Wall Street on track for gains at open, oil prices tumble 4% after Trump says Iran stopped killings
Wall Street was poised to open with gains on Thursday and oil prices tumbled 4% after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was told that plans for executions in Iran have stopped, even as Tehran signaled fast trials and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters.
Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.3% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.2%. Futures for the Nasdaq, where most of the biggest tech companies trade, jumped 0.8% to claw back some of Wednesday’s losses.
U.S. benchmark crude fell $2.48 to $59.40 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed $2.60 to $63.92 per barrel.
Big U.S. banks continued to report their latest financial results. Goldman Sachs shares were unchanged after the New York investment bank beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter profit targets but missed on revenue. Morgan Stanley rose 1.8% after it beat analysts’ projections for the period while posting record revenue of more than $70 billion for 2025.
Investment manager BlackRock saw its shares rise 1.9% early Thursday after it beat revenue and profit forecasts and said that it is now overseeing more than $14 trillion in assets.
In Iran, the nationwide protests challenging that country’s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered Thursday, a week on from authorities shutting the country off from the world and escalating a bloody crackdown that activists say killed at least 2,615 people.
The Islamic Republic shut down its airspace early Thursday morning without explanation before reopening several hours later.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.2%, Germany’s DAX was nearly unchanged and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5%.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4% to 54,110.50, with technology-related stocks trading lower. SoftBank Group fell 4.9%, while testing equipment maker Advantest fell 2.5%.
But shares in retailer Ryohin Keikaku, or Muji, jumped nearly 12% after it reported stronger-than-expected earnings.
Shares of machinery and equipment maker Toyota Industries rose 6.2% following reports that automaker Toyota Motor has raised its buyout offer for the company to 18,800 yen ($118.61) per share.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.3% to 26,923.62. Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese online travel platform Trip.com sank 19% after Beijing said it had opened an antitrust investigation into the group. The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.3%, to 4,112.60 after Chinese regulators raised minimum margin requirements for investors.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.6% to 4,797.55.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to 8,861.70.
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.4%. Shares of Taiwan’s leading chipmaker TSMC fell 1.2%, even after it announced better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue. The company said it plans to increase its capital spending this year.
TSMC said it expects to increase its capital spending by nearly 40% this year as it works to keep up with surging demand due to the expanding use of AI.