The performance of futures contracts for US stock indices varied on Tuesday, with a slight rise in oil prices and investors awaiting the results of the midterm elections, at a time when Apple joined the list of major technology companies whose results and expectations were not well received by investors.
Apple shares fell by 4.5 percent in pre-market trading, after the company warned of the continued rise in the cost of memory chips, which would put pressure on its gross profit margin during the quarter that coincides with the holiday season.
On the other hand, Palantir Technologies, which specializes in analytics software supported by artificial intelligence, expected to achieve revenues exceeding estimates during the last three months of the year, after third-quarter results exceeded expectations. But the company's stock fell by 6.3 percent.
The Nasdaq 100 index closed, on Monday, down more than 10 percent from the highest record closing level it recorded, entering a correction phase, amid increasing investor caution regarding the huge spending of major technology companies on artificial intelligence, in light of limited evidence of achieving returns commensurate with these investments.
Recently, several technology companies have turned to bond markets to finance their large investments in artificial intelligence, raising concerns about the difficulty of justifying debt-financed spending as borrowing costs rise.
By 05:06 a.m. EST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 219 points, or 0.42 percent, while Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 1.5 points, or 0.02 percent. Nasdaq 100 futures also rose by 130.5 points, or 0.46 percent.
The rise in shares of most chip companies contributed to limiting the losses of the technology sector. “Nvidia” shares rose by 1.6 percent, after recording a decline over the previous four sessions.
On Tuesday, American voters will go to the polls to determine their position on the first two years of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. Opinion polls and estimates by independent analysts indicate that Democrats are progressing toward seizing control of the House of Representatives from Republicans.
Despite the turmoil imposed by the war on energy markets and targeting production facilities and export routes, Saudi Aramco succeeded in transforming some of the challenges of the third quarter of 2026 into financial gains, benefiting from the flexibility of its operational system, the rise in oil prices compared to last year, and the jump in refining margins, which was translated by its financial results numbers that showed an increase in its adjusted net income by 9 percent on an annual basis to 117 billion riyals ($31.2 billion), exceeding Analysts' expectations of $28.7 billion.
On the operational level, the company announced the start of preliminary engineering work to expand the “East-West” pipeline, in a step aimed at enhancing the flexibility of oil export routes and increasing the ability to confront supply disruptions. This step comes at a time when Aramco President and Chief Executive Officer, Amin Nasser, warned that “the decline in global inventories to worrying levels, especially diesel inventories, may impose additional pressure on energy markets during the winter.”
At the results level, Aramco’s net income attributable to shareholders recorded 137.39 billion riyals ($36.64 billion) in the third quarter, an increase of 41.3 percent year-on-year. The average price of crude oil achieved by Aramco reached $95.2 per barrel during the third quarter, compared to $70.1 in the same period last year.
As part of diversifying the company's activities and enhancing future growth sources, Aramco continues to invest in new sectors, including artificial intelligence and mining. In this regard, Al-Nasser said that the company’s investment in Humane, by acquiring a 49 percent stake with a cash investment of $2.6 billion, aims to build an integrated platform that includes data centers, cloud services, models, and applications.
