People work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 07, 2026 in New York City.
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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 29 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 futuresfor August delivery rose 2.1% to $71.87 per barrel in Asia trading. Futures for International benchmarkBrent crude for September delivery jumped 1.9% to $75.53 per barrel.
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Wednesday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.55%, while the Topix declined 0.7%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.72%, and the small-cap Kosdaq dropped 1.94%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.2% on open Wednesday, while mainland China’s CSI 300 declined 0.47%.
In the U.S. 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, whichare likely to be hawkish in tone, couldcontain some surprises.”
— CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed reporting.
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