Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures waver as oil prices slip
Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures waver as oil prices slip
Grace O'DonnellFri, September 18, 2026 at 8:05 AM UTC
0
US stock futures were little changed on Friday morning as investors continued to calibrate to the Federal Reserve's first rate hike in three years and existential fears about artificial intelligence's capabilities.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) rose 0.2%, the S&P 500 (ES=F) edged up 0.3%, and Nasdaq-100 (NQ=F) drifted 0.6% higher.
Stocks rebounded on Thursday, driven by gains in tech stocks and bolstered by falling oil prices and bond yields. Markets appeared to look past the Fed's 25 basis point rate hike this week, which was widely expected. US stock futures continued to climb after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to the highest level in 31 years.
Advertisement
However, analysts and top CEOs aren't convinced that one rate hike (by the Fed) will be enough to bring down stubbornly high inflation. "It's not clear to me we've slayed inflation," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told Yahoo Finance this week.
Easing oil prices, which have returned to the $100 level, offered some relief as the war in Iran nears its seventh month. The energy shock stemming from disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continues to baffle analysts and drive inflation higher, complicating the picture for global central banks.
Chip stocks, meanwhile, have on the whole snapped back from a sell-off earlier this week, fueled by Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) and OpenAI's (OPAI.PVT) call for an AI development slowdown. The PHLX Semiconductor index (^SOX) was down only slightly on the week heading into the final trading session.
Source: “AOL Money”
