{"id":82394,"date":"2026-07-23T16:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/?p=82394"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:48:19","slug":"thursday-23rd-july-2026-u-s-futures-slip-as-ai-spending-and-rising-oil-prices-weigh-on-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/thursday-23rd-july-2026-u-s-futures-slip-as-ai-spending-and-rising-oil-prices-weigh-on-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday 23rd July 2026: U.S. Futures Slip as AI Spending and Rising Oil Prices Weigh on Markets\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a0Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.68%, Shanghai Composite down 0.19% Hang Seng up 1.33% ASX up 0.60%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $4,127.12 (-0.60%) Silver at $60.015 (-0.46%), Brent Oil at 96.10 (2.16%), WTI Oil at 88.34 (1.75%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.661, UK 10-year yield at 5.0369, Germany 10-year yield at 3.1795<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(USD) Crude Oil Inventories\u00a0 2.0M\u00a0 to -2.0M expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. equity futures edged lower Wednesday night as investors assessed corporate earnings, artificial intelligence spending and rising oil prices. Dow futures slipped 0.1%, while S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively. Alphabet shares dropped 3% after the company raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to as much as $205 billion, reflecting continued investment in AI despite growing investor concerns over heavy spending by major technology firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During Wednesday\u2019s regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished nearly flat, while the S&amp;P 500 declined 0.14% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.57%. In Asia, markets opened higher on Thursday, led by South Korea\u2019s Kospi, while Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 and Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 also posted gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oil prices remained a key focus after renewed U.S. strikes on Iran and heightened geopolitical tensions. Brent crude rose 2% to $95.99 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 1.7% to $88.27. Additional concerns emerged after a tanker in the Red Sea was struck by an unidentified projectile, although no casualties were reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Analysts warned that sustained increases in crude prices could keep inflation elevated and complicate the Federal Reserve\u2019s interest rate outlook. Investors are also awaiting earnings from American Airlines, T-Mobile, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and Intel, along with the latest weekly U.S. jobless claims data due before the market opens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Upcoming Events:<br \/><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>12:15 PM GMT &#8211; EUR Main Refinancing Rate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12:30 PM \u00a0 GMT &#8211; USD Unemployment Claims\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: U.S. equity futures edged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamental-analysis","category-market-analysis","category-recent-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82395,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82394\/revisions\/82395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}