Stock futures indicated a downward trend on Monday following the previous week’s gains in major indexes, amid rising oil prices and increasing Treasury yields. Futures for the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced declines of 1%, 0.5%, and 0.5%, respectively, in recent trading sessions. Major U.S. stock indexes experienced an uptick on Friday, marking weekly gains, with the Dow breaking a three-week decline, coinciding with a decrease in oil prices and Treasury yields. This week, market participants will direct their attention toward the upcoming releases of the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures data, scheduled for Wednesday morning, as well as the U.S. jobs report for September, anticipated on Friday morning.
Oil prices surged on Monday following President Donald Trump’s dismissal of an Iranian suggestion to temporarily reopen the Strait of Hormuz for a week. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures increased by 4.1% to $96.20 per barrel, whereas Brent crude futures, the international standard, saw a rise of 4% to $108.45. Amid heightened expectations of a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike at its late-October meeting, the 10-year Treasury yield, which serves as a benchmark for a wide range of interest rates, including those for mortgages, corporate bonds, and other loans, surged to near 5.24%, up seven basis points from Friday’s close and reaching its highest level since 2007. According to CME FedWatch, traders currently assign a 70% probability to a Federal Reserve rate increase in the upcoming month, a notable rise from the 56% observed just one week prior.
Shares of chipmakers and other AI-related companies were among the biggest decliners early Monday, with Intel down more than 3% in heavy premarket trading and Micron Technology 2.5% lower. Roundhill’s Memory ETF fell 3.5%, while the broader iShares Semiconductor ETF experienced a decline of 2.5%. All of the Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech stocks indicated a downward trend before the market opened, with Meta Platforms shares declining by 3% after experiencing a nearly 3.5% decrease on Friday. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF was down 1%. Nvidia announced its Open Agent Safety Platform “to strengthen AI security from agent testing to deployment,” and shares slipped 0.3%.
Bitcoin traded around $83,000, down from overnight highs near $85,000, while shares of crypto-tied stocks Robinhood Markets, Coinbase Global, Strategy, Mara Holdings, and Circle Internet Group all experienced a pullback. Gold futures declined by 3.1%, settling at $4,190 per ounce. The U.S. dollar index, which monitors the value of the greenback relative to a selection of foreign currencies, registered an increase of 0.2%, reaching 101.13.
