US stock futures soar nearly 3% after Trump postpones military strikes on Iranian power plants

Wall Street futures jumped more than 2% on Monday, reversing losses after Donald Trump said he would order the military to postpone strikes against Iranian ‌power plants and ⁠energy ⁠infrastructure following "productive conversations" with Tehran.

Global markets staged a sharp recovery after the U.S. president's comments, with Europe's STOXX 600 and precious metals turning positive, while oil prices fell, marking a significant improvement in risk appetite.

Markets had been trading lower after Iran's statement that it would attack Israel's power plants and plants supplying U.S. bases in the Gulf if Trump carried out his ⁠threat to "obliterate" ‌Iran's power network, the country's Revolutionary Guards said.


"This is obviously a postponement, not a complete ceasefire, and we will see ⁠what happens from here. What's done is still not undone, so the impact has yet to be seen, but obviously, markets are breathing a sigh of relief," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Markets.

At ⁠07:10 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 1,246 points, or 2.72%, S&P 500 E-minis were ‌up 156.75 points, or 2.39%, and Nasdaq ⁠100 E-minis were up 489 points, or 2.03%.

The CBOE ‌Volatility Index - Wall Street's fear gauge - fell after hitting its highest level in two weeks earlier - and was last down 3.99 points at 22.79.

Wall Street's ⁠main indexes logged their fourth week of declines on Friday, with the Nasdaq posting its biggest weekly drop since early February.

Futures tracking the Russell 2000 index rose 4.7%, after being down more than 1% earlier. The small-cap index , sensitive to higher interest rates, ended more than 10% below its record close of January 22 on Friday, confirming it had been in correction territory.