<ul>
<li>Futures down: Dow 0.26%, S&amp;P 500 0.22%, Nasdaq 0.08%</li>
<li>Travel stocks slip after Hegseth, Caine’s comments</li>
<li>Hewlett Packard unveil strong quarterly revenue forecast</li>
<li>Bunge gains after boosting long-term profit outlook</li>
</ul>
(Updates to before markets open)
By Johann M Cherian and Utkarsh Hathi
March 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street’s stock index futures gave up early gains and slipped on Tuesday, following comments from U.S. officials that suggested escalating hostilities in the Middle East, a day after President Donald Trump hinted at an early end to the war.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Tuesday would be the most intense day of strikes against Iran, while top U.S. general Dan Caine said that strikes were being carried out against Iranian mine-laying vessels.
Travel stocks slipped following the latest comments, with United Airlines (UAL.O) and Delta (DAL.O) down about 1% each in premarket trading, while cruise companies Carnival (CCL.N) and Royal Caribbean (RCL.N) fell 1.8% each.
Investors had hoped for an early de-escalation after Trump said on Monday that the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran could be nearing an end, sooner than his earlier four-to-five-week timeline. Crude and natural gas prices also eased from the worrying $120-per-barrel mark.
Iran, however, said it would continue its oil blockade through the region, prompting Trump to threaten stronger military retaliation.
The market’s trying to determine “if this is going to be an extended war and that’s why the market’s just kind of up and down,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital, adding that constraints on energy supplies were likely to be a short-term factor.
Surging crude prices since the start of the conflict have revived concerns that the U.S. economy could slip into stagflation and complicate the Federal Reserve’s work, as data also suggested the labor market was weakening.
Traders have priced in a potential 25 basis point rate cut around September, according to LSEG-compiled data.
At 08:49 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis (YMcv1) were down 123 points, or 0.26%, S&amp;P 500 E-minis (EScv1) were down 15 points, or 0.22%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis (NQcv1) were down 20.25 points, or 0.08%.
Global markets, including equities in Asia and Europe, rallied, while Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE’s volatility index (.VIX) briefly turned positive. It was last down 0.32 points at 25.18.
Two inflation reports due later this week will be scrutinized for how inflation fared before the Middle East conflict, though unlikely to reflect the recent surge in energy and shipping costs.
Overall losses on Wall Street, since the start of the war, have been contained, as technology stocks (.SPLRCT) rebounded, making them the best performing sector on the S&amp;P 500 (.SPX) this month with a 1.4% gain.
Chipmakers were higher on Tuesday, with SanDisk (SNDK.O) and Western Digital (WDC.O) up around 1% each.
Bunge (BG.N) gained 4.6% after the agribusiness firm said it expects earnings to increase to at least $15 per share by 2030 and announced a new $3 billion share repurchase program.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE.N) forecast second-quarter revenue above estimates. Shares of the networking equipment maker gave up gains and were last down 1.7%.
Investors are keenly awaiting results from enterprise software maker Oracle (ORCL.N) , expected later in the day, and will scrutinize any signs of debt-fueled AI-spending. Shares of the company were up 1.2%.
Crypto stocks such as Strategy (MSTR.O) added 2.3% and Coinbase (COIN.O) climbed 1.8%, tracking a 2.2% rise in bitcoin (BTC=) .

.NDX

- U.S. stock index futures dropped, with Dow down 0.26%, S&P 500 down 0.22%, and Nasdaq down 0.08% amid concerns over escalating hostilities in the Middle East.  
- Travel stocks declined following comments from U.S. officials, while Bunge and Hewlett Packard projected strong earnings, with Bunge's shares rising 4.6%.  
- Inflation reports later this week are anticipated, with overall Wall Street losses regarding the ongoing conflict remaining relatively contained.

Reuters

NASDAQ-100

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Bunge Global SA

Dow Jones Utility Average

S&P 500

Dow Jones Industrial Average

NASDAQ Composite Index

VG Mga Cap 300 Grw

VG S&P 500

iShares Dow Jones US

ISHRS Russ 1000 Growth

Fidelity MSCI Financials Index

VG Growth

First Trust Nasdaq Food & Semicon

Invesco S&P 500 Eq Wgt ETF

Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF

SPDR Djia

Invesco QQQ Trust

Guggenheim DJIA Ave Div

ProShares Ultra Dow30 ETF

Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF

ISHRS Us Brokers & Sec Exchg

Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF

iShares Core S&P US Growth

Schwab US Div Eq

iShares Expanded Tech Software Sector ETF

JPMorgan Equity Premium Inc ETF

Comm Servcies Select Sector SPDR

Direxion Semicon Bull 3X

iShares Future AI & Tech ETF

Proshares UltraPro QQQ

Spdr Select Tech

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Tech ETF

SPDR S&P Semicon

ISHRS S&P Glb It

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund

Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index ETF

iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF

Schw Us L-Cp Grw

Invesco Semiconductors ETF

SPDR S&P Software

Pro UltrPro Dow30

SPDR S&P 500

First Trust NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted

Ps S&P Low Vol

Global X NASDAQ 100 Collar 95-110 ETF

iShares Core S&P 500

iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF

Global X Cloud Computing ETF

US STOCKS-Wall Street set for lower open as investors monitor US-Iran tensions