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Wall Street’s main indexes were set for a lower open on Thursday, in the last session of a holiday-truncated week, after U.S. President Donald Trump signalled more aggressive attacks on Iran, dampening expectations for a swift end to the Middle East conflict.
During a closely watched address to the nation on Wednesday, Trump said military operations would be intensified in the next two to three weeks, in a sharp reversal from his earlier comments that the U.S. will be “out of Iran pretty quickly.”
Oil prices surged about seven per cent, taking Brent crude futures to $108 US per barrel. Energy stocks in the U.S. climbed, with Exxon Mobil and Chevron up about 2.4 per cent each in premarket trading.
“The problem is that we didn’t learn anything new. We’re back in a place where we know less, not more, about how we find an off ramp to this war,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.
“The market is going to retrace some of the constructive action we saw over the last couple of days here.”
Earlier this week, markets were optimistic that an end to the war was near, putting Wall Street’s three indexes on track for their biggest weekly rise in four months, and the first week of gains in six.
At 8:40 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 641 points, or 1.37 per cent, S&P 500 E-minis were down 98 points, or 1.48 per cent and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 452.25 points, or 1.87 per cent.
Futures tracking the Russell 2000 index fell 2.1 per cent. Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE VIX index rose to 27.54 points after falling to an over one-week low on Wednesday.
Impact of Mideast conflict
The month-long Middle East conflict battered global markets in March, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq logging their biggest monthly losses in a year, and Brent crude prices marking their strongest monthly performance on record.
Money market participants are no longer pricing in any easing from the Federal Reserve, per CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, as energy-driven inflationary concerns have clouded the central bank’s monetary policy outlook. They were anticipating two cuts before the conflict began.
Investor focus will be on developments around Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Wednesday. The company is expected to target a $1.75 trillion US valuation, according to a Reuters report, citing two people familiar with the matter, which prompted a rally in smaller peers.
Meanwhile, data showed the number of new Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to 202,000 for the week ended Saturday, below estimates of 212,000, according to economists polled by Reuters.
Nonfarm payroll numbers are expected on Friday, but U.S. markets will remain closed for the Good Friday holiday.
Investors are also awaiting comments from Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan later in the day.
In premarket moves, Globalstar’s shares jumped 12.3 per cent after a report said Amazon is in talks to buy the low-earth-orbit communication satellites company.