U.S. stock futures fall as Middle East tensions escalate

U.S. stock futures declined on Wednesday, as the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 indices fell, following Tuesday’s lower close.

Energy markets surged following an exchange of U.S. airstrikes and Iranian counterattacks in the Middle East, pushing Brent crude up 0.55% to $95.17 a barrel.

Threatening global oil supplies, Tehran retaliated against U.S. bases after military strikes targeted Iranian capabilities in response to shipping attacks.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.81%, and the two-year bond was at 4.4%.

The CME Group’s FedWatch tool projections show markets pricing in a 68.1% likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates at its September meeting.

Index Performance (+/-) Dow Jones -0.10% S&P 500 -0.21% Nasdaq 100 -0.51% Russell 2000 -0.16% The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY ) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, were lower in premarket on Wednesday.

The SPY was down 0.25% at $759.90, while the QQQ declined by 0.49% to $704.17.

Read Also: Stock Market: Will S&P 500 Open Up or Down Today? Stocks In Focus Dell Technologies Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL ) surged 9.39% in premarket on Wednesday as it posted better-than-expected fiscal year 2027 second-quarter results and raised FY2027 guidance.

Edge Stock Rankings indicate that DELL maintains a strong price trend in the short, long, and medium terms, with a poor value score.

Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW ) was 1.73% lower despite reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results and issuing strong FY27 guidance.

Edge Stock Rankings indicate that PANW maintains a strong price trend in the long, short, and medium terms, with a good growth score.

MongoDB MongoDB Inc. (NASDAQ: MDB ) plunged 13.94% despite beating second-quarter fiscal 2027 results after Tuesday’s closing bell. ’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that MDB maintains a strong price trend in the short, long, and medium terms.

Universe Pharmaceuticals Universe Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: UPC ) jumped 21.78% after dipping around 7% on Tuesday as eight Schedule 13G filings were submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. ’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that UPC maintains a weak price trend in the short, long, and medium terms.

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO ) was 0.20% lower as analysts expect it to post quarterly earnings of $3.24 per share on revenue of $29.36 billion after the closing bell. ’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AVGO maintains a weak price trend in the short and medium terms but a strong trend in the long term, with a good quality score.

Read Also: Jensen Huang Sees a $50 Trillion Physical AI Opportunity — Here Are 4 ‘Picks and Shovels’ Stocks That Should Be on Investors’ Radar Cues From Last Session Consumer discretionary, materials, and industrials led losses on Tuesday as most S&P 500 sectors declined, while energy and utilities bucked the drop to close higher.

Index Performance (+/-) Value Dow Jones -0.79% 52,766.88 S&P 500 -0.71% 7,631.47 Nasdaq Composite -1.03% 26,099.77 Russell 2000 -1.23% 2,920.13 Insights From Analysts BlackRock maintains a tactical overweight position on U.S. equities, anticipating that robust corporate earnings—driven heavily by Artificial Intelligence adoption —will continue to outweigh expectations of higher interest rates.

Within the stock market, BlackRock emphasizes thematic selectivity, advising investors to move beyond broad AI models to focus directly on bottleneck resources like “power, chips and data center infrastructure.” Regarding the broader economic backdrop, BlackRock expects elevated interest rates and persistent inflation to endure, driven by fiscal deficits, power demand, and supply chain adjustments.

They note that “the global reset in interest rates has further to run” and explicitly signal that “higher yields are here to stay for a reason.” On the macroeconomic front, BlackRock views cooling labor metrics through a structural lens rather than as a sign of impending recession, noting that “slower labor-force growth means softer job gains may not signal materially weaker demand.” Overall, BlackRock advocates staying pro-risk in U.S. stocks while managing exposure around structural scarcity and high borrowing costs.

Upcoming Economic Data Here’s what investors will be keeping an eye on Wednesday.

August’s ADP national employment report will be released by 8:15 a.m.

ET.

July’s factory orders data at 10:00 a.m., and the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book release at 2:00 p.m.

ET.

Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets Crude Oil WTI futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 0.25% to hover around $90.46 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar fell 0.32% to hover around $4,314.59 per ounce.

The U.S.

Dollar Index spot was 0.09% higher at the 99.7710 level.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 1.20% lower at $76,887.14 per coin over the last 24 hours.

Asian markets were lower on Wednesday as South Korea’s Kospi, China’s CSI 300, Australia’s ASX 200, India’s Nifty 50, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 indices fell.

European markets were also lower in early trading.

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