Wall Street opened the week in a “phew” mood. Futures pointed up Monday morning, with Nasdaq contracts up about 0.6% and S&P 500 and Dow futures each up roughly 0.3%. That comes after a rough week for tech, when heavy selling in AI names gave the Nasdaq its worst one-day drop since June.
The help came from oil. Brent fell about 3.9% to roughly $109 a barrel, and U.S. crude slipped below $100, as hopes for diplomacy with Iran pared back gains from last week’s worries about renewed U.S. strikes. Ten-year Treasury yields eased to around 4.91%, though traders still expect the Fed to hike in December. Gold held below $4,000 an ounce, and bitcoin sat near $78,200, about 5% below where it traded before last week’s Binance hack.
The big event is Tuesday’s midterm elections. Some strategists see a Democratic sweep of Congress as a negative for the AI trade, partly because voters are uneasy about data centres. Apple, Palantir and Vertex Pharmaceuticals report after the close Monday, so the AI-heavy part of the market gets a real test right away.
