Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures fall as Trump dents Israel-Iran truce hopes amid escalating strikes:

Image source: AI generated

US stock futures retreated on Tuesday amid dwindling hopes for a quick resolution to Israel-Iran hostilities, as President Trump played down the prospect of a truce and the two continued to trade strikes. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures sank 0.6%, while those on the S&P 500 fell 0.7%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 tumbled roughly 0.8%.

Overall, US stocks have so far proved resilient amid the conflict. The major gauges ended higher on Monday after a report that Iran is seeking a ceasefire and return to nuclear program negotiations. But Trump's overnight call for the evacuation of Iran's capital city amid a spike in Israel-Iran tensions has spooked markets worried about the risk of a descent into full-on regional war. The president's early exit from the G7 summit is also spurring fears of an escalation. Yahoo Finance reports.

💊 Eli Lilly strikes $1.3 billion deal to buy gene-editing biotech Verve Therapeutics, companies say: Eli Lilly will acquire gene-editing startup Verve Therapeutics for up to $1.3 billion, the companies said on Tuesday, sending Verve's shares up 77.7% in premarket trading.

Lilly has struck multiple partnership deals with gene-editing companies in the last two years to expand its portfolio beyond its blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs. Reuters reports.

🌥️ Oracle cloud to add xAI's Grok 3 model to lineup for corporate customers: Oracle said on Tuesday that its cloud computing division is working with Elon Musk's artificial intelligence firm xAI to offer the startup's latest AI model to business customers. Grok 3, as the model is called, first came out February and aimed to rival the latest offerings from DeepSeek and OpenAI. Musk made the model available to paying subscribers of his X social media platform, as well as through xAI itself.

Oracle will now offer Grok 3 from its data centers to corporate users who want to use the model but need their data to remain under their existing security protections with Oracle, according to Karan Batta, senior vice president at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Yahoo Finance reports.

🛢️ Oil prices rise as Iran-Israel conflict escalates: Oil prices rose on Tuesday on rising disruptions from the Iran-Israel conflict, although major oil and gas infrastructure and flows have so far been spared from any substantial impact Brent crude futures climbed $1.23, or 1.7%, to $74.46 a barrel as of 1023 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.08, or 1.5%, at $72.85.

Both contracts rose more than 2% earlier in the trading session but also notched declines before bouncing back in volatile trading. While no visible interruption was noticed in oil flows, Iran partially suspended gas production at the South Pars gas field that it shares with Qatar, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday. Israel also hit the Shahran oil depot in Iran. Market Screener reports.

🤖 OpenAI wins $200 million US defense contract: ChatGPT maker OpenAI was awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools, the Pentagon said in a statement on Monday.

"Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains," the Pentagon said. Reuters reports.

🌞 Solar stocks drop after Senate proposal to phase out tax credits by 2028: U.S. solar stocks dropped in premarket trading on Tuesday after a Senate panel proposed a full phase-out of solar and wind energy tax credits by 2028, as part of changes suggested to President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill.

Solar inverter maker Enphase Energy was among the biggest decliners on the S&P 500 in early trading, sliding 17.2% to $38. Solar panel sellers Sunrun and SolarEdge Technologies plunged more than 20% each. Market Screener reports.

💸 US and UK announce a trade deal, but steel imports unresolved: U.S. President Donald Trump signed an agreement on Monday formally lowering some tariffs on imports from Britain as the countries continue working toward a formal trade deal.

The deal, announced by Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Canada, reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on British automobiles and eliminated tariffs on the U.K. aerospace sector, but the issue of steel and aluminum remains unresolved. Reuters reports.

(All pricing and percent gains are based on Early Pre-Market from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM Eastern Time)
Benzinga reports.

1) $SAFX: XCF Global Capital

Total gain: +101.35%

2) $SLRX: Salarius Pharmaceuticals

Total gain: +88.76%

3) $VERV: Verve Therapeutics

Total gain: +79.26%

4) $RGC: Regencell Bioscience

Total gain: +48.83%

5) $BGSF: BGSF

Total gain: +38.30%

The closing price of the top three market percent gainers trading near or above $3 on June 16.
Benzinga reports.

*All pricing and percent gains are based on regular market trading hours from 9:30am to 4:00pm Eastern Time

1) $SRM: SRM Entertainment

Total gain: +539.16%

The company announced that it has entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement with a private investor for a $100,000,000 equity investment that will be used by SRM to initiate a TRON Token Treasury Strategy. Along with the strategic investment - Justin Sun, founder of TRON blockchain, has been named as an advisor to the company. Benzinga reports.

2) $RGC: Regencell Bioscience

Total gain: +289.45%

The stock appeared to be moving on no notable news.

3) $SATS: EchoStar

Total gain: +49.19%

The stock appeared to be moving on no notable news.

*Estimate and Actual numbers represent Earnings Per Share in US Dollars


VTGN: VistaGen Therapeutics
4Q 2025

After Market Close
Estimate: -0.490
Actual: N/A

LZB: La-Z-Boy
4Q 2025

After Market Close
Estimate: 0.930
Actual: N/A

JBL: Jabil
3Q 2025

Before Market Open
Estimate: 2.320
Actual: N/A

Time (ET) / Report / Period

8:30 am - U.S. retail sales - May

8:30 am - Retail sales minus autos - May

8:30 am - Import price index - May

“Successful investing involves doing just a few things right and avoiding serious mistakes.”

- John C. Bogle

Sourced in: "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing", by John C. Bogle, published in 2007