U.S. stock futures are lower in premarket trading as concerns surrounding regional banks’ loan practices pushed investors away from riskier assets and toward safe havens.

Zions (ZION) and Western Alliance (WAL) disclosed bad loans, which sparked worries about loose lending practices and fears that similar issues could arise. Uneasiness in the banking sector has grown after the recent bankruptcies of two auto industry-related companies.

The bearish sentiment is pushing aside the positive earnings reports this week and uncertainty is rising. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) settled at its highest level since April and is extending gains this morning. The government shutdown, trade concerns and elevated valuations have also added to the market tensions this week.

• Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are flat near $56.80 and is at 5-month lows. Crude is heading for a weekly loss of around 3% after the IEA forecast a growing glut and U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to meet again to discuss Ukraine.

• Gold (/GC) – Gold futures are flat at $4300 and are headed for their biggest weekly gain since December 2008, as geopolitical and economic uncertainty along with growing U.S. rate cut bets drove investors to the safe-haven metal.

• Bitcoin (/BTC) – The Crypto Future is down over 2% near 106,000 in premarket trading. Bitcoin is down 17% from last week’s all-time high and is at nearly 4-month lows.

• VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index jumped over 22% on Thursday and settled at 25.31 as stocks sold off. It was the highest close for the VIX since April 28th.

• U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is flat at 98.1.

• HSBC upgrades Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) to Buy from Hold

• UBS upgrades Deere (DE) to Buy from Neutral

• Oppenheimer upgrades Jefferies Financial (JEF) to Outperform from Perform

• TD Cowen downgrades Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) to Hold from Buy

• Barclays double downgrades AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) to Underweight from Overweight

• Raymond James downgrades Bank OZK (OZK) to Market Perform from Outperform

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