U.S. stock futures dip as markets parse Iran tensions, OpenAI training halt

Investing.com-- U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday evening as markets braced for fresh weakness in technology shares after OpenAI said it was halting development of some advanced artificial intelligence models.

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Heightened tensions in Iran also weighed after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected a ceasefire proposal, with oil prices up sharply in early Asian trade.

S&P 500 Futures fell 0.27% to 7,783.0 points by 19:30 ET (23:30 GMT). Nasdaq 100 Futures fell 0.2% to 30,821.50 points, and Dow Jones Futures fell 0.3% to 51,994.0 points.

Futures fell after a positive Friday session on Wall Street, with U.S. stocks also clocking weekly gains as optimism over Meta Platforms' new AI agent sparked a broader tech rally. But concerns over Iran, rising Treasury yields and hawkish Federal Reserve signals stifled overall gains.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had rejected a proposal from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end fighting in the Middle East.

Trump later told reporters he believes that the war will end soon and that oil prices will fall sharply. But he also raised the possibility of more strikes on Iran before the November midterm elections.

Brent prices surged nearly 2% in early Asian trade on Monday. Soaring crude has been a major point of concern for Wall Street amid fears that high energy costs will drive up inflation and interest rates.

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Iran had last week said that ending the war was in the U.S.' hands, and that the country would not soften its stance on Hormuz.

Military tensions in the Middle East remained high, especially as Saudi-Houthi aggression continued.

Technology stocks were set for fresh challenges this week after a report said OpenAI had paused the training of its latest AI models amid several instances of its AI agents going rogue.

The news– reported by AP– came just days after OpenAI said it was investigating incidents involving OpenAI agents using government websites in unexpected manners.

The prospect of an AI development slowdown by one of the U.S.' leading frontier labs raises renewed questions about high-flying technology valuations, especially in the chipmaking and cloud computing sectors.

A slower pace of development could impede demand for advanced chips and computing capacity.

Fears over such a scenario came into focus earlier in September after OpenAI rival Anthropic also called for a slowdown in development.

Adding to pressure on tech, Treasury yields soared to multi-year highs last week amid mounting uncertainty over U.S. fiscal health, as well as growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates further in the coming months.

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