US stock futures fall on Monday as investors await inflation and jobs data

Around 6 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 104 points, or 0.2%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also lost about 0.2%, as Barron’s reports. Oil futures, meanwhile, rose about 1% to above $93 a barrel.

The pressure on markets comes from high energy prices and the escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran. President Donald Trump and Iranian officials traded criticism over the weekend on the state of talks to end the war, with Trump saying on Saturday on Fox News that he had rejected as “unacceptable” Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Midweek will be dominated by economic data. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for August — economists expect annual growth of 3.7%, and 3.3% for core PCE excluding food and energy. On Friday comes the September jobs report, where the consensus expects 100,000 new jobs and an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.1%.

The week begins after a strong week for Wall Street. The Dow closed last week up 0.3%, snapping a three-week losing streak and recording its biggest weekly gain since late August, according to Dow Jones Market Data; the index is up 7.8% since the start of the year. The S&P 500 gained 1.2%, its biggest weekly gain since early August (+13.1% on the year), while the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.1%, also its biggest gain since early August (+16.5% on the year).