Wall Street pointed toward gains early Monday and oil prices are volatile with a potential easing of violence even as Israel and Iran exchange fire.
Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.6% before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.2%. Nasdaq futures climbed 1.2%.
Global shares sank early Monday after Wall Street ended last week with its worst day since October as the technology sector took a beating.
Some of those
losses were clawed back early Monday, with chipmaker Micron jumping 7.2%, while Super Micro Computer, which makes servers and other data storage products, rose 6.3%.
South Korea’s Kospi led the global retreat, plunging 8.3% on heavy selling of technology shares and extending losses that on Friday gave the S&P 500 its biggest single day drop in months.
Oil prices surged overnight as Israel launched airstrikes early Monday, targeting central and western Iran in response to missile fire. Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions being heard in Isfahan, Tabriz and Tehran, without immediately elaborating.
The Iranian military announced that it would cease offensive operations against Israel just after 7 a.m. Eastern, immediately sending oil prices back down.
Brent crude, the international standard, was up $1.12 to $94.21 a barrel at 8 a.m. Eastern after jumping $4.60 a barrel overnight. Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1 to $91.54 a barrel.
The war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran, has shaken the global economy, driven energy prices up around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive. Officials have been unable to turn the April ceasefire into a deal to permanently end the conflict.
American and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative deal last week to extend their ceasefire, but the agreement has not been finalized and the latest attacks further strain efforts to end the conflict. The U.S. war with Iran has essentially blocked crude oil shipments from moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
At midday in Europe, France's CAC 40 fell 0.2%, the German DAX dipped 0.4% and Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.2%.
During Asia's day, the Kospi in Seoul slipped 8.3% to 7,484.41 as Samsung Electronics, the country’s biggest company, dropped 10.2%. SK Hynix declined 7.7%.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped 3.9% to finish at 64,024.60. The Japanese government revised the annualized economic growth rate to 1.8% for the first quarter this year, down from an earlier estimate of 2.1%.
Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan's Taiex lost 3.5% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 1.3% to 24,642.33. The Shanghai Composite shed 1.7% to 3,959.34.
Friday marked the biggest one-day drop for Wall Street since October.
The S&P 500 sank 2.6% after a strong jobs report boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates this year.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
