Nasdaq futures indicated a lower opening on Tuesday, following the closure of U.S. stock and bond markets for Labour Day. This comes as oil prices and Treasury yields increased, alongside rising trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 experienced declines of 0.8% and 0.3%, respectively, while Nasdaq 100 futures saw a slight decrease. Last Friday, major stock indexes closed lower amid fresh concerns that the Federal Reserve will decide to raise its key interest rate later this month following a hotter-than-expected jobs report. However, the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 ended higher for a second straight week. This week, investors are poised to closely monitor the upcoming release of the August Consumer Price Index on Friday, as it holds the potential to influence the Federal Reserve’s forthcoming decision regarding interest rates next week.
Traders currently assign a 58% probability to the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates at the upcoming meeting, according to data from the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Crude prices experienced an uptick on Monday following military exchanges between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend. Brent crude futures, serving as the global benchmark, neared the $100-a-barrel mark, recently reflecting an increase of 1.6% to reach $98.55 a barrel. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate prices experienced an increase of 2.7%, approaching the $94 mark. Amid concerns that elevated oil prices will sustain inflationary pressures, the 10-year yield increased by over one basis point from Friday’s close, surpassing 4.80%. Last Wednesday, it reached 4.82%, marking its highest intraday level since November 2023. Canada’s $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs on specific American goods commenced on Tuesday, following President Donald Trump’s statement on Truth Social declaring, “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” unless the Canadian aircraft manufacturer establishes production within the U.S. Bitcoin recently was at $78,800, down modestly over the past 24 hours.
The U.S. dollar index, which monitors the value of the greenback relative to a selection of foreign currencies, experienced a decline of 0.2%, settling at 98.96. Gold futures declined by 0.8%, settling at $4,440 per ounce. Novartis shares tanked 12% in premarket trading after the pharmaceutical firm announced a pair of disappointing drug-trial results. One of them, about a cholesterol treatment announced late Friday, pulled down shares of Amgen, which is working on a rival drug. Amgen stock’s 5% decline exerted downward pressure on Dow futures. The Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech stocks pointed mostly lower, with the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF down about 0.5%, although Nvidia, the world’s most valuable public company, pointed up slightly. Tesla shares were little changed after a decline of 6% on Friday, following the announcement from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it had opened a probe “to examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.”
Memory stocks rose modestly, with Sandisk, Seagate Technology, and Western Digital all up less than 1% after surging between 6% and 12% on Friday. The Roundhill Memory ETF and the broader iShares Semiconductor ETF experienced increases of approximately 2% and 1%, respectively. Shares of Bloom Energy, Everpure, and Illumina increased by 5%, 3%, and 1%, respectively, following the announcement from S&P Dow Jones Indices late Friday that these stocks would be added to the S&P 500 prior to the commencement of trading on September 21. The companies they are replacing-Molson Coors Beverage, The Trade Desk, and Builders FirstSource-experienced a slight decline.
