By Niket Nishant and Avinash P
June 29 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open higher on Monday as easing tensions in the Middle East lifted sentiment following days of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, while Comcast shares soared on plans to split into two companies.
A U.S. official said on Sunday that the two sides will de-escalate following days of hostilities, bolstering hopes that an interim peace deal signed earlier this month could hold.
While diplomatic efforts to put an end to the conflict have calmed investors, caustic rhetoric and occasional flare-ups in the region have at times raised the risk of a broader escalation that could push oil prices higher.
“There have been several false starts in peace negotiations. I would expect most market participants to remain in a holding pattern through the rest of this week,” said Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management.
At 8:23 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis were up 62.75 points, or 0.84%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis rose 344.5 points, or 1.17%.
Dow E-minis were up 233 points, or 0.45%. The blue-chip index held up better than the other Wall Street benchmarks last week, gaining 0.6%.
Meanwhile, RBC Capital Markets raised its 12-month target for the S&P 500 index to 8,150 from 7,900, citing earnings strength and favorable market conditions as factors likely to push U.S. equities higher.
The earnings season is set to begin in the coming weeks, marking the next major test for stocks this year.
“The 21% S&P 500 return over the past 12 months has been driven entirely by earnings, making the upcoming Q2 2026 reporting season an important catalyst for the forward trajectory of the market,” said Ben Snider, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs.
AI WORRIES COMPLICATE OUTLOOK
Concerns about AI spending have injected an additional dose of uncertainty into the market. A selloff last week punished investor favorites such as semiconductors and the so-called Magnificent Seven.
Apple’s shares were underperforming their Magnificent Seven peers in premarket trading on Monday, following a 4.8% drop last week.
The company raised iPad and MacBook prices on Thursday, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s data center buildout.
Traders are also expecting at least one rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year to keep inflation under control. They would likely reassess those bets later this week, when the U.S. releases the jobs data for June.
In the premarket session, Comcast gained 22.5% after the media and cable provider said it plans to separate into two independent publicly traded companies through a tax-free spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.
SpaceX also rose 1.8% after Nasdaq said the newly listed company will be added to the Nasdaq 100 index on July 7.
Martin Marietta Materials fell 2.6% after it said it would merge with limestone supplier Lhoist North America in a deal worth $13.5 billion.
Shares of Viridian Therapeutics jumped 10.6% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drug to treat patients with thyroid eye disease.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Avinash P in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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