Tonight's Highlights: Renewed U.S.-Iran Clashes Lift Crude; Index Futures Slip on Rate Hike Bets
U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Monday as escalating military strikes between the U.S. and Iran drove crude oil higher, compounding risk-off sentiment alongside rising rate hike expectations following Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole address.
European equity markets traded mixed, while the London Stock Exchange remained closed for a bank holiday.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh struck a cautious, hawkish tone at Jackson Hole on Friday, signaling that policymakers may need to lift interest rates if inflation fails to cool toward the 2% target.
CME FedWatch data shows traders are currently pricing a nearly 60% probability of a rate hike at the September FOMC meeting, up sharply from 41.4% a week ago.
"Warsh delivered a distinctly more hawkish message than market consensus had anticipated, signaling that policy easing is off the table in the near term," said Kyle Rodda, Senior Financial Market Analyst at Capital.com.
"Market participants will be scrutinizing Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which will likely anchor trading across the week amid heightened monetary policy uncertainty."
On the geopolitical front, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed Sunday that U.S. forces struck two Iranian rocket launch sites on Larak Island. Iranian state media subsequently reported retaliatory strikes against U.S. military installations in Jordan.
The renewed escalation propelled oil benchmarks higher. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose over 3% to trade above $86 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent crude jumped more than 3% to top $91 per barrel.
In pre-market trade, Nvidia gained 0.64%, standing as the sole gainer among the "Magnificent Seven" megacap technology cohort. Broader semiconductor names also found support, with ASML up 1.41% and Texas Instruments adding 0.5%.
Despite Monday's softness, Wall Street remains on track to close out August with broad-based monthly gains, led by technology:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 2.1% month-to-date, on pace for its fifth consecutive monthly advance.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are up roughly 3% and 4% respectively, tracking their first positive months since May.
The S&P 500 technology sector gained nearly 6% in August, led by Nvidia (+8%), Microsoft (+11%), and Micron Technology (+13%).
Company News
SK Hynix Explores Japan JV Fab to Meet AI Memory Demand
South Korea's SK Hynix is evaluating the feasibility of establishing a joint-venture memory manufacturing facility in Japan to address surging AI demand while managing production costs.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won stated the company is reviewing potential sites across Japan with a primary focus on "abundant power and water resources," though specific locations and JV partners have not yet been disclosed.
SK Hynix Considers Intel Foundry for HBM4E Base Dies
SK Hynix is weighing a foundry partnership with Intel to manufacture base dies for its next-generation High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), potentially integrating Intel as early as its seventh-generation HBM4E lineup to create a multi-supplier architecture alongside TSMC.
While SK Hynix fabricated base dies in-house through HBM3E, higher logic and performance requirements led the company to outsource HBM4 base dies to TSMC's 12nm-class process.
OpenAI Reportedly Procures Tens of Thousands of Apple Macs for AI Training
OpenAI has purchased tens of thousands of Apple Mac mini and Mac Studio units to support reinforcement learning workloads and computer-use AI agent development, according to people familiar with the matter.
Anthropic is also renting substantial Mac compute capacity through Amazon Web Services.
The procurement focused strictly on headless Mac mini and Mac Studio desktops rather than MacBooks.
Apple's M-series unified memory architecture—offering up to 512GB of shared memory capacity—minimizes latency during data transfers between compute cores, while desktop thermal architectures allow for sustained continuous training runs.
Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus Takes Helm Sept 1 with AI as Top Priority
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported on August 30 that Apple Hardware Engineering chief John Ternus will formally assume the role of Chief Executive Officer on September 1, with artificial intelligence positioned as his core mandate.
Ternus, a 25-year Apple hardware veteran who previously oversaw engineering across Mac, iPad, AirPods, and iPhone product lines, steps in amid decelerating services growth, elevated supply chain overhead, and competitive pressure in generative AI. Apple is preparing a broader rollout of its revamped AI-powered Siri in September alongside next-generation hardware.