US futures are flat as AI-related stocks hit by heavy selling, oil prices rise

U.S. futures are flat as artificial intelligence-related stocks continue to sell off and oil prices rise again.

AI-related stocks have become volatile in recent months as the value of company shares have soared while confidence in a pay off, at least soon, has waned.

The futures for the S&P 500 were relatively unchanged, while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%. Nasdaq futures declined 0.1%.

Oracle shares slipped more than 1% before the market opened Wednesday. Shares of Marvell Technology and Intel both fell nearly 2%. Micron Technology dipped 1%. The seller of computer memory was one of the largest drags on the S&P 500 Tuesday.

Target's stock declined 1.6% even as the retailer reported its second straight quarter of comparable sales gains Wednesday under new CEO Michael Fiddelke.

Markets are also reacting to decision by President Donald Trump to delay U.S. tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian import.

Later Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release minutes from the most recent meeting of the rate-setting committee.

Crude prices continue to climb with the conflict over the Strait of Hormuz unresolved. Brent crude, which was trading for around $70 per barrel before the start of the war, gained 1% to $91.91 per barrel early Wednesday. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 1.1% to $84.99 per barrel.

Bond yields have jumped since the war began because high oil prices are pushing inflation higher. That has increased the anxiety over government debt and is also one of the reasons the fast-growing tech sector, which thrives when borrowing costs are low, is under pressure.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury edged down to 4.70% from 4.72% Wednesday but remains well above its 3.97% level from just before the war with Iran began. The 30-year Treasury yield also ticked lower but is still near its highest level since 2007.

High yields have already sent the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate near its highest level in a year, which has hurt the housing industry.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX shed 0.1% to 26,084.43, while the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.3% to 8,535.30. Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% to 10,705.47.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 sank 3.2% to 65,326.42 as worries over rising bond yields coupled with selling of tech shares pulled the benchmark lower.

The U.S. dollar fell to 159.13 Japanese yen from 159.61 yen. The euro rose to $1.1604 from $1.1577.

Associated Press Business Writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed.

Specialist Gregg Maloney works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Options traders Chris Dattolo, Scott Frinzi, Justin Kanda, and Ravi Bhandari, left to right, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military said Wednesday it would launch criminal investigations into two high-profile attacks on Palestinians during the war in Gaza, including the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and of 15 Palestinian paramedics.

The military said it would not launch criminal investigations into three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.

It released the news in a statement that said it had completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct in Gaza and made decisions on five cases.

The statement did not mention other high-profile killings that the military has pledged to investigate throughout the war. It did not mention the Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025, including Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who freelanced for The Associated Press and other news organizations.

Both the killing of Rajab in February 2024 and the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 gained international attention.

Rajab was killed alongside her relatives while trying to flee Gaza City amid an Israeli offensive. Israeli troops opened fire on a vehicle carrying Hind and four of her cousins and her aunt and uncle. Hind’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamada, called the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic center, telling them that a tank was approaching and that her family had been killed.

Seconds later, more gunshots were heard, and Layan’s screaming stopped, according to the Red Crescent recording of the call.

Hind was the sole survivor in the car. The Red Crescent stayed in contact with her as they tried to get permission from the military to rescue her. Contact was lost. Hind, her five relatives and two medics were found dead 12 days later.

The 15 paramedics were killed when Israeli troops opened fire on their vehicles in the southern city of Rafah, then buried them in a mass grave. Troops shot at a first ambulance that was driving to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive, then fired on several other emergency vehicles that went out to look for the first one, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shootings.

Troops then bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.

The Israeli military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. But it backtracked from that account after the footage emerged, showing the Red Crescent and Civil Defense teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicle lights flashing and logos visible.

“We are not obligated to prove the truth because it is already proven to the whole world,” Eid Azizi, a Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson, told the Associated Press in a phone call. “We shouldn’t have reached this point if they respected and followed the international humanitarian law.”

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 others. Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

That includes at least 1,273 people killed in Gaza since a fragile ceasefire took effect in October, according to the ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children constitute about half of the dead.

FILE.- Mourners gather around the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana,File)