U.S. markets were on track to open higher and oil prices inched up early Monday after tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated over the weekend.
Futures for the S&P 500 surged 0.8% before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%. Nasdaq futures were up 1.1%.
Tehran launched fresh drone and missile attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait in response to new U.S. airstrikes over the weekend. President Donald Trump said
Monday on social media that Iran had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts, though Iranian officials said no such meeting was scheduled.
Trump has tried to preserve an increasingly fragile interim deal as hostilities have mounted in the Strait of Hormuz in recent days. Rising oil prices could undermine Trump’s claims to voters that inflation in America was easing.
Brent crude, the international standard, was up 58 cents to $73.18 a barrel early Monday. It sold for about $72 a barrel before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 73 cents to $69.96 a barrel.
There’s still plenty of risk facing the oil market, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a commentary Monday, as more questions were raised about the safety of ships in the Strait of Hormuz following attacks on vessels.
Oil traders have been “too optimistic” about the timeline for a recovery in Persian Gulf supplies, they said.
“This complacency is odd and clearly leaves significant upside risk if the supply recovery proves slow — or if we see significant re-escalation,” the commentary said.
In corporate news, Comcast shares soared 23% after the cable giant announced it would split itself into two separate publicly traded companies by spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky.
Comcast's board and management teams think each company will be better positioned to pursue its own strategic priorities, invest for growth and create long-term shareholder value as independent entities. Like other cable companies, Comcast has shifted its business emphasis away from traditional cable toward streaming and other sources of revenue, such as its movie studio, theme parks and home wireless and internet services.
In what's expected to be a slow, holiday-shortened week, investors will be closely watching developments in Iran and poring over the latest labor market data. This week includes the government's reports on job openings, layoffs and the more comprehensive June jobs report.
Elsewhere, benchmarks in Japan and South Korea recovered most of their earlier declines in a day weighed on by more selling of artificial intelligence-related shares.
South Korea’s Kospi ended 0.2% lower at 8,394.65, narrowing a sharper decline earlier in the day after the country announced plans for investments of more than $500 billion in a computer chip manufacturing hub in the country's southwestern region by Samsung and SK Hynix. Samsung Electronics sank 4.8%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix fell 1.7%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.2% higher at 69,468.11, reversing earlier losses. SoftBank Group, the multinational investment holding company which invests in OpenAI, sank 5.3% following a 12.5% drop on Friday.
Taiwan’s Taiex, also a beneficiary of the global AI boom thanks to its many tech companies including chipmaker TSMC, gained 1% after falling 3.6% on Friday.
Japan’s and South Korea’s markets have soared as many of their Big Tech firms were lifted by demand for computer chips and other high-valued components used in artificial intelligence. Recent worries over AI valuations have trimmed some of those gains.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.6% to 23,026.68, while the Shanghai Composite index added 1.2% to 4,073.90. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 8,823.40.
India’s Sensex fell 0.5%.
At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% higher and France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.2%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was unchanged.
