US stock futures rose on Wednesday, as investors evaluated the latest corporate business results, at a time when oil prices continued to rise, amid the repercussions of the Iranian war and the risks facing energy supplies.
Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 0.2 percent, while Nasdaq futures rose 0.4 percent.
On the other hand, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures settled near their previous levels, according to Reuters.
Strong expectations for corporate profit growth have pushed the US stock market to record levels, despite continued high inflation, increased interest rates and other challenges facing the markets.
SpaceX shares jumped more than 8 percent, before the opening of trading, after the company, led by Elon Musk, announced quarterly profits that exceeded market expectations, supported by strong growth in satellite communications and artificial intelligence activities.
Musk said that SpaceX and Tesla had formed “special committees” to discuss the possibility of merging the two companies, but he downplayed the chances of an imminent deal being completed.
On the other hand, Netflix shares fell by more than 6 percent during trading prior to the market opening, after the streaming company lowered its advertising sales expectations on Tuesday, raising concerns about slowing revenue growth. Despite this, the company, which last week announced plans to lay off employees, recorded profits in the third quarter that exceeded Wall Street expectations.
Investors' attention is directed to the results of a number of major companies. Among them are “Mitta” and “Tesla”, which is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday.
Oil continues to rise
In energy markets, oil prices rose as the repercussions of the Iranian war continued, while fuel costs increased due to the risks associated with passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
The price of Brent crude, the global standard, rose by 1.3 percent to $110.21 per barrel on Wednesday, after approaching, in Tuesday’s session, $112, recording levels approaching the highest since the outbreak of the war with Iran late last February.
Brent prices fluctuated during the current month between $97 and $112 per barrel, amid uncertainty about when the energy sector will return to normal conditions.
US West Texas Intermediate crude also rose by 1.6 percent to $99.40 per barrel.
European stocks rise
In Europe, the German DAX index rose by 0.7 percent to 25,489.81 points, the French CAC 40 index rose by 0.6 percent to 7,888.32 points, and the British Financial Times 100 Index increased by 0.1 percent to 10,741.70 points, while the performance of Asian markets was characterized by variation.
In the currency market, the US dollar fell to 158.08 yen, compared to 158.17 yen in the previous session. The euro also fell to $1.1233, compared to $1.1239.
US President Donald Trump is seeking to convince voters, before the midterm elections scheduled for November 3, that the US economy is making great strides. But voters say inflation remains a challenge, as the Iran war has sent gasoline prices soaring while grocery bills remain high, and high interest rates have made it more difficult to buy a home or a new car.
The economy does not appear as strong as Trump portrays at election rallies, nor as weak as consumer confidence surveys suggest. But the combination of inflation, inequality and stock market gains makes the economy's performance unsatisfactory for most Americans, and it has fallen short of Trump's promises, according to the Associated Press.
Here is a closer look at the most prominent economic indicators:
- Inflation is 3.7 percent annually and is rising under Trump
Voters expected Trump to stamp out inflation. In his inaugural address last year, the Republican president pledged: “I will direct all members of my Cabinet to harness the enormous potential at their disposal to eliminate the record inflation we have seen and quickly reduce costs and prices.”
At a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on October 3, Trump told attendees: “We have almost no inflation.” But Ministry of Labor reports do not support this statement.
The consumer price index was rising at an annual rate of 3 percent in January 2025, when Trump returned to the White House. Inflation continued to slow until April 2025, when Trump announced the imposition of a wide range of tariffs, so prices began to rise again. Inflationary pressures increased this year with the outbreak of the Iranian war.
Inflation has not returned to the maximum levels recorded during the term of former President Joe Biden. But the data clearly show that the trajectory of inflation, which had been trending downward, has been rising erratically under Trump. The latest CPI report released before Election Day showed inflation at 3.7 percent over the past 12 months.
- GDP growth is just over 2 percent
A consumer confidence survey conducted by the University of Michigan shows that Americans are less confident in the economy now than they were during the “Covid-19” pandemic in 2020 or the financial crisis in 2008. But the United States, unlike those periods, is not experiencing an economic recession.
Gross domestic product, the most comprehensive measure of economic growth, has recorded annual growth of just over 2 percent under Trump. This is a good rate, but it is lower than the pace of growth recorded by the economy during the term of his Democratic predecessor.
Yet Trump continues to tell voters that the economy is experiencing unprecedented growth. The Republican president also talks about record levels of foreign investments, in statements that mix exaggeration and wishful thinking.
“We have growth of the kind we have never seen before, and we will have growth of the kind we have never seen before,” Trump said last week, during an election rally in Arizona.
- Unemployment is low... but job growth is slowing
The unemployment rate remained at 4.2 percent, an indicator of the health of the economy. Trump inherited a low unemployment rate that continued during his presidency, in light of conditions described by many economists as characterized by both low hiring and layoff rates.
Trump likes to say that the number of jobs in the United States has never reached higher levels in its history, but that is largely due to population growth, not his policies.
Employers are adding, on average, about 39,000 jobs per month during Trump's second presidential term. This number is much lower than the average monthly job gains in the year before his return to the White House, when it exceeded 121,000 jobs.
One of the factors that contributed to the slowdown in job growth was Trump's tightening of anti-immigration measures, which led to a decrease in the number of people looking for work. The unemployment rate among those born in the United States has remained largely stable, which indicates that Americans are not holding the jobs that were previously held by immigrants.
- Borrowing costs rise
With the national debt growing, inflation remaining at high levels, and energy price jumps associated with the Iran war, it has become more expensive to borrow money to buy a house, a car, or to cover other basic needs.
The yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds exceeded 5 percent, after recording its highest levels since 2002. This increases the cost of borrowing for individuals, and makes it more expensive for the US government to repay its bond debt.
- Stocks continue to record record levels
Trump boasts that stock markets have continued to hit record highs during his presidency, although Biden could have made similar claims during his term. The Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen by about 12 percent since the beginning of this year, after rising by about 16.4 percent last year. But the index had risen by 23.3 percent during 2024, before Trump assumed the presidency.
The performance of the stock market is not determined by presidential policies alone, as the growth in technology company stocks has contributed to supporting the broader market. Trump's tax cuts may have helped boost corporate profits, at a time when federal revenues from corporate taxes fell by 16 percent last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
- Widening inequality gap
Since Trump returned to the White House, the wealth of the richest 0.1 percent of American households has risen by $5.5 trillion in just 18 months, according to Federal Reserve data. In contrast, the wealth of the bottom half of households, i.e. 50 percent of them, increased by $380 billion.
This means that the net worth of the median household in the bottom half rose, on average, by about $5,600 during the Trump presidency. As for the richest 0.1 percent of families, their net worth increased, on average, by $40.8 million, more than 7,000 times the average increase recorded by families in the bottom half.
The US Department of Energy announced, on Wednesday, that the US administration is offering to lend about a third of the US emergency reserve of heating oil, amounting to one million barrels, in an effort to curb prices that have witnessed a sharp rise due to the shortage of diesel fuel resulting from the Iran war.
The move comes after senators from both parties urged the administration to release quantities of heating oil from reserves, at a time when diesel prices - a fuel extracted from the same refining process - hit record levels of more than $6.50 per gallon, as a result of unrest in the Middle East related to the Iran war.
A source in the ministry said, according to Reuters, that the administration will evaluate whether there is a need for additional withdrawals from the reserve in the future.
The United States has only used the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve once since Hurricane Sandy hit the region in 2012. This emergency reserve is held at sites in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine.
About a third of homes in New England depend on heating oil, while this percentage reaches about half in Maine.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the administration is “committed to doing everything in its power to reduce energy costs.”
The ministry explained that it will launch a competitive bidding process to grant loans from this stock, whether to fuel retailers or station operators, with the aim of ensuring that fuel reaches areas that suffer from a shortage of supplies.
The administration also supports Williams Company's Constitution natural gas pipeline project, which aims to transport natural gas produced in Pennsylvania for use in heating homes in New York and the New England region.
This week, the United States released up to $42 million in funding - under the Cold War-era Defense Production Act - to begin preliminary work on the project. It is noteworthy that the state of New York had blocked this project for environmental reasons.
The ministry stated that it would provide loans of up to 315,000 barrels of heating oil stored in the states of Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Deliveries are scheduled to be completed by November 13.
The Trump administration is facing difficulty in controlling crude oil prices, which have risen against the backdrop of tensions with Iran, and has already agreed to release 172 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The levels of this emergency stock - located on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana - are the lowest since 1982.
