(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening on a sluggish note Monday, with Middle East concerns and rate hike worries likely to keep investors on edge.
Pushing against U.S. rate-hike bets, U.S. President Donald Trump said that there is too much emphasis on inflation and that increasing the benchmark interest rate would be "the wrong thing to do".
His remarks come as Fed Chair Kevin Warsh prepares to lead his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting on June 16-17.
U.S. stock index futures were mixed ahead of the launch of Apple's more personalized Siri digital assistant later today and Oracle earnings due late Wednesday.
Asian markets were deep in the red, with technology stocks bearing the brunt of the selling on rising bond yields.
The U.S. dollar jumped to a two-month high and the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 4.57 percent amid signs the U.S. Federal Reserve may not cut borrowing costs anytime soon and that it might instead raise rates later this year against a backdrop of high inflation.
Crude prices surged more than 4 percent toward $97 a barrel after Israel struck Hezbollah targets in Beirut's southern suburbs over the weekend and Iran retaliated by launching a volley of missile strikes against Israel.
Israel struck Iranian military targets early today in a tit-for-tat retaliation, despite U.S. President Trump urging restraint.
Despite rising tensions, Trump told Axios, "We are very close to a final deal with Iran. It's going to be a good deal."
Gold was subdued at $4,306 an ounce, holding a decline after tumbling nearly 5 percent last week to its lowest level in more than two months on concerns about inflation and interest rates.
U.S. stocks slumped on Friday, wiping out nearly $2 trillion in market value, as a surprisingly strong jobs report added to fears that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer.
The yield on the two-year Treasury note climbed to a 15-month high of 4.16 percent as data showed non-farm payroll employment shot up by 172,000 jobs in May while economists had expected an addition of 85,000 jobs.
The jobless rate held steady at 4.3 percent and job figures for March and April were revised up in a sign of resilient labor market, despite economic headwinds from the Iran war.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeted 4.2 percent, marking its biggest single-day drop since April 2025 as major investment funds continued to pull money out of AI and microchip companies. The S&P 500 shed 2.6 percent and the Dow gave up 1.4 percent.
European stocks closed mostly lower on Friday amid concerns stemming from Broadcom's outlook and uncertainty over Middle East peace efforts.
The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 0.3 percent. The German DAX dipped 0.8 percent and France's CAC 40 eased 0.3 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 finished marginally higher.
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