U.S. stock futures are sharply lower, with sentiment dented by Moody's Ratings downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating from Aaa to Aa1. The agency cited a ballooning budget deficit that shows little sign of narrowing. The slide comes after solid gains for stocks last week with the benchmark S&P 500 settling just 3% below its all-time high on Friday. Bond yields are rising with the 30-Year Yield back above 5% for the first time since late 2023. With little economic data due today, investor focus will be on the fallout from the Moody’s downgrade along with upcoming retail earnings from Home Depot (HD), Lowe’s (LOW) and Target (TGT).

Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)

• Oil (/CL) – Oil prices plunged amid a spike in risk aversion that weighed on stock markets and the dollar. The front end WTI contract is down -0.3% near $61.80 per barrel. Mixed economic data out of China, and the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, rekindled concern over the outlook for global activity and oil demand. Uncertainty over the nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran, kept a lid on supply expectations and helped to prevent an even sharp drop in global oil prices, as markets wait for a scheduled conversation between U.S. President Trump and Russian President Putin amid threats of additional sanctions against Russia.
• Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are up 1.8% near $3245 as a softer dollar and renewed trade tensions, following U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s reaffirmation of President Donald Trump’s tariff threats fueled safe-haven demand.
• Bitcoin (/BTC) – The crypto future is down 1% near 103.1K in the premarket.
• VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index was down 3.3% on Friday and settled at 17.24 as stocks were higher. It was the lowest closing price for the VIX since March 25th. The VIX is up 13% this morning as stocks are set to open sharply lower.
• U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar index is down 0.85%

Biggest Premarket Movers

Symbol/Product/Mark % Change (as of 7 AM ET)

UNH/United Health Group/+4.16%

MRNA/Moderna Inc/+2.45%

NEM/Newmont Corp/+1.80%

PLTR/Palantir Technologies/-4.49%

NVDA/Nvidia/-2.82%

AMZN/Amazon/-2.02%

Economic Data

Time Event

8:30AM ET Fed’s Bostic Speaks 

10:00AM ET Leading Economic Indicators 

10:30AM ET E-Commerce Retail Sales 

1:15PM ET Fed’s Logan Speaks

1:30PM ET Fed’s Kashkari Speaks

Notable Earnings

Premarket: ZIM

Postmarket: EGHT, QFIN, TCOM

Premarket Tuesday: AS, BILI, CAN, GDS, HD, HOV, HIS, PONY, VIK, VIPS

Postmarket Tuesday: KEYS, PANW, SKY, TOL, VSAT, XP, ZTO

Upgrades/Downgrades

• UBS upgrades Delta (DAL) to Buy from Neutral
• Barclays upgrades Williams-Sonoma (WSM) to Equal Weight from Underweight
• JPMorgan downgrades Netflix (NFLX) to Neutral from Overweight
• Northcoast downgrades GE Aerospace (GE) to Neutral from Buy