U.S. stock futures were mixed on Tuesday, as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices rose and the Nasdaq 100 index fell, following Monday's higher close.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Iranian airlines will be "shut down" worldwide by Wednesday, warning foreign entities that providing fuel or landing services will result in exclusion from the dollar-based financial system. Treasury also sanctioned major foreign financial institutions in Egypt, Turkey, and Russia for facilitating Iranian transactions. Following the news, energy prices moved higher, with Brent crude futures rising 1.05% to $101.39 per barrel.
Tuesday's earnings include reports from AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO), Thor Industries Inc. (NYSE: THO), KB Home (NYSE: KBH), Worthington Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: WOR), and MillerKnoll Inc. (NASDAQ: MLKN).
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.97%, and the 2-year Treasury bond yielded 4.77%, at the last check. The CME Group's FedWatch tool projections show markets pricing in a 57.6% likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates after its October meeting.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were mixed in premarket on Tuesday. The SPY was up 0.007% at $773.56, while the QQQ declined 0.085% to $740.84.
Lennar
- Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) was up 1.09% in premarket after Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NASDAQ: BRK.A) (NASDAQ: BRK.B), under CEO Greg Abel, disclosed a stake of about $1.2 billion in the homebuilder.
- MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that LEN maintains a weak price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a bad quality score.
Accenture
- Accenture Plc (NYSE: ACN) was 0.47% higher after it announced with Google Cloud that Volvo Cars has become the lead industry partner for software firm Horizon. It also formed a new partnership with Anthropic on Monday focused on AI safety and model evaluation.
- MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that ACN maintains a strong price trend in the medium and short terms but a weak trend in the long term, with a poor value score.
Lockheed Martin
- Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) was up 0.17% in premarket on Tuesday after it secured a $1.2 billion Army contract for a missile system on Monday.
- MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that LMT maintains a weak price trend in the long, medium and short terms.
Greenland Mines
- Greenland Mines Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRML) jumped 11.46% in premarket following the company's expansion of its Sarfartoq rare earth magnet district land position in West Greenland. The expansion adds 262 square kilometers, bringing the total to approximately 454 square kilometers.
- MarketDash's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that GRML maintains a weak price trend in the long, medium, and short terms.
Cues From Last Session
Communication services, information technology, and consumer discretionary sectors gained the most on Monday, whereas energy, utilities, consumer staples, and materials declined.
Insights From Analysts
LPL Financial expects S&P 500 profit margins and the broader market to face a reality check, arguing that current forward-looking consensus estimates are overly optimistic and "appear stretched."
While acknowledging that structural changes—specifically the rising weight of high-margin technology companies—justify a higher baseline operating margin than historical averages, LPL cautions investors against assuming margins will rise indefinitely.
LPL decomposes recent margin gains into structural, cyclical, and temporary forces. A key concern is that current record margins are heavily powered by the cyclical AI trade, with the semiconductor industry driving "nearly half of S&P 500 margin expansion since 2019."
LPL warns that "the market is effectively underwriting a future return on AI infrastructure before that return is fully visible," while hyperscaler accounting has yet to absorb the full depreciation burden of recent capital expenditures.
Consequently, LPL advocates a framework where margins "are still mean-reverting, but the mean has moved," advising investors to differentiate between durable structural gains and vulnerable cyclical spikes.
Upcoming Economic Data
Here's what investors will be keeping an eye on Tuesday.
- Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin will speak to the CFA Society Baltimore at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets
Crude Oil WTI futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 0.26% to hover around $92.61 per barrel.
Gold Spot US Dollar fell 1.14% to hover around $4,294.59 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.21% higher at the 100.6380 level.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 3.50% higher at $85,400.34 per coin over the last 24 hours.
Asian markets were higher on Tuesday, except India's Nifty 50 index. Australia's ASX 200, Japan's Nikkei 225, South Korea's Kospi, China's CSI 300, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng indices rose. European markets were lower in early trading.
