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U.S. stock index futures moved lower on Friday, extending recent losses as escalating tensions in the Middle East and sharply higher oil prices dampened investor sentiment ahead of a key U.S. jobs report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 05:35 ET (10:35 GMT)<\/strong>, Dow Jones Futures declined 105 points, or 0.2%<\/strong>, while S&P 500 Futures fell 22 points, or 0.3%<\/strong>, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 100 points, or 0.4%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wall Street\u2019s main indexes ended Thursday\u2019s session in negative territory, pressured by a surge in oil prices amid fears of supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz<\/strong>, a critical shipping route south of Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 785 points, or 1.6%<\/strong>, putting the index on track for its second consecutive weekly loss and its worst performance since October<\/strong>. The S&P 500 slipped 0.6%<\/strong>, while the Nasdaq Composite declined nearly 0.3%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investor confidence has been rattled this week as crude prices spiked sharply amid intensifying conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. crude futures have surged nearly 21% this week<\/strong>, after the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran, raising fears that oil shipments from the region could be disrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conflict has spread across parts of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, amplifying concerns about potential supply disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Higher energy prices have already begun affecting consumers. According to data from travel group AAA<\/strong>, the average U.S. gasoline price has risen 27 cents to $3.25 per gallon<\/strong> since the start of the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elevated oil prices tend to pressure corporate margins and reduce consumer spending<\/strong>, while also complicating the Federal Reserve\u2019s efforts to bring inflation under control<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The geopolitical situation continues to escalate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/strong> said late Thursday that \u201cthe amount of firepower over Iran and Tehran is about to surge dramatically.\u201d<\/strong> Meanwhile, Israel announced earlier Friday that it had begun a broad wave of attacks targeting infrastructure in Tehran<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. President Donald Trump<\/strong>, speaking in a telephone interview with Reuters, said Washington must have a role in determining Iran\u2019s next leadership<\/strong> after airstrikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/strong> last week, suggesting the United States may remain involved in the region for an extended period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors are now turning their attention to the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for February<\/strong>, due later Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Economists expect the U.S. economy to have added around 58,000 jobs<\/strong>, slowing from stronger job growth in January, while the unemployment rate is forecast to hold near 4.3%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The payrolls data could play a crucial role in shaping expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate policy<\/strong>. A strong labor market may give policymakers room to keep rates higher for longer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While markets still expect the Fed to begin easing policy later this year, resilient economic data and rising geopolitical risks have reduced expectations for aggressive rate cuts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In corporate news, Marvell Technology<\/strong> lifted its full-year revenue outlook<\/strong>, driven by strong demand from artificial intelligence data centers as companies such as Amazon and Microsoft<\/strong> continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marvell designs key networking components that connect large-scale computing systems, making it a major beneficiary of the global AI buildout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere, Gap<\/strong> issued disappointing fiscal 2026 guidance<\/strong>, citing concerns about tariff-related pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Costco<\/strong> reported higher second-quarter revenue and profit<\/strong>, with membership fees reaching $1.36 billion<\/strong>, marking a 13.6% year-over-year increase<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With oil prices soaring and geopolitical tensions rising, markets remain highly sensitive to developments in the Middle East as investors balance economic data against growing global risks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. stock index futures moved lower on Friday, extending recent losses as escalating tensions in the Middle East and sharply higher oil prices dampened investor sentiment ahead of a key U.S. jobs report. By 05:35 ET (10:35 GMT), Dow Jones Futures declined 105 points, or 0.2%, while S&P 500 Futures fell 22 points, or 0.3%, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":53440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6827,49,39,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-global-stock-markets","category-market-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124454,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124453\/revisions\/124454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Oil surge hits market sentiment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Conflict shows few signs of easing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Jobs report in focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Corporate updates in focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n