Arm Holdings (ARM) will highlight the week. Investors will also look to results from Palantir (PLTR) and Paramount Skydance (PSKY).
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A rally in shares tied to artificial intelligence helped Asia’s stock benchmark wipe out losses sparked by the Iran war and climb back to an all-time high
Bloomberg reports:
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped as much as 2.3% on Monday, the most since April 8. Tech-heavy benchmarks in South Korea and Taiwan surged more than 4% each. The moves came after the S&P 500 Index (^GSPC) extended a record-breaking streak Friday to mark a fifth week of gains, following solid earnings from tech mega caps.
The AI theme — a dominant feature of markets before the outbreak of the Middle East conflict — has returned to the forefront as last month’s ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran calmed investor nerves. Asia’s stock benchmark surged more than 13% in April, erasing almost all of the declines suffered in March.
… Asia has emerged as a key pillar of the AI boom, combining its dominance in semiconductor manufacturing with rapidly scaling data infrastructure. At the heart of it are three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest chip foundry, and South Korea’s leading memory makers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc.
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