Wall St futures edge lower as investors weigh Iran peace demands, Nvidia earnings
U.S. stock futures faltered on Thursday, as investors cautiously eyed reports on a hardening Iranian stance on peace talks with the U.S. and parsed through fresh earnings from artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia.
By 06:46 ET (10:46 GMT), the Dow futures contract had fallen by 156 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 futures had dipped by 31 points, or 0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had slid by 161 points, or 0.6%. The contracts have hovered around both sides of the flatline prior to the opening bell.
Putting pressure on stocks was a renewed climb in U.S. government debt yields, which tend to move inversely to bond prices, reflecting concerns that a war-fueled energy shock could cause a spike in inflation and lead many central banks to raise interest rates. Brent crude futures bounced, keeping the global oil benchmark higher than $105 a barrel and well above pre-war levels of around $70 a barrel.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has issued a directive that the country’s almost weapons-grade uranium should not be shipped abroad, Reuters reported, citing two senior Iranian sources. The news service added that U.S. President Donald Trump has assured allies in Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium would leave the country under any peace deal.
A fragile ceasefire has taken hold since the start of a joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran in late February, with efforts aimed at resolving the impasse so far proving unsuccessful.
Trump said the U.S. was in the “final stages” of a potential draft peace agreement, although he raised the specter of a re-escalation in hostilities, warning that “we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty” should a deal not be reached.
Iran, for its part, has said that it is reviewing Washington’s most recent position on concluding the conflict, but is ready to respond to more strikes with its own crushing barrage.
Investors are particularly hunting for any indications that a deal could be made to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway off of Iran’s southern coast which has been all but closed to tanker traffic since the start of the war in late February. Shipping data in media reports earlier this week indicated that some vessels have been able to traverse the conduit in recent days.
Nvidia in focus
Beyond the Iran war, results from Nvidia were among a slew of major tech-sector related headlines swaying sentiment.
April quarter sales at the company, whose products have made it a bellwether for the state of the AI boom, spiked by 85% from a year ago to $81.6 billion, outpacing analysts’ expectations.
Net income stood at $58.3 billion, over three times greater than the previous year and also well above Wall Street forecasts. Nvidia has been a major beneficiary of a spike in a expenditures by big-name tech players keen on building out the infrastructure needed to underpin cutting-edge AI models.
