Stock Market Today: Futures Head Lower at End of Wild Week as Oil Prices Rise Further on Middle East Tensions; Chip Stocks Rebound

Stock futures pointed to a lower open to conclude a volatile week of trading, as oil prices continued to climb on threats of escalated fighting in the Middle East.

Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.6%, 0.3%, and 0.1%, respectively, in recent trading.

Yesterday, the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 closed sharply lower as tech stocks sold off, while the blue-chip Dow ended fractionally higher. Entering today’s session, the Dow was up 1.7% for the week, on pace for its third straight weekly gain, while the S&P 500 was 0.1% higher and the Nasdaq 0.5% lower.

Chip and other AI-tied stocks rebounded after selling off Thursday. Roundhill’s Memory ETF (DRAM) pointed up 2.5% following a 7% plunge yesterday, with shares of component SK Hynix (SKHY) gaining 4% after the South Korean firm ended plans for a U.S. public offering of its Solidigm subsidiary. The broader iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) rose less than 1% following a roughly 6.5% drop.

The Roundhill “MAGS” ETF, which tracks the Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech stocks, ticked higher after ending down more than 3% yesterday. Meta Platforms (META), which sank 7% Thursday, pointed down roughly 1%. Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) shares edged higher after respective declines of about 4.5% and 3% Thursday.

SpaceX (SPCX) stock rose 1.5% Friday following a Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Elon Musk-led space, AI, and social media company was looking “to secure a minimum of 80,000 cell sites across the U.S., and it’s in talks with at least one major cellular infrastructure company to reach that goal.” Shares had tanked 9% yesterday.

Moderna (MRNA) shares sank a further 3.5% premarket following an 18% drop yesterday—the worst performance in the S&P 500—after an apparent leak of cancer-vaccine data.

In post-earnings moves, Western Digital (WDC), Bloom Energy (BE), and Newmont (NEM) declined between roughly 1.5% and 2.5%. American Express (AXP) stock edged higher.

Oil prices extended yesterday’s gains as Middle East tensions continue to escalate, with Iran threatening to strike airports and other civilian targets in neighboring countries should the U.S. and Israel resume military strikes against it. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 1.8% to $101.20 a barrel in recent trading. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were 1.6% higher to around $115, their highest level since early May.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which tumbled 17 basis points to close below 4.96% yesterday as investors fled to the relative safety of government bonds amid the tech-stock selloff, rose to 5.00%.

Bitcoin was trading around $81,500, up modestly over the past 24 hours. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, ticked 0.2% higher to 101.78. Gold futures pulled back 0.6% to $4,035 an ounce.

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