U.S. stock futures declined on Tuesday, as the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 indices fell, following Monday’s lower close.

Rising Middle East tensions pushed Brent crude futures up 4.46% to $92.31 a barrel after President Donald Trump threatened further strikes against Iran while ruling out nuclear action against an opponent he described as "totally defeated."

Meanwhile, tech infrastructure took center stage as Trump warned that communities rejecting AI data centers risk being "backwards and poor."

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW), Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL), and MongoDB Inc. (NASDAQ:MDB) will report earnings today, after the closing bell.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.79%, and the two-year bond was at 4.36%. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool projections show markets pricing in a 66.4% likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates at its September meeting.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, were lower in premarket on Tuesday. The SPY was down 0.59% at $762.55, while the QQQ declined by 1.02% to $709.48.

Stocks In Focus

Pyxis Tankers

• Pyxis Tankers Inc. (NASDAQ:PXS) tumbled 10.26% after reporting better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter. The company posted quarterly earnings of 27 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 20 cents per share.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that XS maintains a strong price trend in the short, long, and medium terms, with a moderate growth score.

Cango

• Cango Inc. (NYSE:CANG) dropped 10.46% after posting downbeat results for the second quarter, after the closing bell on Monday.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that CANG maintains a weak price trend in the long and medium terms but a strong trend in the short term.

Cerebras Systems

• Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS) fell 1.76% despite announcing a new 165 MW AI data centre in Mikkeli, Finland, developed in partnership with Compute Nordic Finland.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that CBRS maintains a weak price trend in the short, long, and medium terms.

Amber International Holding

• Amber International Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ:AMBR) soared 17.24% as it announced transformation into an agentic AI company, launching its new personal finance AI agent, Ambre, and marketing AI agent, MIA.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AMBR maintains a weak price trend in the short, long, and medium terms.

Nvidia

• Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) fell 1.31% following its investments of $3.5 billion in convertible bonds to deepen MediaTek.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that NVDA maintains a strong price trend in the long, short, and medium terms with a good quality score.

Cues From Last Session

Communication services, utilities, and industrials suffered the biggest drops on Monday, while energy and information technology stocks defied the broader trend to finish higher. Most S&P 500 sectors declined as U.S. markets broadly fell.

Insights From Analysts

Jeremy Siegel expressed an optimistic outlook for the U.S. economy and stock market, largely driven by Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s policy approach and robust artificial intelligence investments.

Siegel praised Warsh’s recent Jackson Hole speech for its “explicit recognition that money supply and bank credit matter for the Fed’s inflation outlook.” Siegel notes that Warsh correctly identifies that the current 3.6% federal funds rate and 7% to 8% bank credit expansion are “hardly consistent with a monetary policy crushing demand.”

Looking at the broader stock market, Siegel remains highly confident, pointing to a “very strong fundamental backdrop from the AI story powering the equity market.” He emphasizes that recent strong performances by tech giants like Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) prove the AI investment cycle still has plenty of momentum.

Despite anticipating a slight slowdown after a period of exceptional corporate profits, Siegel reassures investors that “some deceleration is inevitable, but that does not mean the earnings outlook is deteriorating.”

Ultimately, Siegel concludes that “the market continues to demonstrate considerable resilience and I remain constructive”, leaving the timing of Warsh’s next rate hike as the primary uncertainty.

Upcoming Economic Data

Here’s what investors will be keeping an eye on Tuesday.

• August’s flash S&P U.S. manufacturing PMI data will be released by 9:45 a.m., while August’s ISM manufacturing PMI, July’s construction spending, and July’s JOLTS job openings data will all be out by 10:00 a.m. ET.

Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets

Crude Oil WTI futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 2.37% to hover around $87.79 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar fell 1.61% to hover around $4,377.83 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.13% higher at the 99.5620 level.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 1.10% lower at $77,826.20 per coin over the last 24 hours.

Asian markets were lower on Tuesday except South Korea’s Kospi. China’s CSI 300, Australia’s ASX 200, India’s Nifty 50, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 indices fell. European markets were lower in early trading.

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