Stock Market Update

Equity futures point to a modestly higher open this morning after stocks started the week on a subdued note, with the major averages incurring modest losses yesterday as oil surged while semiconductor stocks sold off into the close.

Crude oil is currently hovering around its baseline, off its earlier highs after a report from Pakistan that the U.S. and Iran are moving toward a plan for peace. The report follows some back and forth from both sides demanding reparations from the other.

Elsewhere on the macro front, investors continue to display some caution ahead of tomorrow's release of the July Consumer Price Index (Briefing.com consensus 0.1%), which will be highly influential to the Fed's next policy move. Today's data includes July existing home sales (Briefing.com consensus 4.07 million) at 10:00 a.m. ET, along with the earlier released NFIB Small Business Optimism index, which expanded to 99.8 from the prior reading of 97.4.

Meanwhile, corporate news flow continues to be on the lighter side as Q2 earnings season winds down.

In corporate news:

• Hims & Hers Health (HIMS 29.90, -1.87, -5.9%) moves lower despite topping earnings estimates after trimming the upper end of its full-year outlook, according to CNBC.
• Intel (INTC 96.33, -1.19, -1.2%) upsized its recently announced common stock offering to $20 billion at $95 per share.
• NVIDIA (NVDA 220.03, +2.48, +1.1%) CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that yesterday's announcement of a $500 billion AI infrastructure development financing package helps make NVIDIA compute an "investable asset."

Reviewing overnight developments:

Equity indices in the Asia-Pacific region had a mixed showing on Tuesday while Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday. Japan's Nikkei: CLOSED, Hong Kong's Hang Seng: -1.1%, China's Shanghai Composite: -0.8%, India's Sensex: -0.5%, South Korea's Kospi: +0.7%, Australia's ASX All Ordinaries: +0.2%.

In news:

• South Korea's exports through the first ten days of August were up 45.3% yr/yr with chip exports jumping 155.4%.
• The Reserve Bank of Australia left its official cash rate at 4.35%, as expected, and its inflation outlook was little changed from May.
• New Zealand's Prime Minister Luxon is reportedly facing growing displeasure within his party.

In economic data:

• Australia's July NAB Business Confidence -6 (last -6) and NAB Business Survey 4 (last 3)
• Singapore's Q2 GDP 1.4% qtr/qtr (expected 1.1%; last 1.2%); 5.9% yr/yr (expected 5.7%; last 6.3%)

Major European indices trade near their flat lines, showing limited movement ahead of tomorrow's release of July CPI readings for Germany, Italy, and the U.S. STOXX Europe 600: +0.1%, Germany's DAX: UNCH, U.K.'s FTSE 100: UNCH, France's CAC 40: -0.1%, Italy's FTSE MIB: +0.1%, Spain's IBEX 35: +0.4%.

In news:

• Sweden's National Institute of Economic Research raised its growth forecast for 2026 to 2.4% from 2.2% and kept its 2027 forecast for 2.8% growth.

In economic data:

• Italy's June trade surplus EUR4.232 bln (expected surplus of EUR4.74 bln; last surplus of EUR4.946 bln). June EU trade surplus EUR1.58 bln (last surplus of EUR1.00 bln)