US equity futures are lower on a combination of US/Iran escalation (which is feeding inflationary concerns) and a violent crash in South Korean stocks (which saw SK Hynix plunge by 15% overnight, the most on record, and unironically follows its record ADR launch in the US), which has put Semis and tech under renewed pressure. On the former, this drove oil prices higher overnight, but gains have been cut in half. On the latter, there is some anxiety around excessive capex spend (Goldman IG bond sales team warned over the weekend that demand for new hyperscaler supply has collapsed), but also some technical factors. As of 8:15am ET, S&P futs are down 0.4%, reversing their Friday gains which pushed the index just shy of a record; Nasdaq futures dropped 1% as Semis came for sale and Mag7 are mostly lower. Defensives are leading Cyclicals as the AI theme looks to be sold today but Fins / Energy are bid. Bond yields are up 1bp across the bulk of the curve with USD flat. Energy is leading commodity space those gains are materially off their highs with metals lower due to Precious metals; Ags are mostly lower. Today’s macro data is a non-event (June federal budget balance at 2pm ET) as the market awaits inflation / retail sales data as earnings kick off tomorrow.
In premarket trading, Mag 7 stocks are mixed( Microsoft +0.3%, Alphabet +0.3%, Amazon +0.3%, Apple +0.2%, Meta -0.8%, Nvidia -1.2%, Tesla -0.6%)
- Agenus (AGEN) soars 46% after entering into a securities purchase agreement for a private placement of $85
