Traders works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the opening bell in New York on April 30, 2026.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures inched higher Sunday night as investors closely eyed the latest developments in the Middle East.
S&P 500 futures added 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.1%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 100 points, or 0.2%.
On Friday, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose to new all-time intraday and closing highs. The broad market index rose 0.29%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.89%. The Dow bucked the trend, however, slipping 152.87 points, or 0.31%.
In a Sunday Truth Social post, President Donald Trump announced “Project Freedom,” which he said entails the U.S. helping to “free” cargo ships of nations that aren’t involved in the Middle East conflict and that have been stranded by the Strait of Hormuz closure. The initiative is slated to start Monday, Trump wrote.
“I have told my Representatives to inform them that we will use best efforts to get their Ships and Crews safely out of the Strait,” he said in his post. “In all cases, they said they will not be returning until the area becomes safe for navigation, and everything else.” The president’s Truth Social post had no details on how such an effort would unfold.
Trump’s announcement came after Iran said on Sunday that it had received a U.S. response to its latest offer for peace talks.
Previously on Friday, Iran reportedly sent an updated peace proposal through Pakistani mediators, boosting investors’ optimism that a settlement with the U.S. could occur. However, Trump later said on Friday that he was not satisfied with Tehran’s offer, and that the country was only making a deal “because they have no military left.”
Investors’ hopefulness over the situation in the Middle East and a strong first-quarter earnings season have driven stocks higher to new records in recent days, with Bank of America quantitative strategist Nigel Tupper seeing reason to remain bullish going forward.
“The strong global earnings cycle and a few persistent investment themes remain supportive of global equity market returns,” Tupper wrote in a Friday note to clients.
Chris Senyek, chief investment strategist at Wolfe Research, believes that strong earnings from the “Magnificent Seven” tech titans will result in artificial intelligence remaining the most dominant market theme.
“With mega cap tech earnings coming in solid, adding more fuel to the AI theme, we believe that investors are likely to continue to chase the perceived tech winners in semis and memory, among others,” he wrote.
The week’s most dominant economic news release will be the April jobs report, due out on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET. Dow Jones consensus estimates that the U.S. economy is expected to have added just 53,000 jobs in April, far below the prior blowout reading of 178,000, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.3%.
Traders will also look ahead to reports from Loews, Norwegian Cruise Line and Tyson Foods before Monday’s opening bell.
—CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed reporting.