US stock futures remained largely unchanged during premarket trading on Wednesday as crude oil prices continued to climb and market participants adjusted their expectations regarding a potential Federal Reserve rate hike next month.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) dipped below the flat line following a sluggish Tuesday session that resulted in a drop of over 600 points for the index. Those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) hovered near the flat line, while contracts for the Nasdaq-100 (NQ=F) advanced by 0.2%.
Oil prices are once again approaching triple digits for the first time in over a month after hostilities between the US and Iran escalated and the US struck five Iranian oil tankers. Brent crude oil futures (BZ=F), the global benchmark, traded at $99 per barrel, while US benchmark WTI crude (CL=F) stood at $94 per barrel.
Concerns that energy supply disruptions stemming from the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz will persist fed into bets that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week. Traders now see a 60% chance of a 25 basis point hike this month, according to CME Group, up slightly from the odds a day ago.
Inflation concerns took priority with fewer earnings reports to digest. On Wednesday, however, Chewy (CHWY) and American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) will provide quarterly updates and insights into consumer spending.
Apple (AAPL) will also kick off a new era on today when CEO John Ternus takes the stage for the first time for the company’s annual iPhone launch event.
LIVE 2 updates
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Morning Market Brief
Economic data: MBA mortgage applications, week ended Sept. 4 (+0.8% expected); ADP weekly employment change, week ended Aug. 22 (+11,750 previously)
Earnings calendar: The Cooper Companies (COO), SailPoint (SAIL), Chewy (CHWY), AeroVironment (AVAV), Navan (NAVN), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Wealthfront (WLTH)
Catch up on some top stories overnight:
Bessent: We can grow our way out of debt with 3% GDP growth
The US/Canada trade war escalates as retaliatory tariffs from Canada spur the White House to unveil a plan to ban certain products entirely
Sapporo to move some beer production from Canada to US after tariffs
US DOJ widens probe into Fox’s Roku deal, Semafor reports
LIV Golf files for bankruptcy in latest step to survive after losing PIF funding, chaotic 2026 season
SAP CEO: Our AI breakthrough moment is coming
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Bessent: We can grow our way out of debt with 3% GDP growth
Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger reports:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated on Tuesday that he believes the US can grow its way out of debt if it achieves annual economic growth of 3%.
“We don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem,” Bessent said during a Q&A at SMU Cox School of Business in Dallas. He noted that if the US contains spending coupled with 3% growth, “we [can] grow our way out of this.”
The total US national debt recently surpassed $40 trillion, and the annual fiscal deficit is projected to exceed $2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“We’ll get to the other side of this Iran conflict and the underlying economy is very, very strong, and I think reaccelerating,” he added, pointing to how incentives in the big tax law passed last year are leading to new construction of manufacturing plants, pointing to Pepsi (PEP) expanding a Frito-Lay plant in Arizona, Winnebago (WGO) buying a battery plant, and Boeing (BA) increasing capacity of its Dreamliner.
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