News Bulletin
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Evening Edition

Economic Numbers:

Time	Event	Actual	Forecast	Previous
Thursday, May 21, 2026
8:30	Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (May)	-0.40	17.60	26.70
8:30	Initial Jobless Claims	209K	210K	212K
8:30	Housing Starts (MoM) (Apr)	-2.80%		12.00%
8:30	Continuing Jobless Claims	1,782K	1,790K	1,776K
8:30	Building Permits (MoM) (Apr)	5.80%		-11.50%
8:30	Jobless Claims 4-Week Avg.	202.50K		204.00K
11:30	4-Week Bill Auction	3.61%		3.61%
11:30	8-Week Bill Auction	3.60%		3.61%

Indices

	CLOSE	50 DMA	200 DMA
DJIA	50,285.66	48,168.51	47,574.46
NASDAQ	26,293.10	23,846.21	23,061.13
S&P 500	7,445.72	6,970.13	6,803.20

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
Walmart WMT:US	0.66	0.66	177.8B	174.46B	$974.54B	AM
Deere & Company DE:US	6.55	5.65	13.37B	11.51B	$140.32B	AM
Ross Stores ROST:US	2.02	1.63	6B	5.32B	$73.32B	PM
Take Two Interactive Software TTWO:US		0.56		1.55B	$40.99B	PM
Workday WDAY:US	2.66	2.52	2.54B	2.52B	$31.94B	PM
Copart CPRT:US		0.42		1.2B	$31.46B	PM
Zoom ZM:US		1.42		1.22B	$29.88B	PM
Ralph Lauren RL:US	2.8	2.47	2B	1.83B	$23.46B	AM
Deckers Outdoor DECK:US		0.82		1.1B	$14.99B	PM
Williams Sonoma WSM:US	1.93	1.84	1.81B	1.79B	$11.84B	AM
Advanced Drainage Systems WMS:US	1.07	0.96	676.8M	652M	$10.62B	AM
Masimo MASI:US		1.43		398.65M	$9.46B	AM
Chart Industries GTLS:US		2.47		1.12B	$8.76B	AM
Aimco AIV:US					$7.97B	PM
Advance Auto Parts AAP:US	0.77	0.42	2.6B	2.58B	$4.17B	AM
Cavco Industries CVCO:US		5.78		583.95M	$3.94B	PM
HUB HUBG:US		0.39		885.76M	$2.51B	PM
Veris Residential CLI:US				67.94M	$1.76B	PM
Flowers Foods FLO:US		0.27		1.58B	$1.45B	PM
American Woodmark AMWD:US		0.32		371.63M	$526.6M	PM

Market News:

Wall Street on Thursday ended higher, rebounding from earlier losses after a report that a final draft of a U.S.-Iran peace agreement had been reached with the help of mediator Pakistan. Longer-end Treasury yields and oil prices turned lower on the news.

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia saw a muted reaction to its quarterly report, as strong earnings were offset by valuation jitters.

The benchmark S&P 500 index climbed 0.2% to close at 7,446.05 points, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite advanced 0.1% to settle at 26,293.10 points. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% to conclude at 50,285.66 points, notching its first record close since early February.

Final peace deal draft reached

A final draft of a peace agreement between Washington and Tehran has been reached with the mediation of Pakistan and is expected to be announced within the next few hours, the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) reported, citing Saudi Arabian broadcaster Al Arabiya.

Key provisions of the agreement include an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, guaranteed freedom of navigation in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and the launch of negotiations on outstanding issues within a week, ILNA said, citing Al Arabiya.

Oil prices quickly gave up gains after the ILNA report and then turned lower. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were last down 0.7% to $104.33 a barrel.

Hopes over a resolution to the Middle East conflict had earlier taken a hit after Reuters reported that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had issued a directive that the country’s almost weapons-grade uranium should not be shipped abroad, citing two senior Iranian sources. The move hinted at a hardening stance by Iran on what has been one of the key sticking points in negotiations with the U.S., as President Donald Trump has repeatedly said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Al Jazeera said Tehran had denied the report about Khamenei’s order, citing a senior Iranian official, who called it "propaganda by the enemies of the deal." The White House also pushed back against the report, describing it as false, Fox News said, citing a person directly involved in the negotiations.

Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. was in the "final stages" of a potential draft peace agreement with Iran, although he raised the specter of a re-escalation in hostilities, warning that "we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty" should a deal not be reached. The president on Monday had delayed a planned military hit on Iran at the request of three Gulf leaders, later saying that he had been just an "hour away" from the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday that "some progress" had been made on Iran.

"We’re dealing with a system that itself is a little fractured, the Iranian system. But, that said, there’ll be a couple of visits. I believe the Pakistanis will be traveling to Tehran today, so hopefully that’ll advance this further," Rubio said.

Iran this week moved to expand its control over the critical Strait of Hormuz. The vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows had been effectively shuttered by Iran since the start of the Middle East conflict at the end of February, leading to the biggest supply disruption in history.

Iran unveiled a new maritime regulatory body called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority. The body on Wednesday expanded the boundaries of what it called a "management supervision area" on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz and said any ships wanting to transit the chokepoint would need coordination and a permit from an entity known as the Persian Gulf Waterway Management.

Bond sell-off eases, economic data comes in fairly solid

A renewed climb in Treasury yields earlier also put pressure on U.S. stocks, as traders sold off government debt on concerns that central banks across the world would hike interest rates in order to combat the inflationary shock emerging from surging oil prices.

Following the ILNA report, yields quickly ate into their advance. Longer-end instruments in particular then turned lower. The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield was last down nearly 1 basis point to 4.570%, while the 30-year yield was down almost 3 basis points to 5.088%.

The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s April meeting on Wednesday showed that a majority of policymakers now believed rate hikes could be appropriate if the rise in energy prices kept inflation elevated above the central bank’s 2% target.

Thursday also saw a largely solid economic calendar. The number of Americans filing for initial jobless claims in the past week fell 3k to 209k, lower than the expected figure of 210k. Continuing claims for the week ending May 9 rose 6k to 1.782 million, also below the consensus estimate.

Separately, S&P Global’s flash purchasing managers’ index readings for May showed overall U.S. business activity, covering both manufacturing and services, holding steady from April. In a bright spot, indexes for both manufacturing output and manufacturing PMI hit 49- and 48-month highs, respectively.

Nvidia slips nearly 2%

Wall Street’s focus on Thursday was also on Nvidia. The world’s largest publicly-listed company delivered a quarterly top- and bottom-line beat after hours on Wednesday, and provided current quarter revenue guidance that beat expectations. The chipmaker also unveiled a new $80 billion share buyback program and tweaked its reporting structure.

The company’s fiscal first quarter revenue spiked 85% Y/Y to $81.62 billion, while its adjusted net income more than doubled to $45.55 billion. Nvidia has been a major beneficiary of a spike in an expenditures by big-name tech players keen on building out the infrastructure needed to underpin cutting-edge AI models, also known as hyperscalers.

Nvidia top boss Jensen Huang on the earnings conference call noted that hyperscaler capital expenditure was expected to be $1 trillion this year.

"I have every expectation it’s going to grow from here for fundamentally good reasons. This is the way computing is going to work in the future. If they don’t have the compute, they won’t have the revenues. It is very clear. Compute is revenues. Compute is profit," Huang said.

However, with expectations sky high going into the quarterly report, the performance was not enough to quell questions about the company’s massive $5 trillion valuation. Shares of the chipmaker largely slipped after hours on Wednesday and before the opening bell on Thursday. They ended 1.8% lower.

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