Stock futures were poised for a lower open Monday to begin a busy week of tech earnings and the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates, while gold futures surpassed $5,000 an ounce for the first time.
Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures pointed down 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were near flat. The three major equities indexes posted their second straight losing week following a mixed session Friday.
Markets seem to be impacted by President Donald Trump’s threatened 100% tariff on imports from Canada if Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reached a trade deal with China, as well as a possible U.S. government shutdown after Senate Democrats said they wouldn’t pass a funding package without changes to Department of Homeland Security provisions following the deadly shooting of a protestor in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Safe-haven gold futures crossed the $5,000-an-ounce threshold for the first time on the geopolitical tensions, and recently were trading up more than 2% at about $5,090 an ounce after touching above $5,100 an ounce. Silver futures soared 9% to hit a new record high of above $110 an ounce.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of global currencies, was 0.5% lower at 97.15. The greenback slid further against the yen after Japanese and U.S. officials signaled they were prepared to intervene to stop a slide in the Asian currency.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury—which impacts interest rates on a variety of consumer loans including mortgages—slipped to 4.22% from Friday’s close above 4.23%. Bitcoin was trading at roughly $87,900, up from overnight lows around $86,000. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, ticked higher to $61.15 a barrel.
In corporate news, shares of U.S. airlines, including Delta Air Lines (DAL), United Airlines (UAL), American Airlines (AAL), and Southwest Airlines (LUV), pointed modestly lower after a massive storm across much of the country forced the carriers to cancel more than 20,000 flights over the weekend and Monday.
Intel (INTC) shares were down roughly 1.5% in premarket trading after plummeting 17% to pace S&P 500 and Nasdaq decliners Friday after the chipmaker issued a soft outlook and executives warned that supplies could hit a low in the current quarter.
USA Rare Earth (USAR) stock soared more than 20% before the bell after it struck a deal with the U.S. government. The company will receive $1.6 billion in federal funding in exchange for issuing the Commerce Department 16.1 million shares of stock and about 17.6 million warrants. In addition, USA Rare Earth raised $1.5 billion in private sector investment via a PIPE transaction.