These are the early headlines and other items poised to influence the market at the start of the trading day. As we share this collection of market drivers, U.S. equity futures point to mixed market open later on Monday morning.
1. Oil prices were down early Monday, with Brent crude, the international standard, falling 2.5% to $107.16 per barrel and benchmark U.S. crude dropping 2.2% to $96.84 per barrel… But despite Mr. Trump’s controversial efforts to ease energy costs for Americans, oil prices have remained much higher compared to before the Iran war, due in large part to the ongoing risks to the supply chain caused by the crisis in the Middle East. (CBS News)
Brent futures fell 1.8% to around $107 a barrel, following US President Donald Trump’s decision to waive some sanctions on Russia. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday the president would take up to 60 days to assess the economic impact of such a move. At the same time, the benchmark 10-year yield fell to 5.085%. Meanwhile, Iran reported another tanker had hit a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, while the cost of shipping and insurance was keeping oil prices for actual delivery a lot higher. (Reuters)
Those factors are leading to a rebound in equity futures on Monday morning, but we have a big week of earnings ahead of us, with a sea of reports that includes 79 S&P 500 constituents. Included in that bunch will be Meta (META), SpaceX (SPCX), Tesla (TSLA) and IBM (IBM). As those results come in, the market will start to assess consensus expectations that call for 29% year-over-year EPS growth for the S&P 500 in Q3 2026 and 28.6% in the current quarter. Given what we’ve seen with energy and related prices as well as other drivers of inflation, margins will be one of the areas of our focus and what that means for year-over-year gains in operating profit and net income.
2. Global food inflation is poised to accelerate in the coming months and persist well into 2027…