MW U.S. stock futures fall, oil rises ahead of a busy week for Wall Street
By Mike Murphy
Stocks were mixed last week, but have largely rallied in April.
U.S. stock-index futures dropped on Sunday as oil prices rose, ahead of a key week for Wall Street following record highs for the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM00) were recently down about 145 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures (ES00) and Nasdaq-100 futures (NQ00) also fell. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (CL.1) rose 2%, above $96 a barrel, after plans for new talks between the U.S. and Iran collapsed Saturday.
While Saturday night's shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner rattled nerves, it appeared likely to fade to the background once the trading week begins.
Perhaps boosted by the volatility, bitcoin (BTCUSD) rose over the weekend, and was recently trading above $78,000.
The coming week will see earnings reports from five of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" megacap tech companies. Alphabet $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$, Microsoft $(MSFT)$, Amazon (AMZN) and Meta $(META)$ will report Wednesday, while Apple $(AAPL)$ - which last week announced its CEO transition plans - will report Thursday.
Those earnings may decide whether April's rally by tech stocks has been justified, or if investors' fears of overspending on AI infrastructure will return to the forefront.
See: Big Tech is the bull market's win-win trade right now - making this week crucial
On Friday, the S&P 500 SPX and Nasdaq COMP closed at records highs, with both indexes notching their fourth straight weekly gains, while the Dow DJIA slipped and ended the week lower, snapping a three-week winning streak.
Wall Street will also be keeping an eye on what is likely to be Jerome Powell's last press conference as Fed chair. The Fed's interest-rate-setting committee will meet Tuesday and Wednesday, with Powell speaking after its conclusion. The Fed is widely expected to keep rates steady, but investors will be eager for any hints of future monetary policy. Powell's term as chair ends May 15, and Sen. Thom Tillis on Sunday said he would support the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, lifting a hurdle that had thrown the Fed's future leadership into doubt.
More: Jerome Powell's final Fed press conference marks an end to an era
Meanwhile, much uncertainty remains regarding the war with Iran. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had canceled plans to send a delegation to Islamabad, Pakistan, to resume negotiations with Iran, with the goal of reopening the critical Strait of Hormuz. "Too much time wasted," Trump said in a social-media post Saturday. "We have all the cards; they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!"
On Sunday, Pakistani mediators reportedly said they were still working to get the two sides back to the negotiating table. Citing Iranian news reports, the Associated Press reported Iran's president told Pakistan's prime minister that the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports must be lifted before talks can resume.
The stalemate has stifled the flow of oil and other materials from the Persian Gulf, sending global fuel prices soaring. A gallon of gas in the U.S. averaged $4.10 a gallon as of Sunday, according to AAA. Trump said Friday that Americans should expect to pay higher prices at the pump "for a little while."
But experts warn that prices are likely to remain elevated in the long term. Even if hostilities end and the strait reopens soon, the damage to the region's energy infrastructure is extensive, and a recovery would likely be time-consuming and expensive.
Read more: Why crude prices won't fall back to levels seen before the Iran war anytime soon
"What the market calls a delay is quietly turning into a permanent reshaping of supply," Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, wrote in a weekend note. "Because once fields, infrastructure, and export routes take repeated hits, the system stops behaving like a restart candidate and starts behaving like a diminished asset base."
-Mike Murphy
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2026 18:19 ET (22:19 GMT)
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