US Pre-Market: US-Iran Standoff Persists, WTI Crude Rises Over 5% Pre-Market, Semiconductors Fall Collectively, Arm Drops Over 8%

TradingKey - On Tuesday (April 28), as U.S.-Iran negotiations remain at a deadlock, international crude oil prices rose in pre-market trading. WTI crude gained more than 5% on the day, briefly touching $101.81, its highest level since April 13. Brent crude rose nearly 4% on the day, reaching a high of $105.81.

The three major U.S. stock index futures were mixed. As of press time, Dow futures rose 0.12%, Nasdaq futures fell 1.41%, and S&P 500 futures dropped 0.76%. Semiconductor stocks mostly declined, with ARM (ARM) falling more than 8%, AMD (AMD) falling over 5%, Qualcomm (AVGO) , ASML (ASML) falling more than 3%.

On the news front, the U.S. canceled a new round of negotiations originally scheduled for Pakistan this weekend. Trump deemed this a "waste of time" and emphasized that the U.S. still holds the upper hand. Currently, Iran has proposed a new plan, but Trump remains unsatisfied, which may have increased market expectations for the conflict to continue.

Market Volatility

Corning, a major global supplier of glass and optical materials, (GLW) plunged more than 10% in pre-market trading. Although current quarterly earnings slightly beat analyst estimates, management's conservative future outlook was the primary driver of the downward pressure on the stock.

ARM fell more than 8% in pre-market trading. TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated yesterday that Qualcomm is collaborating with OpenAI to develop specialized smartphone chips, fueling market concerns that these new chips might no longer utilize ARM's architecture, which would cause ARM to lose a long-term core customer. Furthermore, prior to this decline, the U.S. semiconductor sector had experienced an epic rally. The reasons for this round of declines may include profit-taking by investors and a correction of the excessive premium surrounding the "AI halo."

Market Highlights

Brent crude extended its rally for a seventh consecutive day, with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz emerging as the primary driver.

Three major central banks are set to hold policy meetings this week, with traders expecting the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England to all remain on hold.

OpenAI's recent failure to meet new user and sales targets triggered a broad sell-off in OpenAI-linked stocks, with SoftBank Group's Japan-listed shares plunging 9.9% today and Oracle (ORCL) , CoreWeave (CRWV) dropped more than 7% in pre-market trading.

Key Data/Events Preview

On Wednesday, April 29, ET, several tech giants will release their earnings reports. Amazon (AMZN) , Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) , Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META) will report earnings after the market close that day.

After the market close on Thursday, April 30, ET, Apple (AAPL) will report its earnings results.