People work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 07, 2026 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Stock futures were near flat Tuesday as investors weighed rising tensions in the Middle East and surging oil prices. They also looked ahead to minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both edged down about 0.1%.
The U.S. started a “series of powerful strikes” against Iran on Tuesday evening, retaliating for attacks against three commercial vessels traveling in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said. Earlier, the Treasury Department revoked a license that permitted Iran to sell its oil around the world in light of the attacks in the Hormuz Strait. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were last up more than 2% to top $72 a barrel.
In Tuesday’s regular session, investors rotated out of artificial intelligence-linked stocks while rising oil prices weighed on sentiment. The 30-stock Dow fell more than 100 points after earlier touching a fresh intraday record. The S&P 500 slipped 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.2% as chipmakers led the declines.
Investors’ attention now turns to the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s June meeting, due at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. The release is expected to provide more insight into Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s first policy meeting, where officials left interest rates unchanged while signaling that additional rate hikes could be warranted if inflation pressures persist.
“The FOMC minutes will be [a] wildcard simply because Warsh was so opaque at the most recent press conference,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note. “Normally, [Jerome] Powell provided fairly comprehensive accounting of the meeting discussion, but that didn’t happen with Warsh, so the minutes, which are likely to be hawkish in tone, could contain some surprises.”
— CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed reporting.
Gold logs first losing day in 4
Gold prices fell for a fourth straight session on Tuesday, extending a sharp retreat from record highs reached earlier this year as investors continued to unwind safe-haven trades.
August gold futures settled down 0.2% at $4,157.40 an ounce, turning in the first negative day in four. The precious metal has not settled below the $4,000 level since Nov. 6, 2025.
Gold has now fallen more than 20% since the Iran conflict began in late February, giving back much of the geopolitical premium that helped propel prices to an all-time intraday high of $5,626.80 and a record settlement of $5,354.80 on Jan. 29. The metal is now down 4.2% for the year.
Gold futures year to date
— Yun Li, Gina Francolla
Trivariate’s Parker: ‘You can’t be bullish on the U.S. equity market and bearish on tech’
Trivariate Research founder Adam Parker sees the story of technology stocks and the broader market connected, despite questions about if a rotation is in the works.
“You can’t be bullish on the U.S. equity market and bearish on tech,” Parker said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “Those are incongruous concepts.”
Parker said in a note to clients that nearly three-fifths of S&P 500 earnings expansion over the next two years will come from tech. He called that an “incredibly high” percentage.
— Alex Harring
