Again a busy morning this weekend, but we're also going to go ahead and take a look at the new trading week. So let's go ahead and check out to Chicago, where fintech correspondent Mark Payton is live from the seaboard trading floor. Mark good to see you. Happy Monday. So what is going on and what are you watching for in the premarket?
Good morning Johnny. Yeah. Investors are starting the week a little more cautiously with stocks pointing to a lower open SPX. Futures are down about 7/10 of a percent this morning here at Cobo. I'm also watching the VIX. Volatility is starting to pick up as industrials react to what's happening in technology oil and interest rates.
But we're still not seeing the kind of volatility that would suggest outright panic. The Russell 2000 in small caps are something to keep an eye on. Russell futures are around the 2900 level, and small caps are particularly important to watch, with borrowing costs remaining elevated. Take a look at a ten year Treasury yield.
You mentioned earlier it's right around the 4.98%. So we're knocking on the door of that 5% level. And then there's oil. Brant crude is around $108 a barrel, up more than 3% while WTI is around $103. That's adding another layer of inflation concern just two days before the Federal Reserve's decision. So you've got stocks under pressure.
Yields near 5% and oil back up above $100. That's the setup we're watching here in Chicago. Ahead of the opening bell.
All right Mark. So I want to talk about AI because AI stocks have been making headlines. So we're seeing some pretty significant pressure on AI stocks this morning. So what's behind the selloff I know we mentioned the big headlines from the CEOs kind of putting a halt on how advanced AI is moving forward.
So Mark what are you seeing and what are you reading this morning.
Yeah this is one of the biggest stories we're watching this morning. We're seeing a broad selloff in AI and semiconductor stock after some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence raised concerns over the weekend about the pace of AI development, anthropic CEO Dario Odeh called for the companies to slow down the development of their most advanced AI models because of safety concerns.
And Sam Altman and Elon Musk, as you mentioned earlier, also expressed support for slowing down that pace, and investors are reacting pretty aggressively. Video is down roughly 3% premarket. AMD is down about 5%. Intel around 5.5% and Marvel's down roughly 7%. And that's really showing up in the broader technology market.
Nasdaq 100 futures are down considerably more than the S&P this morning. The concern for investors is pretty straightforward if the pace of AI development slows. Does some of that massive demand for chips, data centers and AI infrastructure eventually slow along with it? Now, that doesn't mean AI investment is suddenly stopping, but after the enormous amount of money that's poured into the space, even the possibility of slower development is enough to have investors reassessing some of these valuations this morning.
So AI and chip stocks will definitely be an area to watch when that opening bell rings.
Yeah, Mark, it definitely is going to be something we're going to be watching for this morning. Again thank you, Mark for joining us again. Mark Patton live from the Siebel Floor in Chicago.
Thank you.
