By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal
April 2 (Reuters) – Futures tracking Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Thursday in the last session of a holiday-truncated week after President Donald Trump signaled more aggressive attacks on Iran, dampening expectations for a swift end to the Middle East conflict.
In a closely watched address to the nation on Wednesday, Trump said military operations would be intensified in the next two to three weeks, a day after he told Reuters that the U.S. will be “out of Iran pretty quickly”.
Trump also floated the possibility of strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. Oil prices surged about 7%, taking Brent crude futures to $108 per barrel. Energy stocks in the U.S. climbed, with Exxon Mobil and Chevron up 3% and 2.6%, respectively, in premarket trading.
“Uncertainty is kryptonite for markets and between the contradictory messages from Trump, disputed claims on both sides, and the lack of clarity on a plan that can provide a resolution to the conflict, they are getting a heavy dose of it,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
Still, Wall Street’s three indexes are set to post their biggest weekly rise in four months. This would be their first week of gains in six, as markets cheered signs of an end to the war earlier this week.
At 04:53 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 443 points, or 0.95%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 75.25 points, or 1.14% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 357.75 points, or 1.48%.
Futures tracking the rate-sensitive Russell 2000 index fell 1.5%. Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE VIX index, spiked 1.86 points to 26.40, after falling to an over one-week low on Wednesday.
The lack of clarity on the timeline and objectives of the conflict battered global markets in March, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq logging their biggest monthly loss in a year, and Brent crude prices marking their strongest monthly performance on record.
Worries that higher energy costs could revive inflationary pressures have fanned uncertainty regarding the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy outlook, with money market participants pricing in no easing from the Fed this year, as per CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
They expected two cuts before the war began. At one point, bets also reflected a 50% chance of an interest rate hike in December.
Focus will be on developments around Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Wednesday, and is expected to target a $1.75 trillion valuation, according to a Reuters report that cited two people familiar with the matter.
Smaller peers such as Rocket Lab, Planet Labs and Intuitive Machines rallied on Wednesday in anticipation of renewed investor interest in the industry.
On the data front, a weekly reading of jobless claims will precede Friday’s nonfarm payrolls numbers, but U.S. markets will remain closed for the Good Friday holiday.
Remarks from Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan later in the day will be scrutinized.
In premarket moves, Globalstar’s shares jumped 12.4% after a report said Amazon is in talks to buy the low-earth-orbit communication satellites company.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Shinjini Ganguli)
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