U.S. equity futures fall in pre-market trading as oil, gold retreat from highs

Oil and gold pulled back after surging on the breakout of hostilities in Iran, while equities and crypto stocks face pressure. What to know : WTI crude briefly hit $75 before easing, gold climbed above $5,400 to near record levels and then retreated, and volatility gauges VIX and MOVE jumped by more than 10%. U.S. equity index futures declined, with the Nasdaq 100-tracking QQQ exchange-traded fund losing 1.5% Bitcoin held above $66,000 in a divergence from its software-stock correlation, even as crypto-related equities traded lower.