Nasdaq Futures Plummet 1.2% on Sunday Evening Amidst Oil Price Surge

U.S. stock futures opened lower on Sunday evening, with the selling heaviest in the index tied to artificial intelligence. The Nasdaq 100 futures fell about 1.2% within 20 minutes of trading resuming at 6 p.m. Eastern, while S&P 500 futures dropped 0.6% and Dow futures 0.4%. U.S. crude oil futures jumped more than 3% to about $103.40 a barrel.

The losses in the Nasdaq 100 were roughly double those of the S&P 500 and almost three times that of the Dow, despite oil posting the largest move of any major contract. The gap between the indexes is seen as a useful signal, with an oil shock or rate hike affecting the whole market.

The heaviest selling hit the AI-weighted index after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for slowing AI capability gains. Amodei proposed three steps: embedded evaluators, democratic coordination, and global coordination with authoritarian governments.