US stock futures were lower but digging themselves out of a deeper sell-off on Friday, after Israel's retaliatory strike on Iran spooked the market and spurred a rush to safe havens such as gold. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down roughly 0.3%, coming back from a 1.4% drop in after-hours trading. S&P 500 futures dropped 0.4%, while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slid 0.6%, also after sharper falls.
With few details about the strike available, prices for oil and gold jumped as stocks and Treasury yields sank, while the CBOE Volatility index — Wall Street's "fear gauge" — hit an over 5-month high. Those moves have weakened as some composure returns, amid signs the scope of the Israeli strike was limited. But investors are still on high alert, given the lack of details about its impact, though the US has finally confirmed the attack.