Nasdaq futures gain as investors buy the dip in the AI trade

Stock futures rebounded on Sunday night as traders cautiously dipped a toe back in following last week's rout in shares linked to the artificial intelligence trend, according to reporting by Cnbc. The modest recovery arrives as investors attempt to buy the dip after a bruising week for major U.S. Benchmarks.

Following last week's downturn, Nasdaq-100 futures added 0.4% during Sunday evening trading. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ticked 0.2% higher, gaining 110 points, while S&P 500 futures also advanced 0.2%. Stable oil prices early Sunday provided initial support to the equity market, helping calm sentiment after a turbulent week that saw the S&P 500 lose nearly 2%—marking its largest weekly decline since late June. The Nasdaq tumbled 4.5%, snapping a four-week winning streak.

Media additions

Concerns regarding the fundamental health of the artificial intelligence trade took center stage. Reporting cited sources indicating that Anthropic's third-quarter revenue totaled $16.8 billion. While that figure rose from $11.6 billion in the previous quarter, it raised flags among investors about the overall pace of growth relative to the massive capital expenditures required for the AI build-out. Neocloud stock CoreWeave sat at the center of those fears, plummeting 25% last week to register its largest one-week drop since November 2025. Corporate bond market investors have begun to shun CoreWeave, pushing the company's credit default swaps to distress levels.

Goldman Sachs traders noted that AI credit spreads and hyperscalers specifically are sitting at the widest levels of the year, warning that the last time spreads were nearly this high, underlying equities were 15% lower. AI Capex has likely peaked and financing, sustainability, and returns on capital have become the debate rather than the next near term earnings revision, traders said in a note reported by Cnbc, adding that pessimism is increasing and market breadth remains low.

Energy markets and geopolitical flashpoints continued to weigh on global risk appetite. Ukraine launched a massive wave of drone strikes hitting an oil terminal and depot in St. Petersburg on Sunday, while two tankers were attacked off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf on Friday, according to incident reports from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre. St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov confirmed that fires broke out at the targeted facilities. Meanwhile, a senior Iranian security official warned that Tehran had prepared a devastating military response strategy against potential further U.S.-Israeli strikes. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, posted on X that armed forces are ready for action surpassing past conflicts.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, markets experienced broad declines on Monday, October 19, 2026. Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1.65%, the Topix fell 1.12%, South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.29%, and the small-cap Kosdaq Index fell 0.93%. Mainland China's CSI 300 slid 0.28%. Indonesia's benchmark stock index plunged over 5% to its lowest level since early October 2020. The steep sell-off was driven by intensification of foreign investor outflows after index provider MSCI proposed reclassifying Indonesia directly from an emerging market to stand-alone status. Goldman Sachs warned that a full removal could trigger approximately $5.6 billion in passive fund outflows.

Amid the regional declines, corporate activity provided localized bright spots. Shares of Australia's Cleanaway Waste Management surged 19.84% on Monday following an agreement by Swedish private equity firm EQT to acquire the company in a deal valued at about $9.3 billion Australian dollars ($6.5 billion). The offer represents a 32.1% premium to Cleanaway's closing share price prior to initial transaction disclosures. Conversely, shares of ChangXin Memory Technologies fell 6.5% on Monday despite the company forecasting a sharp swing to profitability for the first nine months of the year.

What to Watch Next

• Upcoming corporate earnings reports from major firms including Meta Platforms and Tesla, which investors hope will stabilize market confidence.
• Further developments in energy infrastructure disruptions and tanker security throughout the Persian Gulf and Eastern Europe.
• Final decisions from index providers regarding emerging market classifications and ongoing credit market spreads for AI infrastructure providers.