US stock futures edged modestly higher Monday night after a strong session that pushed the major benchmarks to fresh highs.
Contracts tied to the S&P 500 (ES=F) and Nasdaq Composite (NQ=F) both rose about 0.2%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) added roughly 75 points.
Earlier in the day, momentum carried through Wall Street, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq (^IXIC) each notching new intraday and closing records. The Dow (^DJI), however, underperformed, ending the session in the red.
Over the weekend, Donald Trump scrapped plans to dispatch envoys for discussions related to Iran. Instead, he suggested negotiations could proceed remotely. Meanwhile, Iran signaled no immediate plans for direct engagement with Washington.
Investors are also anticipating the Federal Reserve’s next decision on interest rates, which is set to be announced Wednesday. The meeting comes as the term of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comes to a close and Trump’s pick to lead the central bank, Kevin Warsh, pursues confirmation. Policymakers are expected to hold rates steady.
Investors are also focused on one of the busiest stretches of earnings season, with the majority of the “Magnificent Seven” heavyweight tech companies set to report this week. Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) are preparing to share their results Wednesday, followed by Apple (AAPL) on Thursday.
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OpenAI fails to hit revenue targets before upcoming IPO
Reuters reports:
OpenAI has fallen short of its goals for new users and revenue in recent months, sparking concern among some company leaders over whether it can support its extensive data-center spending, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
• CFO Sarah Friar has expressed concerns to other company leaders that the ChatGPT creator might not be able to pay for future computing contracts if revenue doesn’t grow fast enough, according to the report.
• OpenAI missed multiple monthly revenue targets earlier this year after losing ground to Anthropic in coding and enterprise markets, the report said.
• “This is ridiculous. We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day,” CEO and co-founder Sam Altman and Friar said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
• ChatGPT’s growth slowed toward the end of last year, the WSJ report said, adding that OpenAI fell short of an internal target to reach 1 billion weekly active users for the artificial intelligence chatbot by year-end.
• The company has also grappled with subscriber defections, the report added.
Oil holds just below $110 a barrel with Iran peace proposals leaving markets unchanged
Bloomberg reports:
Oil held a gain as traders weighed the next steps toward peace talks over the Iran war, with the US discussing a proposal from Tehran while the crucial Strait of Hormuz remained almost impassable.
Brent (BZ=F) crude traded near $108 a barrel after advancing 2.8% on Monday, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) was above $96. US President Donald Trump convened a meeting to discuss the proposal, but maintained red lines on any deal to end the war, including preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
A ceasefire has broadly held since early April, but a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran and the US has reduced daily transits of the waterway to near zero. The closure has choked off flows of crude, natural gas and oil products, driving up energy prices and raising concerns about an inflation crisis.