FINWIRES · TerminalLIVE
FINWIRES

Stocks Down Pre-Bell as Investors Assess Trump's Latest Iran Remarks

By
Stocks Down Pre-Bell as Investors Assess Trump's Latest Iran Remarks

US equity futures were trending lower on Tuesday as traders weigh President Donald Trump's statements on Iran amid ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East.

The S&P 500 declined 0.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.2% and the Nasdaq fell 0.7% in premarket activity. The indexes finished the previous trading session mixed.

In a social media post on Monday, Trump said the US decided to postpone a planned military strike on Iran after leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates urged restraint amid "serious" ongoing negotiations to end the conflict.

Trump, however, cautioned that the US will "go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran" if a deal is not reached.

"I put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we've had very big discussions with Iran, and we'll see what they amount to," Trump reportedly said at a White House event on Monday, according to Bloomberg News.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil decreased 1.1% to $107.45 a barrel before the opening bell, while Brent dropped 1.7% to $110.22.

Trump's latest rhetoric follows reports that Iran had provided an updated proposal for a deal to end the war. The White House indicated it doesn't reflect a meaningful improvement from a previous offer, Axios reported Monday, citing a senior US official and a source briefed on the matter.

"Progress on US-Iran peace talks continues to be immaterial, with both parties expressing a willingness to resume overt hostilities if the talks fail," Tudor Pickering Holt Analyst Matt Portillo said in a Monday note.

Treasury yields were tracking lower in premarket action, with the two-year rate retreating 2 basis points to 4.07% and the 10-year rate off 1.8 basis points to 4.61%.

European Union officials are expected to convene on Tuesday to finalize legislation for the bloc's trade deal with the US, Bloomberg reported. Trump previously threatened to hike tariffs on the EU if it didn't implement its trade deal commitments by July 4.

Tuesday's economic calendar has the housing starts and permits report for April at 8:30 am ET, followed by the pending home sales index for the same month at 10 am.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller is scheduled to speak at 8 am, while Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson speaks at 7 pm. Atlanta interim President Cheryl Venable is slated to speak at 7:45 pm.

Home Depot (HD) shares increased nearly 1% after the home-improvement retailer reported fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings above market estimates and reiterated its full-year outlook. Keysight Technologies (KEYS) posts its earnings after the markets close.

Gold nudged 0.3% down to $4,543 per troy ounce, while bitcoin inched 0.1% higher to $76,794.

Related Articles

Equity Markets Mixed as Trump Aborts Plan to Attack Iran
US Markets

Equity Markets Mixed as Trump Aborts Plan to Attack Iran

US equity markets closed mixed Monday as President Donald Trump said the US was postponing a plan to attack Iran on Tuesday.The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.5% to 26,090.7, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to 49,686.1. The S&P 500 closed 0.1% lower at 7,403.1. Most sectors were in the green, led by energy, while technology saw the steepest decline.Trump said the US will hold off on its planned military attack against Iran that was previously scheduled for Tuesday, according to his social media post on Monday.Trump said Middle Eastern leaders, including Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, asked the US president to call off the attack amid "serious" ongoing negotiations to end the Washington-Tehran conflict.Trump, however, cautioned that the US will "go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran" if a deal is not reached.Brent crude fell 0.4% to $108.85 per barrel in Monday late-afternoon trade, while West Texas Intermediate crude was last up 0.9% at $106.34 per barrel.Trump's latest rhetoric follows reports that Iran had provided an updated proposal for a deal to end the war. The White House indicated it doesn't reflect a meaningful improvement from a previous offer, Axios reported Monday, citing a senior US official and a source briefed on the matter.The Strait of Hormuz -- the world's most important chokepoint for crude flows -- remains largely shut as tensions between the US and Iran continue, with no end in sight."Progress on US-Iran peace talks continues to be immaterial, with both parties expressing a willingness to resume overt hostilities if the talks fail," Tudor Pickering Holt Analyst Matt Portillo said in a note sent earlier in the day.US Treasury yields were little changed in Monday late-afternoon trade, with the 10-year rate at 4.59% and the two-year rate at 4.07%.Nvidia (NVDA) shares fell 1.3%, the second-worst performer on the Dow. The chipmaking giant is expected to exceed Wall Street's first-quarter estimates and guide above consensus amid positive data points, Wedbush Securities said.Nvidia is scheduled to release its latest quarterly results after the markets close Wednesday.Retail giants Walmart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), TJX (TJX), Lowe's (LOW) and Target (TGT) are also expected to report this week. Home Depot and Lowe's are likely to lower their full-year guidance as the home improvement retailers face pressure from weak consumer sentiment, Oppenheimer said in a note.NextEra Energy (NEE) and Dominion Energy (D) agreed to merge in all-stock deal to create the largest regulated electric utility in the world. Dominion shares jumped 9.4%, the second-biggest gainer on the S&P 500, while NextEra fell 4.6%.In economic news, US homebuilder confidence unexpectedly rose this month despite elevated mortgage rates, macro uncertainty and continued affordability challenges, data from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo showed."Soft homebuilder sentiment is consistent with our view that housing starts will mostly move sideways for the next couple of quarters before starting to edge up slightly around year-end, when we expect mortgage rates to be lower as the (Federal Reserve) implements the first of two rate cuts we expect," Oxford Economics said in a note.Gold was up up 0.1% at $4,564.40 per troy ounce in Monday late-afternoon trade, while silver rose 0.3% to $77.80 per ounce.

Dow JonesNasdaq CompositeS&P 500$D$HD$LOW$NEE$NVDA$TGT$TJX$WMT
Nvidia Likely to Top Estimates, Offer Strong Guide, Wedbush Says
US Markets

Nvidia Likely to Top Estimates, Offer Strong Guide, Wedbush Says

Nvidia (NVDA) is expected to exceed Wall Street's first-quarter estimates and guide above consensus amid positive data points, Wedbush Securities said in a client note on Monday.The brokerage expects the technology bellwether to report earnings of more than $1.80 per share, ahead of its $1.74 estimate. Revenue is seen beating Wedbush's $78.01 billion first-quarter revenue estimate by at least $2 billion, according to the brokerage.Wedbush expects second-quarter EPS of $1.84 on sales of $82.12 billion. The company is scheduled to release its latest quarterly results Wednesday."We fully expect the leading supplier of (artificial intelligence) silicon will again exceed estimates and guide above Street given continued positive data points through (the calendar first quarter)," Wedbush analysts Matt Bryson and Antoine Legault said.The brokerage expects healthy AI infrastructure spending to likely continue through 2027."While there remain some potential industry-wide speed bumps (Middle East plans amidst the war, uncertainty around future opportunities in China), if anything, we see the potential/eventual resolution of these issues as catalysts for increased future spend," Bryson and Legault added.RBC Capital Markets last week projected Nvidia would deliver another strong quarter amid robust compute demand and issue an upbeat revenue guidance for the ongoing three-month period.Wedbush pointed out Nvidia's supply chain resilience amid industry-wide bottlenecks in areas like advanced logic, memory, optical transceivers and hard disk drives."During our conversations with a variety of supply chain participants, we have encountered numerous bottlenecks that are throttling (or threatening to throttle) builds and deployments for a variety of specific participants in the AI ecosystem," Bryson wrote. "(Nvidia), however, to date has not been among those struggling with supply chain."Wedbush reiterated its outperform rating on Nvidia's stock and maintained the $300 price target.Price: $222.05, Change: $-3.27, Percent Change: -1.45%

$NVDA
Oil Rises as US-Iran Deadlock Continues
US Markets

Oil Rises as US-Iran Deadlock Continues

Crude oil prices rose Monday amid lack of progress on US-Iran peace talks.Brent advanced 1.4% to $110.80 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate futures were last up 1.6% at $107.06. Brent rose 7.9% last week, while WTI climbed about 10%.Iran has submitted its new proposal to end the war, but the White House believes it fails to offer meaningful improvements on the last offer, Axios reported Monday, citing a senior US official and a source briefed on the issue.The standoff has renewed fears of a military combat, with President Donald Trump set to convene a meeting of his top national security officials on Tuesday, according to the report.Iranian state media previously claimed that Washington had agreed to waive some oil sanctions. However, the US official denied such reports, according to Axios.A fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran appears to be holding, though the two sides are yet to finalize a framework to end the conflict despite a series of talks.Over the weekend, a drone strike caused a fire near the United Arab Emirates' Barakah nuclear energy plant. The facility can meet a quarter of the Gulf country's electricity needs, Al Jazeera reported Monday."Progress on US-Iran peace talks continues to be immaterial, with both parties expressing a willingness to resume overt hostilities if the talks fail," Tudor Pickering Holt Analyst Matt Portillo said in a note.Last week's talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping also failed to improve the prospects of a US-Iran deal."There had been hope (possibly misplaced) that China could use its influence over Tehran to break the deadlock between the US and Iran," ING Head of Commodities Strategy Warren Patterson said in a report on Monday. "If anything, re-escalation risks are increasing."