Summary
U.S. stock index futures weakened on Monday after a sharp, margin-driven decline in precious metals unsettled investors at the start of a week packed with corporate results and economic releases. Gold fell as much as 6% and silver plunged about 10% after CME Group raised margin requirements for the metals following a historic drop on Friday. The step-up in margins forced leveraged participants to reduce positions to meet calls, a dynamic that reverberated across related equity names in premarket trade.
Market moves and sector impact
Miners listed in the U.S. saw early declines in premarket trading: Newmont slipped 2.2%, Barrick Mining and Kinross Gold fell 2.8% and 3.2%, respectively, while Hecla Mining and Coeur Mining each eased by more than 2.7%. The metals rout had intensified late last week after U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chair, to replace Jerome Powell in May - a nomination that market participants largely interpreted as hawkish.
Energy companies also moved lower as crude oil dropped roughly 5% after Trump said Iran was "seriously talking" with Washington, comments that signaled de-escalation and reduced near-term supply disruption concerns. Exxon Mobil and Chevron each declined by over 1.5% in premarket trade.
Index futures and volatility
At 05:29 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 117 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 E-minis were off 41 points, or 0.59%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 222 points, or 0.86%. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) climbed to 19.11, hovering near a two-week high after last week's choppy stretch driven by mixed mega-cap earnings and heightened policy uncertainty following the Fed nomination.
Tech and earnings calendar
Large-cap technology stocks slipped in premarket trading: Nvidia and Tesla were each down nearly 2%, Meta and Alphabet fell 1.4% and 0.9%, respectively, while Microsoft and Amazon each lost over 0.8%. Investors enter a heavy week of results, with 128 companies from the S&P 500 scheduled to report, including Alphabet, Amazon and AMD. Market reaction to last week's tech releases illustrated a narrower tolerance for expansive capital-spending initiatives unless firms can show accelerating growth.
Microsoft recorded its worst week since March 2020 on Friday after cloud revenue disappointed, raising scrutiny over whether the industry's sizable investments in artificial intelligence will generate meaningful returns in the near term. Oracle declined 3.7% after the company said it expects to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in debt and equity this year.
Macro calendar and domestic policy
Political and policy developments also weighed on sentiment. The U.S. entered what is expected to be a brief shutdown on Saturday after Congress failed to approve a funding deal to keep a broad swath of operations funded. Economic data this week is set to provide several checkpoints on the economy: January manufacturing PMI is due later on Monday, S&P Global's composite PMI is scheduled for Wednesday, and a sequence of labor-market indicators - JOLTS, jobless claims and Friday's nonfarm payrolls - will take center stage later in the week.
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