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After a brief fall on Friday, oil prices reversed gains with Brent Crude rising 3% to $108 a barrel after Saudi Arabia shut down a key East-West pipeline following attacks, while a planned meeting between Iran and the Gulf states was also postponed. 3 Min Read US stock futures have begun trading after the weekend break on a negative note ahead of the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later this week. Multiple negative developments over the weekend after market close last week have put pressure on the futures market on Sunday evening local time. The Dow futures are shuffling between losses of 150 points to 200 points, while the S&P 500 futures are down 40 points.
The Nasdaq futures, comprising mainly of tech, AI and semiconductor stocks, are down between 350 points to 400 points as trading resumed. Why Are Nasdaq Futures Falling Sharply? Over the weekend, chiefs of the biggest AI companies, OpenAI and Anthropic, sounded an alarm over the pace at which AI was growing and sounded caution on the future ahead.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that the company will introduce additional safeguards, including independent third-party evaluations and urged the broader industry to slow the developments of the most advanced AI models. The proposal was supported by OpenAI Chief Sam Altman, while Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on "X" saying "Dario is right." OpenAI also said that it will not go public this year as it will focus on addressing the safety-related concerns surrounding AI first, according to Sam Altman's interview to Fortune. On the flip side, Anthropic has picked Nasdaq for its proposed listing, which could happen as soon as next month, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
Why Are Oil Prices Rising? After a brief fall on Friday, oil prices reversed gains with Brent Crude rising 3% to $108 a barrel after Saudi Arabia shut down a key East-West pipeline following attacks, while a planned meeting between Iran and the Gulf states was also postponed. West Texas Intermediate also traded near the mark of $103 a barrel.
Saudi Arabia had officially confirmed after market closing last Friday that the East-West pipeline was shut as a precaution after attacks, without providing any clarification on when will operations resume normally. Inflation Print Confirms Rate Hike The US Consumer Price Inflation data, reported last Friday, has all but confirmed a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve later this week. Core CPI for August rose 0.3% on a month-on-month basis, while the estimates were for a 0.2% increase.
Rest of the parameters were in-line with expectations, with CPI on an annualized basis rising 3.4%. With this, the probability of the US Fed raising interest rates has increased to 87% from just over 70% before the data was released. The US 10-year bond yield continues to trade around the mark of 5% and has not closed above that level since 2007.
During the course of the week, industrial production, capacity utilization and retail sales data will also be reported. Home Market News Nasdaq futures slide nearly 400 points after recent AI developments; Oil prices rise
Source: CNBC TV18
