Wall St opens muted as US-Iran tensions escalate

Wall Street's main indexes opened ​muted on Monday ‌after a record rally last week, ​as escalating US-Iran ​tensions threatened the fragile ⁠ceasefire and ​dented investor sentiment.

The ​Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25.1 points, or ​0.05%, at ​the open to 49,422.37. The ‌S&P ⁠500 fell 9.0 points, or 0.13%, at the ​open to ​7,117.05, ⁠while the Nasdaq Composite ​dropped 51.0 points, ​or ⁠0.21%, to 24,417.528 at the ⁠opening ​bell.

United States stock index futures inched lower on ​Monday after a record rally on Wall Street last week as dimming prospects of an end ‌to the Iran conflict prompted investors to curb their risk appetite.

Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, prompting a buying frenzy across markets, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hitting record highs for the third consecutive session. They also marked ​their biggest weekly jumps since May.

However, Tehran reimposed the closure of the waterway following the escalation in ​tensions, after the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to ⁠run its blockade. Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday that there were no plans for a second round of ​negotiations with the US, as the blockade undermined the talks and differences over Tehran's nuclear program remained.

Oil prices jumped 5% ​on Monday, with US energy stocks higher in premarket trading. Exxon Mobil and Chevron gained 2% and 1.9%, respectively, while Occidental Petroleum added 2.5%.

Also Read: Iran rules out second round of US talks 'for now'

"Near-term escalation to gain an upper hand in negotiations cannot be ruled out," said Mohit Kumar, an economist at Jefferies. "Our ​view remains that we are moving towards a deal. We are at a stage where it is not ​in the interest of either party to carry on with the war. The MAGA base of Trump does not want to ‌continue, ⁠and Trump wants a deal. For IRGC, the objective is survival."

At 04:50am ET, Dow E-minis were down 303 points, or 0.61%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 35.75 points, or 0.50%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 140.5 points, or 0.52%.

The CBOE Volatility Index, known as Wall Street's "fear gauge", gained after falling for the last eight ​sessions and was last up ​2.25 points at 19.73, ⁠a one-week high.

Meanwhile, futures tracking the small-cap Russell 2000 index slipped 0.9% after the index notched a record high on Friday.

Quarterly earnings will be in focus as investors wait to ​assess the impact of the Iran war on corporate results and its fallout ​on the broader ⁠economy.

Defence giants Lockheed Martin and RTX, alongside tech stocks such as IBM and ServiceNow, are scheduled to report later this week. Tesla will kick off results from the so-called "Magnificent Seven" cohort on Wednesday.

Among premarket movers, Marvell Technology advanced 6% ⁠after The ​Information reported on Sunday that Alphabet's Google is in talks with ​the chipmaker to develop two new chips to run AI models more efficiently. QXO shares, meanwhile, dipped 3.6% after the construction supplies distributor struck a $17 billion deal ​on Sunday to acquire building products distributor and installer TopBuild.