Latest / Key Markets & Headlines / Key Markets & Headlines — Thursday, May 7, 2026
Transcript
- Key markets and headlines for today. The most market-moving story this morning centers on the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran, and the latest diplomatic efforts to bring the war to an end. Washington has put forward a new proposal, described as a one-page memorandum of understanding, that would gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lift the American blockade on Iranian ports. In exchange, Iran would enter into detailed negotiations over its nuclear program. This proposal comes after a volatile forty-eight hours that saw gasoline prices surge above four dollars and fifty cents a gallon and oil markets react sharply to the uncertainty. Iran is expected to send a response via Pakistan, though Iranian state media have already suggested that some elements of the proposal remain unrealistic. The US has signaled it would end its military campaign and lift the blockade if Iran agrees to the terms, but also warned of further escalation if no deal is reached. President Donald Trump is under pressure to find a resolution, as the conflict has driven up energy prices and weighed on his political standing. Turning to equities, there’s a flurry of corporate news and earnings to unpack. Starting with Angi Inc., ticker A-N-G-I, KeyBanc has downgraded the company to Sector Weight from Overweight following its first-quarter results. Angi is no longer providing quarterly guidance, and the firm notes that visibility into the timing of a return to revenue growth is now diminished. Angi has also materially reduced its profitability outlook for twenty twenty-six, raising concerns about its near-term trajectory. Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company, has signed a significant agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bolster its computing resources. Anthropic will access more than three hundred megawatts of computing capacity from SpaceX’s Colossus One data center in Memphis. The partnership is expected to substantially increase Anthropic’s computing resources and allow it to raise usage limits for its AI products. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said the company is moving as quickly as possible to secure more resources after experiencing eighty times growth in annualized revenue and usage in the first quarter of this year. Arm, ticker A-R-M, issued a warning about sluggishness in the smartphone industry, which is a key revenue source for the chip designer. CEO Rene Haas noted that unit growth for phones flipped to negative last quarter, though the slowdown is concentrated in the lower end of the market. Arm shares swung widely after the earnings report, sliding about six percent in late trading. Despite the smartphone weakness, Arm is optimistic that growth in AI data centers will more than offset the slump. The company expects first-quarter revenue of about one point two six billion dollars, slightly ahead of analyst estimates, and profit of forty cents a share, also above expectations. Arm is focusing on generating more revenue from data centers, as cloud computing providers ramp up investments in infrastructure to handle the surge in AI services. Aurora Innovation, ticker A-U-R, saw its shares jump after announcing a partnership with Berkshire Hathaway’s McLane to start driverless freight operations in Texas using Aurora Driver. Following a successful pilot, McLane approved the transition to driverless operations between Dallas and Houston. Aurora plans to expand to new routes between McLane distribution centers across the US Sun Belt by the end of the year. Since twenty twenty-three, Aurora has logged over two hundred eighty thousand autonomous miles during its supervised pilot. Instacart, ticker C-A-R-T, reported higher first-quarter revenue, with consumers continuing to spend in the grocery category. Net income was one hundred forty-four million dollars, or fifty-seven cents a share, up from one hundred six million dollars, or thirty-seven cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose fourteen percent to just over one billion dollars, beating analyst expectations. Gross transaction value increased thirteen percent to ten point two nine billion dollars. Instacart guided for second-quarter gross transaction value between ten point one and ten point two five billion dollars, and adjusted EBITDA between two hundred ninety and three hundred million. CEO Chris Rogers highlighted the resilience of the grocery category, noting that consumers are increasingly focused on affordability and are gravitating toward value-based and club retailers. Instacart is pushing for price parity between its platform and in-store prices, and is deepening partnerships with grocery stores to compete with Amazon and Walmart’s expansion into grocery delivery. Chime Financial, ticker C-H-Y-M, delivered strong first-quarter results, with revenue up twenty-five percent year-over-year to six hundred forty-seven point four million dollars, beating consensus estimates. Earnings per share were thirteen cents, well above analyst expectations of three and a half cents. Adjusted EBITDA came in at one hundred eighteen point six million dollars, also ahead of forecasts. Active members rose to ten point two million, and average revenue per active member was two hundred sixty-three dollars. Chime raised its full-year revenue guidance and increased its adjusted EBITDA outlook. The board approved an additional two hundred million dollar share repurchase program. Coherent, ticker C-O-H-R, forecast fourth-quarter revenue between one point nine one and two point zero five billion dollars, above consensus estimates. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to be between one dollar fifty-two and one dollar seventy-two. Third-quarter revenue rose twenty-one percent year-over-year to one point eight one billion dollars, topping estimates, while adjusted EPS of one dollar forty-one matched expectations. CEO Jim Anderson said the company is seeing exceptionally strong demand across its data center and communications businesses, and is ramping up capital investment to increase capacity. Corgi, ticker C-O-R-G-I, a business insurance startup, announced a one hundred sixty million dollar Series B funding round led by TCV, valuing the company at one point three billion dollars. This comes just four months after a one hundred eight million dollar Series A. Corgi offers coverage for general liability, cyber liability, and tech and AI liability, and plans to use the fresh capital to expand into more lines of insurance. CoreWeave, ticker C-R-W-V, attracted nineteen billion dollars of investor orders for a three point one billion dollar loan backed by customer contracts for microchips. This is the first broadly syndicated loan of its kind in the US leveraged loan market, and the demand is among the highest ever for a term loan. The loan is backed by contracts tied to graphics processing units that power AI models for OpenAI and Cohere. CoreWeave agreed to fully repay the debt over its life, giving investors more confidence. The loan priced at four and a half percentage points above the benchmark, fifty basis points tighter than initially discussed, and at a discount of ninety-nine cents on the dollar. DoorDash, ticker D-A-S-H, shares rallied after the company gave a forecast for order value in the current period that topped analyst estimates. Gross order value is expected to be between thirty-two point four and thirty-three point four billion dollars for the quarter ending in June, ahead of projections. The second quarter is off to a good start, with demand remaining strong following record monthly active users and membership sign-ups at the start of the year. In Europe, Deliveroo is seeing its highest growth rates in four years, and Wolt is achieving top share performance in its markets. First-quarter revenue rose thirty-three percent to four point zero four billion dollars, and total orders increased twenty-seven percent to nine hundred thirty-three million. However, both numbers fell short of some estimates due to a lower take rate. DoorDash expects adjusted EBITDA between seven hundred seventy and eight hundred seventy million dollars in the current period, with a cost of more than fifty million dollars to provide gas subsidies to couriers due to the Iran war. The company plans to offset this spending by adjusting investments in other areas. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr commented on the commission’s inquiry into the rising cost of watching sports on TV, saying it may not lead to any regulatory action. The commission began soliciting comments on sports broadcasting practices in February, citing concerns about the proliferation of games on subscription streaming services. The cost for consumers to watch all National Football League games now totals about fifteen hundred dollars, as games air on ten different services. The Department of Justice is also probing the sports-TV marketplace as the NFL considers reopening media contracts to negotiate higher fees. Carr said it’s unclear whether there will be a regulatory outcome. FanDuel CEO Amy Howe has been ousted after five years at the company, with FanDuel president Christian Genetski stepping in to lead. Shares of parent company Flutter fell four percent and are down nearly sixty percent over the past year amid broader gaming-sector pressure and rising competition. Flutter’s twenty twenty-six guidance previously missed Wall Street expectations, with plans to invest three hundred million dollars in its FanDuel Predicts platform weighing on the outlook. Howe oversaw FanDuel’s expansion during a period of rapid growth in US sports betting and online gambling. Google, ticker G-O-O-G, is in talks with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to let their portfolio companies access its AI models, following similar joint ventures announced by OpenAI and Anthropic with private equity firms. The Pentagon has awarded a five hundred million dollar contract to Meta Platforms-backed Scale AI to help sift through data and assist in decision-making. This is a five-fold increase from a one hundred million dollar deal awarded in September of last year. Scale AI is also working on the Defense Innovation Unit’s Thunderforge program, which aims to incorporate AI into military planning and operations, as well as on President Trump’s Golden Dome homeland defense architecture. Meta took a forty-nine percent stake in Scale AI last year. Moonshot AI, a Chinese startup, has raised about two billion dollars in its latest funding round, led by Meituan’s venture arm, boosting its valuation to more than twenty billion dollars. In April, Moonshot’s annual recurring revenue topped two hundred million dollars, driven by subscriptions to its Kimi chatbot and AI model services. The latest fundraising shows Moonshot has more than quadrupled its valuation in just a few months, as investors pile into Chinese AI upstarts vying with OpenAI and Anthropic to develop world-class services. Microsoft, ticker M-S-F-T, is reportedly considering shelving or delaying its ambitious twenty thirty clean-energy target as it races to power data centers for AI. The company is weighing whether to delay or abandon its goal of matching one hundred percent of its hourly electricity use with renewable energy purchases by twenty thirty. The build-out of data centers has made the goal more challenging. Microsoft’s flagship clean-power goal, announced in twenty twenty-one, was to match all of its electricity consumption, all of the time, with zero-carbon energy purchases from the same power grids. In their latest sustainability reports, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all reported significant increases in carbon emissions, with Meta up sixty-four percent, Google up fifty-one percent, Amazon up thirty-three percent, and Microsoft up twenty-three percent. In sports business, Kraken majority owner Samantha Holloway has hired JPMorgan Chase and Moelis as advisers as she looks to secure an NBA expansion team in Seattle. Holloway has been preparing to make a bid and recently became majority owner of Climate Pledge Arena, positioning her as the only known suitor in Seattle with a ready facility. NBA owners voted in March to explore adding franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle, and so far, there’s been more interest in Las Vegas. ServiceNow, ticker N-O-W, and Amazon Web Services announced an expansion of their platform after ServiceNow AWS Marketplace transactions surpassed one billion dollars. The expansion introduces a governance architecture for mutual customers, new AI agent integrations for enterprise security and IT operations, and a native developer integration that lets teams build and deploy ServiceNow applications directly from Amazon’s Kiro development environment. Nvidia, ticker N-V-D-A, has bought five hundred million dollars worth of rights for shares in Corning, ticker C-O-R-N-I-N-G, as part of a partnership aimed at expanding AI infrastructure. Nvidia is getting as many as three million shares at a nominal price and can buy up to fifteen million shares at an exercise price of one hundred eighty dollars. In return, Corning will increase US fiber production capacity by more than fifty percent to supply more optical fiber for AI data centers. Fiber-optic connections are becoming increasingly vital for AI computing infrastructure, as traditional copper wire links are reaching their limits. New York Times, ticker N-Y-T, shares rose as much as thirteen percent after the company reported first-quarter sales and earnings that beat analyst expectations. Earnings per share were sixty-one cents, topping estimates of forty-seven cents, and revenue totaled seven hundred twelve point two million dollars. The Times continues to attract new customers with a bundle of news, podcasts, cooking recipes, shopping recommendations, and games, adding three hundred ten thousand digital subscribers in the quarter. At the OpenAI trial, it was revealed that Elon Musk once considered recruiting Sam Altman to serve on Tesla’s board of directors and even proposed turning OpenAI into a subsidiary of Tesla. Testimony indicated that Musk wanted to create an AI lab within Tesla and tried to persuade OpenAI co-founders to join him. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied Musk’s allegations, arguing that his true motive is to harm a competitor to his own AI startup, xAI. A group of banks led by JPMorgan is expected to shoulder paper losses of more than five hundred million dollars on a debt deal for Qualtrics International, ticker Q-U-A-L-T-R-I-C-S. The banks are preparing to use their own balance sheets to fund five point three billion dollars of debt for Qualtrics’ acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta, making it the biggest “hung” deal in the leveraged finance market this year. The lenders paused early discussions in March after investors balked due to Qualtrics’ exposure to the software rout. Banks are now considering structural changes to make the deal more attractive and plan to bring the debt offering to market at a later date. Snap, ticker S-N-A-P, declined in extended trading after noting that advertising revenue has been hampered by the war in the Middle East. The company said geopolitical headwinds in the region cost Snap between twenty and twenty-five million dollars in March alone. Snap also ended its artificial intelligence partnership with Perplexity AI, a deal that had been expected to bring in about four hundred million dollars in revenue. First-quarter revenue jumped twelve percent to one point five three billion dollars, and daily active users rose to four hundred eighty-three million. CEO Evan Spiegel said the company remains focused on disciplined execution and long-term opportunities in intelligent eyewear. Sony Music is finalizing a deal to acquire a music catalog from Blackstone that includes works by Justin Bieber and Neil Young, in what could be one of the largest such deals in music history. Sony is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Recognition Music Group, which owns or manages rights to more than forty-five thousand songs. Sony and the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC plan to pay between three point five and four billion dollars for the catalog, with the deal expected to close within the next week. Warner Bros Discovery, ticker W-B-D, reported a first-quarter loss per share of one dollar seventeen cents, compared with a loss of eighteen cents a year earlier. Revenue was eight point eight nine billion dollars, down one percent year-over-year and roughly in line with estimates. Adjusted EBITDA rose nearly five percent to two point two billion dollars, topping expectations. Streaming adjusted EBITDA increased twenty-nine percent, and studios adjusted EBITDA rose to seven hundred seventy-five million dollars from two hundred fifty-nine million a year earlier. The company reported negative free cash flow of four hundred seventy-six million dollars, compared with positive three hundred two million a year earlier. The net loss included a two point eight billion dollar termination fee paid to Netflix. Warby Parker, ticker W-R-B-Y, announced strong first-quarter results, exceeding guidance with net revenue up eight point three percent year-over-year to two hundred forty-two point four million dollars. Active customers grew by four point eight percent to two point six nine million, and average revenue per customer rose nearly seven percent to three hundred thirty-one dollars. Net income was three point two million dollars, and adjusted EBITDA was twenty-nine point six million at a twelve point two percent margin. The company generated twenty-four point five million in operating cash flow and ended the quarter with two hundred eighty-eight point two million in cash after opening fourteen new stores for a total of three hundred thirty-seven locations. Gross margin slipped to fifty-four percent due to fixed expense deleverage, tariffs, and higher shipping costs, though this was partly offset by price hikes and premium lens sales. Warby Parker reaffirmed its full-year outlook and highlighted resilience amid weather challenges, new product launches, and preparations for “intelligent AI glasses” aimed at enhancing customer experience. Zillow, ticker Z-G, shares fell six point three percent in post-market trading after the company forecast second-quarter adjusted EBITDA below analyst estimates. Zillow expects adjusted EBITDA of one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty-five million dollars, compared with a consensus estimate of one hundred ninety-one million. Revenue is forecast at seven hundred fifty to seven hundred sixty-five million dollars, roughly in line with expectations. First-quarter adjusted earnings per share were fifty-three cents, topping estimates, and revenue was seven hundred eight million dollars, also above expectations. Zillow said its strong first-quarter results reflect consistent execution and the durability of its multi-year strategy. Turning to macro and central bank news. Morgan Stanley is rolling out cryptocurrency trading on its ETrade platform, offering clients a lower pricing structure than rivals. The Wall Street bank is charging clients fifty basis points on the dollar value of each crypto transaction, undercutting Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab. The offering is currently in pilot, with all of ETrade’s eight point six million clients set to gain access later this year. Morgan Stanley is betting that traditional finance and decentralized finance will converge, and is building out crypto-related offerings across its business lines to attract customers who previously had to go elsewhere. In Japan, authorities likely spent around thirty billion dollars intervening in the currency market just days after an earlier round of action, according to a Bloomberg analysis of central bank accounts. Authorities spent an estimated thirty-four and a half billion dollars supporting the yen on April thirtieth. The Finance Ministry is determined to deter speculators and keep the yen from weakening past the key threshold of one hundred sixty per dollar. Japan’s top currency official, Atsushi Mimura, said Thursday that authorities stand ready to act as speculative moves persist. Japan has the capacity to carry out roughly thirty interventions at last week’s scale, but officials are likely to preserve their reserves and act selectively to ensure maximum impact. Norway’s central bank, Norges Bank, delivered western Europe’s first rate hike since the outbreak of the Iran war, raising its key deposit rate by a quarter point to four point two five percent. This move, the first tightening step since twenty twenty-three, was predicted by only a minority of economists. Policymakers said inflation remains too high and a higher policy rate is needed to return inflation to target. The decision puts Norges Bank at the hawkish end of advanced-economy central banks, alongside the Reserve Bank of Australia. Regional peers in the euro zone and the UK are expected to wait until June before making any moves, and Sweden’s Riksbank just signaled no imminent change. In event-driven news, Apollo Global Management, ticker A-P-O, is rolling out a new version of the collateralized loan obligation market with a product called Apollo Multi-Asset Prime Securities, or AMAPS. The product packages mostly investment-grade private debt into securities that can be sold to institutional investors and offers a larger equity cushion. Apollo says the underlying collateral is more diversified, holds lower leverage, and will be eighty-five percent investment-grade rated. The product has raised twenty billion dollars so far, including five billion in the first quarter. Italian drugmaker Angelini Pharma has agreed to buy Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, ticker C-P-R-X, for four point one billion dollars as it looks to grow in the US and build a footprint in rare diseases. Angelini will pay thirty-one dollars and fifty cents per share in cash, a twenty-one percent premium to Catalyst’s closing price on April twenty-second. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, with Blackstone funds and other partners helping Angelini on the transaction. Hawkeye 360, ticker H-A-W-K, a provider of satellite-based signals intelligence for US government agencies, raised four hundred sixteen million dollars in a US initial public offering priced at the top of its marketed range. The company sold sixteen million shares at twenty-six dollars each, valuing Hawkeye 360 at two point four billion dollars. Proceeds will be used to repay debt and help fund a deferred payment related to its acquisition of Innovative Signal Analysis. Stack Infrastructure, a data center company owned by Blue Owl Capital, ticker O-W-L, is considering options including a sale of its Asia operations. The assets in Australia, Japan, and Malaysia could be valued at more than thirty billion dollars. Other infrastructure-focused funds and industry players may be interested, but deliberations are still preliminary. Roche announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire PathAI, a US-based company in digital pathology and AI-powered technology for pathology labs and the biopharma industry. Roche will pay seven hundred fifty million dollars upfront, with additional milestone payments of up to three hundred million. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of the year and will strengthen Roche’s position in digital pathology. HarbourVest Partners bought a two billion dollar portfolio of private fund stakes from the Florida State Board of Administration, one of the largest public pensions in the US. The portfolio largely contains private equity, including funds from Charlesbank, Hellman & Friedman, Silver Lake, and Global Infrastructure Partners. Secondaries transactions have exploded in recent years as higher interest rates have stalled deals and curbed distributions to private equity investors. Now, let’s look at some notable chart-based insights and sector trends. The average semiconductor stock is now sixty percent above its two hundred day moving average, a level not seen since the dot-com era of nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand. This surge is underpinned by macro data, with global semiconductor sales and Taiwan export orders recording unprecedented growth. Caterpillar’s recent share price surge has been led by the data center boom and demand for its gas turbines, reflecting the broader infrastructure build-out for AI and cloud computing. In the United States, consumer confidence is diverging sharply between low- and high-income households, according to Apollo. This divergence could have implications for retail, discretionary spending, and the broader economic outlook. That wraps up the key markets and headlines for today. Thanks for listening.