Wall St set to open higher with Trump’s Middle East decision in focus

By Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta

(Reuters) -Wall Street was headed for a higher open on Friday, tracking strength in global stocks after President Donald Trump held off from making an immediate call on U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran war.

As hostilities between the two Middle Eastern countries approached their second week, the White House said on Thursday Trump will decide in the next two weeks whether the U.S. will get involved on Israel’s side.

Markets have been on edge as Trump has kept the world guessing on his plans - veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting the U.S. might join the fight as Israel aims to suppress Tehran’s ability to build nuclear weapons.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters Tehran was ready to discuss limitations on its uranium enrichment, but zero enrichment will be rejected "especially now under Israel’s strikes".

"Any news flow that’s going to lean in the direction of de-escalation is going to be a market positive and we’re seeing that to a certain extent here," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

The oil price volatility triggered by the Middle East conflict has also become a fresh concern as the U.S. grapples with tariff-based price pressures.

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, in line with market expectations. Policymakers, however, cautioned about inflation picking up pace over the summer as the economic effects of Trump’s steep import tariffs kick in.

At 08:40 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 118 points, or 0.28%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 15.5 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 63 points, or 0.29%

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are set for weekly gains, while the blue-chip Dow is on track for mild weekly declines.

Investors are also bracing for any potential spike in volatility owing to Friday’s "triple witching" - the simultaneous expiration of single stock options, stock index futures, and stock index options contracts that happens once a quarter.

Crypto stocks gained in premarket trade as bitcoin prices rose 1.7%. Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) was up 4.3%, and Strategy gained 1.2%.

Among megacap stocks, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) gained 1.8%.

Stablecoin issuer Circle extended gains from its previous session, with shares last up 16%.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) fell 5.1% after the IT services provider said new bookings decreased in the third quarter.

CarMax (NYSE:KMX) gained 10% after the used-car retailer posted stronger-than-expected revenue and profit for the first quarter.

GMS shares rose 28.4% after QXO made an offer on Wednesday to acquire the company for about $5 billion in cash. Shares of QXO were up 3.1%.

Wall Street’s strong gains last month, primarily driven by a softening in Trump’s trade stance and strength in corporate earnings, had pushed the benchmark S&P 500 index close to its record peaks before the ongoing conflict in the Middle East made investors risk-averse.

The S&P 500 index stood about 3% below its record level, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq remained 3.3% lower.