US stock futures rise as oil falls below $100 ahead of Trump-Xi summit

September 21, 2026 at 01:02 PM2 min

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US stock futures rose on Monday as oil prices fell below $100 per barrel and investors awaited the Trump-Xi summit on Thursday. Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures all gained, with tech stocks tentatively rising after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hailed preliminary talks with China as 'very successful.'

Key Facts

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.5% after the index posted its third straight weekly loss.
S&P 500 futures gained 0.5% and Nasdaq-100 futures climbed 0.8%.
Oil prices retreated below $100 per barrel as hopes emerged that the US and Iran would resume diplomatic talks.
The Trump-Xi summit is scheduled for Thursday, with talks expected to focus on extending the tariff truce and AI cooperation.
Paramount is in advanced talks with state attorneys general to resolve the antitrust lawsuit blocking its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Market Moves

US stock futures drifted higher on Monday as oil prices fell and investors assessed the Fed's rate hike and geopolitical uncertainty. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% after the blue-chip index posted its third straight weekly loss. S&P 500 futures gained 0.5%, while Nasdaq-100 contracts climbed 0.8%. Stocks have largely powered through a wall of worry this month, though rising bond yields, Middle East geopolitical risk, and AI jitters have given investors reason to pause. After the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates last week, traders have rushed to price in further Fed rate hikes.

Trump-Xi Summit

The summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled for Thursday. The high-stakes talks are expected to focus on extending the tariff truce and cooperation on artificial intelligence. Several AI leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, former Apple CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, will attend a dinner with the Chinese president. The summit comes at a critical point for those companies after an essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei broke open a debate over whether frontier AI labs should pace model development. Tech stocks tentatively rose in the US and Asia on Monday morning after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hailed 'very successful' preliminary talks with his Chinese counterpart and proposed a US-China AI dialogue.

Paramount Settlement Talks

Paramount is in advanced talks with state attorneys general to resolve the antitrust lawsuit blocking its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's parent company. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has been leading the 12-state coalition, has been pressing to strike a settlement deal with Paramount in recent days. New York Attorney General Letitia James has been resisting the deal terms and seeking additional protections for workers. Connecticut and at least two other states also have reservations about the settlement and are not currently on board. The holdouts are seeking additional remedies from Paramount.