Oil jumps near $85 as U.S.-Iran fighting rattles futures
Crude climbed Sunday night while U.S. stock futures slipped, with investors watching Middle East fighting and a packed week of tech earnings.
By Frankie Delgado · News Reporter
3 min read
Oil pushed toward $85 a barrel Sunday night as fighting between the U.S. and Iran intensified, putting fresh pressure on U.S. stock futures and giving investors a tense start to a crowded earnings week.
MarketWatch reported that Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down about 95 points, or 0.2%, late Sunday. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures were also slightly lower. Bitcoin traded above $64,000 and was little changed over the weekend, according to the report.
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.8% to trade near $85 a barrel, MarketWatch reported. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was also higher after settling Friday at $88.10 a barrel, while WTI ended Friday at $82.49.
The move came after oil prices climbed more than 15% last week, according to MarketWatch, as the U.S. and Iran increased attacks on each other. MarketWatch reported that President Donald Trump said the U.S. was restoring its naval blockade against Iranian ports.
MarketWatch also reported that the U.S. expanded strikes against Iran over the weekend after at least three U.S. service members had died since Friday.
Persian Gulf risk grabs Wall Street’s attention
Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a weekend note cited by MarketWatch that markets had been working with the idea that the conflict would stay brief and limited. “That assumption is now being tested,” he said, adding: “The tinderbox looks increasingly close to igniting in full force.”
The New York Times reported that the U.S. had sent multiple warplanes, including refueling aircraft, to the Middle East, a move that MarketWatch said raised concern about a broader U.S.-Iran war.
Iran said Saturday it had formally left its cease-fire agreement with the U.S., according to MarketWatch. Trump had previously said that agreement was over.
The Associated Press reported that Iran targeted sites in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday. AP also reported that Iran said the U.S. struck a nuclear power plant being built in southwest Iran.
Tech stocks face a test
The geopolitical pressure hit after a rough Friday for U.S. stocks. MarketWatch reported that the PHLX Semiconductor Index closed in bear-market territory, a label commonly used for a decline of 20% from a recent peak.
For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.6%, the Dow lost 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.9%, according to FactSet data cited by MarketWatch.
Even with the semiconductor selloff, MarketWatch reported that the “Magnificent Seven” megacap tech stocks had gained over the prior two weeks, helped largely by recent advances in Meta Platforms and Apple. Apple regained the title of most valuable U.S. company by market capitalization on Friday, according to MarketWatch.
Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told MarketWatch last week that the market struggles to rise for long without those megacap names. “Some of the semiconductor stocks could become quite big on their own, but not as big as the Magnificent Seven, so it’s very hard for the stock market to rally without them for too long,” he said.
Innes said in a note cited by MarketWatch that the move away from AI-chip shares looked more like a rotation than a breakdown, but he said any recovery would need earnings to show that heavy spending is producing revenue, margins and cash flow.
Alphabet and Tesla are due to report quarterly results Wednesday, according to MarketWatch. Investors are also set to hear this week from General Motors, AT&T, Intel and Verizon, while labor-market updates, manufacturing and services PMI reports, and June new-home sales figures are also on the calendar.
This story draws on original reporting from MarketWatch.