NEW YORK, April 21, 2026, 05:18 EDT
U.S. stock index futures ticked up in early trade Tuesday, with the Nasdaq 100 out front, as traders weighed a new AI-driven rally against lingering skepticism on U.S.-Iran talks. Dow futures added 61 points, S&P 500 futures were up 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures posted a 0.3% gain, according to Barron’s.
Wall Street’s rally is looking fragile again, with traders reacting to every twitch in oil prices and the Middle East. On Monday, Iran worries unsettled markets and cast doubt on a two-week ceasefire, leaving the Dow off by just 0.01%, the S&P 500 down 0.24%, and the Nasdaq Composite sliding 0.26%.
Another set of data lands shortly. At 8:30 a.m., the U.S. Census Bureau releases its March advance retail sales figures—a key read on consumer spending across stores, restaurants, and online. Earnings are also in focus, with GE Aerospace, UnitedHealth, and RTX all scheduled to report ahead of or near the opening bell.
Federal Reserve politics are back in focus. Kevin Warsh, tapped by President Donald Trump to head the central bank, is set to assure senators he’s “committed to ensuring” monetary policy independence, according to his prepared remarks. The hearing kicks off at 10 a.m. EDT. Reuters
Global markets delivered another mixed message—investors kept equities afloat, but there wasn’t much conviction behind the move. The MSCI All Country index ticked up just 0.1%, according to Reuters. Oil hovered close to $95 a barrel as attention turned to possible Iran-U.S. talks in Pakistan. “At the core of this cycle is obviously tech,” Lombard Odier chief economist Samy Chaar told Reuters. Reuters
Amazon gave tech stocks a boost after announcing plans to pour as much as $25 billion into Anthropic, the AI startup behind the Claude models. Anthropic, for its part, agreed to drop more than $100 billion over the next decade on Amazon’s cloud services. CEO Andy Jassy pointed to Anthropic’s adoption of Amazon’s Trainium chips as evidence of advances in the company’s custom silicon efforts.
Apple grabbed attention in premarket trading following its announcement that Tim Cook is set to step in as executive chairman, while John Ternus—currently leading hardware engineering—takes the CEO post on September 1. Cook described Ternus as “the mind of an engineer.” According to Apple, the board gave unanimous approval to the move. Apple
Apple faces more than just a leadership handoff. According to Reuters, Ternus will need to accelerate Apple’s AI efforts while rivals like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT keep raising the bar in the consumer AI race. Bob O’Donnell at TECHnalysis Research put it bluntly: his main job may be to deliver a “better AI story.” Reuters
The premarket bid could easily lose steam if oil prices climb, retail sales stoke fresh inflation fears, or Warsh delivers fewer signals for rate cuts than traders are hoping for. “Not out of the woods” on war-driven volatility, Horizon Investment Services CEO Chuck Carlson told Reuters, despite earnings now drawing more investor focus. Reuters
At the moment, support is coming mostly from AI-centric stocks, with energy names backing off as oil prices slip from recent peaks. Futures suggest a modest uptick rather than any strong momentum. According to WSJ, both Brent and U.S. crude moved lower as optimism around potential Iran talks increased. U.S. equities nudged up ahead of the open, and Amazon climbed following news of its Anthropic partnership.
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