News Bulletin
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Evening Edition

Economic Numbers:

Time	Event	Actual	Forecast	Previous
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
7:00	MBA 30-Year Mortgage Rate	6.56%		6.46%
7:00	MBA Mortgage Applications (WoW)	-2.30%		1.70%
7:00	Mortgage Market Index	283.50		290.10
7:00	Mortgage Refinance Index	920.20		921.10
10:30	Crude Oil Inventories	-7.863M	-2.500M	-4.306M
10:30	Cushing Crude Oil Inventories	-1.604M		-1.702M

Indices

	CLOSE	50 DMA	200 DMA
DJIA	50,009.35	48,111.84	47,543.76
NASDAQ	26,270.36	23,774.21	23,034.14
S&P 500	7,432.93	6,954.37	6,797.70

Earnings Calendar:

(EPS: Earning Per Share / Rev: Revenue / Mkt Cap: market Capital/ BMO: Before Market Opening /AMC: After Market Close)

COMPANY	EPS Act	EPS Fore	Rev Act	Rev Fore	Mkt Cap	Time
Nvidia NVDA:US		1.77		78.4B	$5.49T	PM
Analog Devices ADI:US	3.09	2.85	3.62B	3.49B	$191.73B	AM
TJX Companies TJX:US	1.19	1.01	14.3B	13.95B	$182.06B	AM
Lowe's Companies LOW:US	3.03	2.97	23.08B	22.93B	$124.3B	AM
Intuit INTU:US	12.8	12.57	8.6B	8.53B	$108.04B	PM
Target TGT:US	1.71	1.35	25.44B	24.31B	$55.85B	AM
Nordson NDSN:US		2.81		727.25M	$15.77B	PM
Hasbro HAS:US	1.47	1	1B	906.37M	$12.42B	AM
Masimo MASI:US		1.43		398.65M	$9.46B	AM
Enersys ENS:US		2.92		976.73M	$8.78B	PM
Chart Industries GTLS:US		2.47		1.12B	$8.76B	AM
Aimco AIV:US					$8.39B	PM
VF VFC:US	0.06	-0.01	2.17B	2.13B	$6.51B	AM
Urban Outfitters URBN:US	1.3	1.24	1.48B	1.45B	$6.39B	PM
HUB HUBG:US		0.39		885.76M	$2.53B	PM
Dorian LPG:US	1.89	1.48	153.5M	129.74M	$1.94B	AM
Veris Residential CLI:US				67.94M	$1.76B	PM

Market News:

U.S. stocks jumped on Wednesday to end higher, as investors geared up for a major test of the artificial intelligence trade in the form of quarterly results from industry leader Nvidia after the closing bell.

A sell-off in bonds also stabilized, sending U.S. Treasury yields lower and taking some pressure off equities. Also boosting sentiment was President Donald Trump’s comment that the U.S. was in "final stages" of peace talks with Iran, according to a White House pool report.

The benchmark S&P 500 index advanced 1.1% to close at 7,432.24 points, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite added 1.6% to settle at 26,270.36 points, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.3% to conclude at 50,009.35 points.

Nvidia’s report ’means everything for this market’

Since the explosion of AI technology in late 2022, Nvidia has become the premier manufacturer of high-end, powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) that powers AI and has come to dominate the AI hardware market. Nvidia’s market capitalization has exploded in the last three years to over $5 trillion, and its quarterly reports have become market-moving events that are closely scrutinized for a read on the AI space.

Many big-name tech companies have outlined plans to spend heavily on building the infrastructure needed to power AI systems, meaning that expectations for Nvidia’s returns are, as usual, sky-high. Shares of the company finished 1.3% higher.

NVDA’s earnings report also comes as a time when sentiment has been battered on Wall Street due to a lack of any breakthroughs in the Middle East conflict and a global bond sell-off.

The bond rout was sparked by rapidly rising expectations for interest rate hikes from central banks around the world to combat the emerging inflationary shock from surging oil prices. Against such a backdrop, Nvidia’s performance could potentially be a positive catalyst for stocks.

"Nvidia is the most important AI stock, and since so much of the stock market’s gains over the past few years have been driven by the incredible capabilities of AI, the outcome of Wednesday’s earnings report means everything for this market," James Demmert, chief investment officer at Main Street Research, said.

"The stock market is near record highs and is now grappling with the sudden and unexpected rise in bond yields, which is essentially a tax on the stock market. This is why Nvidia’s earnings come at just the right time, when the market needs some reassurance that the promise of AI can overpower the headwind of rising bond yields," Demmert added.

A furious rally in the AI trade has indeed played a driving role in helping Wall Street return to record levels, despite the protracted U.S.-Iran war. Meanwhile, speaking of bonds, U.S. Treasury yields slipped on Wednesday as the sell-off eased. Notably, the U.S. 30-year yield, seen as a gauge of how traders view the economic outlook, on Tuesday soared to levels not hit since the global financial crisis almost two decades ago.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield was last down 9 basis points to 4.581%, while the 30-year yield was down 7 basis points to 5.113%.

Fed minutes show policymakers see rate hikes likely

Bond market traders and watchers of monetary policy also received the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s April meeting on Wednesday. They showed that a majority of Federal Open Market Committee participants believed that interest rate hikes "would likely become appropriate" if inflation were to persist above the central bank’s 2% target.

Inflation data recently has shown a clear impact of spiking oil prices on both consumer and producer prices. Growth in the annual headline U.S. consumer price index last month hit its highest level since May 2023, while the annual headline producer price index logged its biggest increase since December 2022.

Against this backdrop, and amid the rising expectations of tighter monetary policy across the globe, the discussions of possible rate hikes in the Fed minutes were not much a surprise.

The minutes also come at a time when the Fed is in transition mode. Jerome Powell’s term as Fed chair ended last Friday, and his successor, Trump’s pick Kevin Warsh, is expected to be sworn in soon.

Warsh will be taking over at a time when Trump has publicly badgered the central bank to lower interest rates, but such a scenario looks extremely unlikely currently with the Middle East conflict showing no signs of ending.

Trump says in ’final stages’ of talks with Iran

Turning to the Middle East, Bloomberg News on Wednesday reported that Trump said the U.S. was in the "final stages" of negotiations with Iran, citing a White House pool report. Oil prices sharply extended losses after the news.

Bloomberg said the pool report quoted Trump’s earlier remarks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews. "We’ll see what happens" with Iran, Trump added.

Hopes have remained that Washington and Tehran may be able to forge a deal to end their more than two-month war.

Trump told lawmakers on Tuesday evening that the Iran war could end "very quickly." He said earlier this week that he had postponed planned fresh attacks on Iran at the request of three Gulf countries.

Vice President JD Vance also struck an optimistic tone in separate comments, stating that Tehran wanted to make a deal.

Target sees cost challenges, Lowe’s reaffirms guidance

Turning to Wednesday’s active stocks, Target ended 3.8% lower, despite the big-box retailer topping quarterly top- and bottom-line estimates and raising its full-year net sales growth outlook. The company warned of more cost challenges in the first half of this year and harder Y/Y comparisons in the current quarter.

Lowe’s erased losses to close 1.2% higher. The home-improvement retailer joined larger rival Home Depot in reiterating its fiscal full-year guidance amid record low U.S. consumer sentiment and a pullback in spending on big home projects.

Elsewhere, Analog Devices slipped 3.9% after the group said it would acquire Empower Semiconductor for about $1.5 billion in cash, in a bid to grow its AI-focused power management operations.

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