President Donald Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, warning that the U.S. would "obliterate" Iranian power plants if they fail to comply by 7:44 p.m. ET on Monday. Highlighting this ultimatum, Ed Yardeni said, "So Apocalypse Now might or might not happen at 7:44 pm EST on Monday."
Despite this ultimatum, tensions escalated further on Monday as Iran threatened to target U.S. and allied energy and IT infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.41%, and the two-year bond was at 3.97%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing an 85.5% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged in its April meeting.
Index
Performance (+/-)
Dow Jones
-0.46%
S&P 500
-0.58%
Nasdaq 100
-0.63%
Russell 2000
-0.95%
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, were lower in premarket on Monday. The SPY was down 0.66% at $644.29, while the QQQ declined 0.86% to $577.04.
Stocks In Focus
United Airlines Holdings
United Airlines Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:UAL) fell 1.95% in premarket on Monday after it announced plans to reduce scheduled capacity by about 5% in the second and third quarters.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that UAL maintains a strong price trend over the long term but a weak trend in the short and medium terms, with a solid growth score.
STMicroelectronics NV
STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE:STM) declined 2.59% even as it announced the start of volume production and first deliveries of its STM32 microcontrollers fully manufactured in China through a localized “China for China” supply chain.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that STM maintains a strong trend in the short, long, and medium terms with a moderate value ranking.
