Anthony Matesic, left, and James Denaro work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York. AP
Futures for the S&P 500 lost 0.3% before the opening bell on Friday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched back 0.2%. Nasdaq futures were off 0.5%.
A Kuwaiti oil refinery came under reported Iranian drone attack early Friday as Tehran shows few signs of letting up on its attacks on Gulf region energy structures.
On Friday, Brent crude fell 78 cents to $107.87 a barrel. It had briefly surged to around $119 per barrel a day earlier as attacks by Iran escalated after Israel hit Iran’s key natural gas field.
Benchmark US crude was down 88 cents to $94.67 a barrel.
The US-Israel war on Iran and the Iranian retaliatory attacks on Arab Gulf states, which is in its third week, has sent energy prices soaring and is fueling global inflation worries.
Concerns are also growing over the supply of oil and gas, with the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for the energy supply located between Iran and Oman, largely closed.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday raised the possibility of lifting its sanctions on Iranian oil at sea in a potential attempt to ease oil prices.
In equities trading, FedEx jumped more than 8% after the package delivery company cruised past Wall Street's sales and profit targets. FedEx also raised its full-year guidance.
In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX were both unchanged, while France's CAC 40 gained 0.2%.
Asian markets were mostly lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.9% to 25,277.32, while the Shanghai Composite index was down 1.2% to 3,957.05.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.3% to 5,781.20. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was closed on Friday due to a holiday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.8% to 8,428.40.
Taiwan’s Taiex was 0.4% lower, while India's Sensex was up 0.8%.
In other trading early Friday, gold gained 1.3% to $4,664.50 per ounce.
Silver also rose 1.3% to $72.14 an ounce.
The US dollar rose to 158.61 Japanese yen from 157.76 yen.
The euro was trading at $1.1571, down from $1.1589.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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