U.S. equity futures are little changed as investors balance another rise in oil against Wednesday’s July CPI report. S&P 500 futures are roughly flat, Nasdaq 100 futures are steady to slightly positive, and Dow futures are down about 0.1% in early trading. The Russell 2000 enters the session after falling 0.6% Monday, leaving small caps more exposed to the renewed rise in Treasury yields and energy prices. Hopes for a near-term reopening of the Strait of Hormuz have faded, while markets now price roughly even odds of a September Fed rate increase.
U.S. equities edged lower Monday, with the S&P 500 down 0.1%, the Dow down 0.1%, the Nasdaq down 0.3% and the Russell 2000 down 0.6%. Chip stocks were the principal drag as Intel announced a large equity raise and Nvidia retreated, while the surge in crude revived inflation concerns after Friday’s weak employment report.
The rates backdrop turned less supportive. The 2-year Treasury yield rose 4 basis points to 4.24%, the 10-year increased 6 basis points to 4.70% and the 30-year climbed 5 basis points to 5.25%. Early Tuesday, the 2-year was near 4.25% and the 10-year around 4.72%, as higher oil and hawkish Fed commentary offset some of the dovish implications from July’s weak payroll report. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said gradual rate increases may be appropriate to avoid more aggressive tightening later.
The DXY rose to 99.81 Monday. The euro eased to $1.1542, sterling rose modestly to $1.3510, and the dollar strengthened to ¥159.30. The yen remains under pressure after giving back part of the gains generated by recent intervention, trading on the weaker side of ¥159 early Tuesday.
September WTI crude jumped 5.07% Monday to $82.14, while December gold gained 1.08% to $4,447.30. Brent has risen roughly 5% in two sessions to around $88, its highest level since July 31, as U.S.-Iran negotiations stalled over conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Gold was down about 0.6% near $4,365 early Tuesday as rising yields offset safe-haven demand.
Today’s domestic calendar includes July existing-home sales at 10:00 a.m. ET. June sales fell 2.4% to a 4.09 million annualized pace as high mortgage rates and record home prices restrained demand. The larger macro event comes Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. ET with July CPI, followed by PPI Thursday. The latest BLS calendar confirms CPI is due August 12, not today.
Sector Highlights
Sector performance showed a sharp rotation toward inflation-sensitive and defensive exposures. Energy surged 4.63%, followed by Health Care +1.68%, Materials +0.68%, Communication Services +0.68%, Financials +0.32% and Consumer Discretionary +0.27%. Real Estate fell 1.23%, Utilities declined 1.11%, Technology lost 1.10%, Industrials fell 0.30% and Consumer Staples slipped 0.21%. Breadth was correspondingly weak, with decliners leading by 1.52:1 on the NYSE and 1.44:1 on the Nasdaq.
Information Technology
- Intel (INTC) raised $20 billion in an upsized equity offering, above the initially planned $15 billion. The shares were slightly lower premarket after falling 4.1% Monday. Intel is using the capital to fund its foundry expansion and higher AI-driven capital spending.
- Nvidia (NVDA -2.9% Monday) announced partnerships with BlackRock, Apollo, Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions aimed at facilitating more than $500 billion of third-party financing for AI infrastructure. The announcement underscores the scale of the AI buildout but also renewed investor focus on leverage, financing costs and returns on capital.
- Datadog (DDOG +11.5%) was Monday’s strongest notable S&P 500 performer, while Coherent (COHR -14.2%) was among the largest decliners as volatility remained elevated across cloud, optical-networking and AI infrastructure names.
- Super Micro Computer (SMCI) and CoreWeave (CRWV) report after the close, providing fresh reads on AI server demand, data-center capacity, capital intensity and the profitability of the infrastructure buildout.
Financials
- Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) rose as much as 3.1% Monday after second-quarter operating profit increased 16% to $12.98 billion. Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of its own stock, bought $23.5 billion of other equities and disclosed a roughly $10 billion Alphabet investment.
Communication Services
- Trump Media & Technology (DJT) was lower premarket after reporting a roughly tenfold increase in quarterly losses tied partly to declines in the value of its digital assets. The stock fell 8% Monday.
Industrials / AI Infrastructure
- Riot Platforms (RIOT +22% premarket) surged following a report that the bitcoin miner secured a $9.1 billion cloud-services agreement with Anthropic, extending the trend of power- and compute-heavy infrastructure companies repositioning toward AI workloads.
