By Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal
Aug 11 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were poised to open higher on Tuesday as investors welcomed a report suggesting the United States and Iran were close to “some sort of an arrangement” to end six months of conflict.
Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, told Bloomberg News that signals from recent days indicated a peace agreement was close, right after Qatar’s foreign ministry said Iran-Oman talks were in an advanced stage.
Brent crude futures turned lower, after hitting one-week highs in the session. An exchange of demands between the U.S. and Iran for the reopening of the strait complicated efforts, pushing oil prices up 5% on Monday.
“People get a little bit immune to some of this news. But, any positive news is better than negative news,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.
“When you get some indication of something positive happening — that this war is going to come to an end or some kind of an agreement — you start to see oil back off.”
Consumer and producer price inflation readings later this week might shape market expectations on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy path, given its focus on the inflation mandate and Chair Kevin Warsh’s stance on cutting back forward guidance on rates.
Rising energy costs stemming from the Iran conflict have spurred inflation concerns and clouded the global economic outlook, complicating the path for central banks globally.
Whether the central bank would increase rates in September or choose to pause has split traders almost evenly, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
At 8:56 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 54 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 11.5 points, or 0.15%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 103 points, or 0.35%.
Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Monday as investors assessed the Middle East situation, though the S&P 500 and the Dow hovered near all-time highs.
The Nasdaq, meanwhile, is about 2.1% below its life-high but well above its lows in July, when the tech-heavy index slid almost 10% from its peak.
Strong quarterly earnings in several sectors have boosted U.S. stocks to new highs and signs of AI-related spending paying off has eased some jitters.
Riot Platforms jumped 16.7% in premarket trading, following a media report that the cloud-computing firm clinched a $9 billion deal with Anthropic.
Intel dipped marginally, extending Monday’s losses, as it announced the pricing of a $20 billion stock offering.
Rocket Lab slid 3.9% after appearing to push back the timeline for the first flight of its Neutron rocket.
U.S.-listed shares of On dropped 16.2% after the sportswear brand missed Wall Street sales estimates.
Hims & Hers Health shed 7.3% after the telehealth company posted a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss.
LNG company Venture Global slipped 4.4% after its second-quarter revenue slightly missed estimates.
(Reporting by Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
Comments