Germany's main stock index is set for a lower opening on Monday, pressured by rising oil prices and fresh worries about the pace of artificial-intelligence development.
The X-Dax, an out-of-hours indicator, pointed to a 0.4 percent decline at 25,472 points one hour before the open, according to cash.ch. The level keeps the DAX within reach of its late-July low of 25,361 points set on Thursday, following Friday's recovery.
Oil prices extended gains into the week because of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, faced additional pressure after drone attacks forced the kingdom to shut down a key pipeline. The Houthi militia in Yemen has also increasingly threatened the Bab al-Mandab strait, a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments.
Separately, calls for a slowdown in AI development weighed on sentiment, particularly in South Korea's stock market. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, said he feared that within six to twelve months a swarm of AI systems could take over the entire internet and potentially cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, following recent incidents involving autonomous hacking by AI tools. Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, similarly argued that the development of more powerful AI models should be decelerated.
Investors are also bracing for the US Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision later in the week. Markets have shown unusual nervousness ahead of the announcement, NordLB noted in a morning client briefing, with traders closely watching signals on the direction of US monetary policy.
Corporate news was expected to be light on Monday. Adidas shares fell roughly 1 percent in pre-market trading on the Tradegate platform after Baird downgraded the sportswear maker from "Outperform" to "Neutral" and lowered its price target to 165 euros from 180 euros.
