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Investing.com - U.S. stock index futures edged higher Monday, attempting to recover some ground the previous week’s sharp losses and ahead of a Federal Reserve interest rate decision later in the week.
At 05:25 ET (09:25 GMT), Dow Jones Futures rose 145 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures gained 27 points, or 0.5%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 113 points, or 0.5%.
The main averages on Wall Street sank on Friday following a bout of airstrikes between Israel and Iran, raising tensions in the Middle East and denting market sentiment.
The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, the NASDAQ Composite dropped 1.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.8%, resulting in all three indices posting losing weeks.
Iran-Israel conflict
Israel and Iran continued to exchange missile strikes over the weekend, and into Monday, ramping up the geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East.
Tehran has told mediators Oman and Qatar that it will not engage in ceasefire talks helmed by the U.S. while Israel is carrying out its strikes, Reuters has reported, citing an official briefed on the matter.
Israel, meanwhile, has warned Iranians living near nuclear facilities to evacuate. The country targeted these locations and other ballistic missile programs in a wave of attacks first launched early on Friday.
However, the conflict does not look like it is spreading wider, so far, and crucially, investors seem to be assuming Iran will not threaten to close the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping.
G7 summit
The conflict between Israel and Iran is set to be high on the list of priorities to discuss at a meeting of leaders from the Group of Seven nations in Canada this week.
Media reports said that the representatives are planning to issue a joint statement on the situation urging both sides to deescalate. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he will aim for the summit to conclude that while Iran cannot develop its nuclear weapons capabilities and ensure Israel’s right to defend itself, there is still space for diplomacy.
Officials will also likely be treading carefully to avoid falling out with U.S. President Donald Trump, particularly as Washington conducts ongoing negotiations with a host of nations over Trump’s punishing "reciprocal" tariffs.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has stressed that the summit will push for peace and security, although he has suggested that Ottawa could hit back at the U.S. if the White House does not lift its tariffs on steel and aluminum.
What analysts are saying about U.S. stocks
RBC Capital Markets: "[T]wo key risk factors for U.S. equities have come into focus for us: [the] view that the [Israel-Iran] conflict could take some time to play out and the risk that it evolves into a broader, regional conflict. The broader the conflict becomes and the longer it lasts, the more problematic we think it will be for US equity markets."
Citigroup (NYSE:C): "Stocks where return on equity is expected to improve due to margin expansion and/or total asset turnover gains are becoming less abundant in the S&P 500. This is largely a function of downgraded outlooks on softer macros and trade concerns."
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM): "[T]he potential for a significant reallocation of global capital towards non-U.S. assets, due to the combination of stretched positioning in the U.S., substantial holdings of U.S. assets by foreign investors, and uncertainty around U.S. government policies, should not be discounted."
Evercore ISI: "Complacent markets, volatility evaporating globally amid the rally from the first quarter’s bear market, face a gauntlet of event catalysts in the summer months ahead. From trade, to fiscal, to geopolitical, the commonality is uncertainty."