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Stock futures fall as investors weigh AI safety concerns, oil gains

1 d ago

Stock futures fell Sunday night as investors monitored a major shakeup in the pipeline for artificial intelligence initial public offerings amid growing safety concerns, along with the latest oil moves. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 179 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.6%, while Nasdaq-100 futures tumbled 1.2%. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview published on Saturday that the AI startup would not go public this year, calling an IPO for the ChatGPT maker "ill-advised" just one month after CFO Sarah Friar said it would go public by 2027 at the latest. Dario Amodei, CEO of rival Anthropic, said in an essay on Saturday that AI companies need to slow the pace of innovation for their best models due to safety risks, telling CBS News on Sunday the "toughest dilemma" is what would happen if China did not do the same. The AI boom has propelled the stock market to new heights and catalyzed a massive wave of corporate spending on technological infrastructure, but this weekend's developments could indicate that the positive impact expected through increased efficiency and major IPOs may be less clear than previously believed. Oil prices rose more than 2% Sunday night after Saudi Arabia shuttered a key pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. crude prices broke above $100 per barrel last week for the first time since May amid an escalation of conflict in the Middle East. Last week's rally in oil prices dragged on the three major stock averages, with the Dow sliding 1.6% for its biggest weekly loss since March, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite shedding about 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. The Federal Reserve gathers for its September policy meeting this week, with Fed funds futures traders pricing in a roughly 86% likelihood of a rate hike, according to CME's FedWatch tool. "The investor playbook from here depends on whether Fed hikes or long rates are the dominant driver of today's tighter rates environment," said Julia Hermann, global market strategist at New York Life Investment Management. There are no major earnings reports or economic releases expected on Monday.