S&P futures are up 0.3% Wednesday morning after U.S. equities finished mostly higher Tuesday, with momentum outperforming again as memory and semis led. Small caps were another standout, while cyclicals including airlines, machinery, metals, and mining also outperformed. Defensives lagged. Global markets are mixed, with the Nikkei, Kospi, and Taiex all hitting fresh records, while Greater China declined and Europe is up roughly 0.7%. Treasuries are firmer, with yields down 2–3 bp after Tuesday’s rally, the dollar is down 0.1%, gold and silver are lower, Bitcoin futures are off 0.5%, and WTI crude is down another 4.2% after settling Tuesday at its lowest level in more than a month.
The macro narrative remains centered on lower oil, lower yields, and AI momentum. There was little incremental news on U.S.-Iran framework talks, but crude continues to trade as though markets expect a near-term agreement despite unresolved issues. Lower oil is also helping ease rate pressure, which has been a key market concern amid structural deficit and sovereign-yield worries. AI remains the dominant equity tailwind, with SK Hynix joining Micron above $1T in market cap and South Korea’s Kospi up sharply YTD. Strong AI earnings momentum continues to drive sell-side S&P 500 target increases, with Goldman Sachs the latest. Fed commentary remains cautious, with Kashkari saying the next rate move could go either way and warning that a prolonged Middle East conflict could lead to multiple hikes.
Economic Calendar
Today brings the Richmond Fed manufacturing index, a $70B 5-year Treasury auction, and Fed speakers Logan, Cook, Jefferson, and Goolsbee. Thursday’s key event is April personal income and spending, including PCE inflation, along with revised Q1 GDP, initial claims, durable goods, new home sales, and a $44B 7-year auction. Fed speakers remain active, with Williams, Musalem, Barkin, Schmid, Bowman, Paulson, and Daly all scheduled through Friday.
Company News
- ZS: Fiscal Q3 beat, but shares were pressured by unchanged FY26 ARR guidance, a lower free-cash-flow guide, weaker FY27 outlook, slower new-logo growth, and sales leadership changes.
- DD: Announced a 1-for-3 reverse stock split and reaffirmed prior 2026 guidance.
- SMTC: Beat and guided above expectations, with management expecting data-center growth to accelerate through the year.
- MOD: Fiscal Q4 showed strong data-center growth, though margins were lighter after Tuesday’s sharp rally on its $4B supply deal.
- PODD: Pressured after announcing a roughly 7M Omnipod pod recall expected to cost $50M.
- BOX: Beat expectations, though the upside was viewed as smaller than expected.
- TSLA: Saw strong growth in European registrations.
- PSKY / WBD: Semafor reported the DOJ is ready to approve Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
- LULU: Reportedly near a settlement with founder Chip Wilson.
- AKZA / SHW / AXTA: Akzo Nobel rejected an offer from Kansai Paint and Sherwin-Williams and continues to recommend its planned merger with Axalta.
- IREN / DELL: IREN rose on a deal with Dell for air-cooled Blackwell systems.
U.S. equities finished mostly higher Tuesday, with the Dow down 0.23%, S&P 500 up 0.61%, Nasdaq up 1.19%, and Russell 2000 up 1.79%. The S&P, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000 all set fresh record closes as momentum extended its recent rebound, led again by semis and memory. The macro backdrop was supportive, with Treasuries rallying and WTI crude falling to its lowest close since April 22. The 2-year yield fell 8 bp to 4.04%, the 10-year declined 7 bp to 4.49%, and the 30-year fell 4 bp to 5.02%, while WTI crude dropped 3.2% to $93.47. Markets also continued to look through Monday’s U.S. strikes on Iranian targets, with investors focused instead on diplomatic traction and the baseline assumption that a deal can eventually be reached and Hormuz traffic can normalize. May Consumer Confidence beat at 93.1, though it slipped from April’s revised 93.8, while the Dallas Fed index returned to expansion. Housing data remained soft, with the March FHFA index largely unchanged and Case-Shiller down 0.2% m/m.
Sector performance was led by growth and cyclicals. Technology rose 1.69%, helped by semis, memory, and AI-linked hardware. Industrials gained 1.48%, Materials rose 1.35%, and Communication Services added 0.86%. Real Estate rose 0.39% and Consumer Discretionary gained 0.13%. Energy was the clear laggard, down 2.80%, pressured by the crude selloff, followed by Consumer Staples down 1.73%, Healthcare down 1.02%, Financials down 0.15%, and Utilities down 0.03%. The tape favored high beta, small caps, retail favorites, transports, E&Cs, machinery, building products, industrial metals, auto suppliers, cruise lines, homebuilders, and nuclear, while software, energy, managed care, insurers, exchanges, payments, auto-parts retailers, dollar stores, commodity chemicals, QSRs, grocers, staples retailers, and quantum computing lagged.
Information Technology
- MU +19.3%: Micron rallied as UBS raised its price target to $1,625 from $535, citing longer-term memory supply agreements, locked-in pricing, and AI-driven structural earnings and free-cash-flow upside through 2029. The stock also crossed a $1T market cap.
- QCOM: Qualcomm and ByteDance agreed to an AI chip deal, adding to the broader AI compute and custom silicon narrative.
- CGNX +3.4%: Upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan, which cited AI-enabled vision systems, end-market diversification, and sales-model transformation.
- Software: Lagged despite broader growth strength, showing some rotation away from application software and toward hardware, semis, and memory.
Communication Services
- PONY +4.7%: Q1 EPS and revenue beat. Management raised its Robotaxi fleet forecast to 3,500 vehicles by year-end from 3,000 and expects Robotaxi revenue to grow more than 3.5x from 2025 levels.
- Communication Services +0.86%: Outperformed, helped by select China tech and growth-related strength.
Consumer Discretionary
- AZO -9.0%: Fiscal Q3 EPS beat, but revenue was light and domestic comps missed expectations. Analysts flagged elevated operating expense growth and a tougher bar versus peers.
- RACE -5.2%: Fell on disappointment around the design of the Luce, Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle.
- UBER: Reportedly considering raising its bid for Delivery Hero, while a weekend report noted DoorDash is also interested.
- Cruise lines / homebuilders / auto suppliers: Outperformed as lower yields supported cyclicals and rate-sensitive consumer areas.
Energy
- BP -3.9%: Fell after the board unanimously removed Chairman Albert Manifold, citing governance, oversight, and conduct concerns.
- Energy -2.80%: Was the weakest sector as WTI crude dropped more than 3% to its lowest close in over a month.
Healthcare
- LLY: Announced deals to acquire three vaccine companies for a combined total of more than $3.8B.
- Managed care: Underperformed, weighing on Healthcare.
Industrials
- MOD +13.4%: Announced a $4B long-term capacity deal with a strategic data-center customer for Airedale cooling solutions, running through 2029. The company also received a $165M upfront cash payment.
- VSAT +9.2%: Rose after reports it will participate in a roughly $438M U.S. Air Force contract award for space vehicles tied to the Protected Tactical Satellite-Global program.
- ALNT +12.6%: Upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan, which cited strong growth prospects in robotics, defense, and automation.
- TKR +6.2%: Upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan on management strategy, demand backdrop, and margin momentum in bearings.
- Transports / E&Cs / machinery / building products: Outperformed as lower yields and risk-on sentiment supported cyclicals.
Materials
- FUL +4.8%: Rose after Bloomberg reported activist Ancora is pushing the company to abandon its pursuit of Advanced Medical Solutions and instead conduct a strategic review.
- Industrial metals: Outperformed as Materials gained 1.35%.
- Commodity chemicals: Lagged within the sector.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Eco Data Releases | Wednesday May 27th, 2026
S&P 500 Constituent Earnings Announcements | Wednesday May 27th, 2026
Data sourced from FactSet Research Systems Inc.
