Futures down: Dow 0.42%, S&P 500 0.29%, Nasdaq 0.25%
Boeing shares fall after Air India plane crash
Oracle up after raising its annual revenue forecast
(Updates before markets open)
By Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta
June 12 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were poised for a lower open on Thursday as signs of rising tensions in the Middle East hurt risk sentiment and investors sought more clarity on Washington’s recent trade deals with China.
Shares of planemaker Boeing lost 6.3% premarket after an Air India aircraft with more than 200 people crashed in India’s western city of Ahmedabad, and aviation tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
Underscoring increased volatility in the Middle East, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday U.S. personnel were being moved out of the region as it could be a “dangerous place” and the United States would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
“The clearing out of our embassies in the Middle East of non-essential employees sends a signal that we’re anticipating some turbulent times,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.
With a few days left till a planned sixth round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, a senior Iranian official said on Wednesday Tehran will strike U.S. bases in the region if nuclear negotiations fail and conflict arises.
China on Thursday affirmed a trade deal with the U.S., strengthening a delicate truce in the trade war that has roiled global markets for much of the year.
“Now that a consensus has been reached, both sides should abide by it,” Lin Jian, sex a foreign ministry spokesperson for China, said at a regular news conference.
Traders also looked to gain more details on the trade framework discussed by officials from both sides at a two-day talk in London earlier this week.
At 08:49 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 180 points, or 0.42%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 17.5 points, or 0.29%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 53.75 points, or 0.25%.
Tesla shares lost 1.1% and Nvidia declined about 1%.
Among other movers, Oracle shares rose 8.7% after the cloud service provider raised its annual revenue growth forecast citing increased demand from companies deploying artificial intelligence.
U.S.-listed shares of gold miners also advanced, as bullion prices hit a one-week high.
Newmont gained 1.8%, Harmony Gold was up 2.9% and AngloGold Ashanti rose 5.5%.
Shares of Oklo fell 5.9% after the nuclear technology firm backed by Sam Altman launched a $400 million stock offering.
After a tame consumer price report on Wednesday, softer-than-expected producer price data and largely unchanged initial jobless claims helped reduce investor jitters around tariff-driven price pressures.
Traders are pricing in 56 basis points of rate cuts by year-end, per data compiled by LSEG. They are penciling in a 61% chance of a 25 bps cut in September, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Policymakers are widely expected to keep rates unchanged next week.
With investor bets increasing on Trump reaching favorable trade agreements with several trading partners in the coming weeks, the benchmark S&P 500 index is trading 2% below its record high touched in February.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq is about 2.7% from record levels hit in December. (Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
