Markets Brace for Geopolitical Shifts Ahead

U.S. stock futures are mostly lower in premarket trading after the S&P 500 hit another all-time intra-day high on Friday, with traders set to wrap up a strong 2025. The three major indices are coming off of gains of over 1% in last week’s holiday-shortened sessions.

The benchmark S&P 500 is up nearly 18% in 2025 and settled just below its record high close on Friday on fractional losses. Wall Street is in the Santa Claus rally period, a historically strong time for the stock market. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has averaged a gain of more than 1% between the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the new year, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

With no earnings due this week, investor focus will be on Housing data along with the FOMC minutes on Wednesday afternoon.

Morning Movers

Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)

  • Oil (/CL)Oil prices are up 2% near $58 a barrel as investors weighed talks between the U.S. and ‍Ukrainian presidents on a possible ‍deal to end the ‍war in Ukraine against potential oil supply disruption in the Middle East.

  • Gold (/GC) Gold futures are down nearly 2% near $4470 after hitting all-time highs again on Friday, while silver (/SI) also rallied to a fresh peak overnight before falling. Silver retreated after touching a record peak above $80 an ounce while gold slipped from levels close to historic ‍highs on Monday ‍as investors booked ‍profits and a market perception of reduced geopolitical risks curbed safe-haven buying.

  • Bitcoin (/BTC)The Crypto Future is relatively flat near 88,000 in premarket trading.

  • VIX The CBOE Volatility Index was up nearly 1% on Friday and settled at 13.60 as stocks were flat. The VIX remains near 12-month lows as stocks are close to record highs.

  • U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is higher by 0.15% at 98.16.

Biggest Premarket Movers (as of 7 AM ET)

Symbol

Product

Mark % Change (Winners)

DVN

Devon Energy

+1.07%

XOM

Exxon Mobil

+0.83%

BKR

Baker Hughes

+0.77%

CVX

Chevron

+0.65%

OXY

Occidental Petroleum

+0.53%

Symbol

Product

Mark % Change (Losers)

NEW

Newmont Corp

-2.63%

ALB

Albemarle

-2.15%

ORCL

Oracle

-1.86%

FCX

Freeport-McMoRan

-1.40%

SMCI

Super Micro Computer

-1.37%

Economic Data

Time

Event

8:30 AM ET

Intl. Trade in Goods 

Retail/Wholesale Inventories 

10:00 AM ET

Pending Home Sales 

10:30 AM ET

Dallas Fed Mfg. Survey

12:00 PM ET

Natural Gas Report

Notable Earnings

Premarket

Postmarket

Premarket Tomorrow

Postmarket Tomorrow

None

None

None

None

Upgrades/Downgrades

No reported upgrades or downgrades today.

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