Before the Bell
Oil is setting the tone again this morning. Brent crude, the global benchmark, is up about 2% to roughly $112 a barrel, near its highest level since May, and WTI, the US benchmark, is up about 2.7% to $101. The trigger was another round of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia on Monday, while tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz stays strained. Costlier fuel feeds inflation worries a week before the Federal Reserve meets, and futures reflect that: S&P 500 futures are down 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures 0.65%, while Dow futures are flat. Earnings add a second thread: General Motors is down about 6% pre-market despite a strong quarter.
Monday was a rebound day for technology after the Nasdaq's worst week since June. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1% to 26,430.89 and the S&P 500 gained 0.4% to 7,690.73, while the Dow slipped 0.1% to 51,966.03. Amazon rose 5.0% after Morgan Stanley named it a top pick, Palantir gained 4.4% after a five-day losing streak, and Tesla added 3.8% ahead of its Wednesday report. Overseas, the mood was weaker: Japan's Nikkei fell 1.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.3% and South Korea's chip-heavy KOSPI 3.7%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 is down about 0.9% after a German investor-sentiment survey came in below forecasts.