1. Fresh U.S.-Iran Hostilities Break Out
Global markets are feeling the weight of a sudden flare-up in the Middle East. The U.S. military launched defensive strikes against targets in Iran after Iranian forces targeted commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, shaking recent investor optimism regarding a stable ceasefire.
- Read more on Morningstar.
2. Volatile Swing in Global Oil Prices
Crude oil prices spiked in response to the escalating hostilities near the Strait of Hormuz. This abruptly reverses Wednesday's decline, when hopes for a peaceful resolution had temporarily dropped oil below $90 a barrel.
- Read more on Hargreaves Lansdown.
3. Fed's Cook Alerts Markets on Potential Interest Rate Hikes
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook signaled that while the central bank prefers holding rates steady for now, the path forward remains highly vulnerable to sticky inflation. She explicitly noted she is prepared to vote for rate hikes if disinflation stalls.
- Read more on Morningstar.
4. Fed's Goolsbee Flags "Stagflationary" Direction for the Economy
Adding to the central bank commentary, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee warned that persistent energy shocks—intensified by international conflicts—paired with stubborn inflation threaten to steer the U.S. economy toward a stagflationary environment.
- Read more on Morningstar.
5. Marvell Technology Sinks on Blistering AI Expectations
Semiconductor supplier Marvell Technology slid roughly 12% in pre-market trading. Despite hitting strong earnings data, the slide underlines a market environment where "good" numbers are punished if they fall short of the sky-high expectations set by the AI boom.
- Read more on Moomoo.
6. Micron Soars Past $1 Trillion Market Cap Valuation
On the brighter side of tech, chipmaker Micron Technology has fundamentally altered the memory landscape. Fueled by a relentless demand for AI infrastructure, the stock extended its monster 2026 rally to officially eclipse a historic $1 trillion market valuation.
- Read more on The Times of India.
7. Salesforce Sips Post-Earnings Loss
Salesforce shares dipped 1.5% ahead of the bell. Investors reacted cautiously to the software giant's lower-than-expected revenue projections for the fiscal second quarter, placing heavy scrutiny on its full conference details today.
- Read more on Morningstar.
8. FTSE Russell Alters Rules Ahead of Massive SpaceX IPO
FTSE Russell announced policy adjustments that will drastically accelerate how quickly massive private companies can enter their flagship indexes. The rule change allows qualifying large-caps to join after just five days of trading, directly smoothing the runway for the highly anticipated SpaceX IPO.
- Read more on Morningstar.
9. Ousted BP Chairman Alleges Unfair Treatment over Push for Oil Turnaround
In European corporate shakeups, dismissed BP Chairman Albert Manifold came out swinging against the oil giant. Manifold stated his sudden removal was due to pushing aggressive executive challenges to speed up the company's turnaround, fiercely denying reports of workplace misconduct.
- Read more on Morningstar.
10. Central Bank Divergence: Bank of Mexico Cuts Growth Outlook
Global macroeconomic strain continues to show up in regional data. The Bank of Mexico officially pulled back its 2026 GDP growth forecast to 1.1% (down from 1.6%) after a weak start to the economic year, though they slightly boosted expectations for 2027.
- Read more on Morningstar.
Snowflake (SNOW) is up 35% in premarket action.
SNOW skyrocketed after reporting its first quarter fiscal 2027 earnings post-market on Wednesday.
For the quarter ended April 30, Snowflake reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.39 versus the consensus estimate of $0.32.
Revenue for the first quarter increased 33% year over year to $1.39B, which was more than the $1.32B estimate.
For the quarter in progress, Snowflake expects product revenue to range from $1.415B to $1.42B, which clears the $1.38B estimate.
For the entire fiscal year, Snowflake increased its revenue guidance to $5.84B, which is more than the $5.68B estimate.
Snowflake also revealed its plan to acquire Natoma, which will help provide more secure AI connectivity for enterprise customers.
In addition, Snowflake entered into a deal with Amazon Web Services (AMZN) to purchase $6B in Graviton compute and AI spend on AWS over five years, which reflects accelerated demand for data and AI workloads.
A software engineer at Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) is facing federal fraud charges for allegedly using insider information to pocket $1.2M.
Prosecutors claim that the staff information security engineer at Google, used confidential information to place trades correctly, on the betting platform Polymarket (POLYMARKET).
The bet was that singer d4vd would be Google’s most searched person in 2025. The employee has been charged with money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
Ohio will pause incentives for future data center projects while lawmakers assess the industry’s impact on the state economy.
The pause is not a complete ban but a suspension of requests from facilities for state tax breaks. Data centers that have previously been granted sales and use tax benefits in Ohio reported a total capital investment of $27.2B in 2025.
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority will stop accepting new data center tax exemption proposals after its currently scheduled meeting on Monday.
What’s Trending on Seeking Alpha
Associated Press plans to provide OpenAI with its US election results
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Oil futures rise as U.S., Iran trade strikes and Kuwait activates air defenses
Catalyst watch:
- Notable investor events include Hyatt Hotels' (H) Investor Day, Salesforce's (CRM) annual meeting, Mattel's (MAT) annual meeting, F5's (FFIV) investor meeting, and Roblox's (RBLX) annual meeting.
- Applied Materials (AMAT) CEO Gary Dickerson will participate at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference.
- Nvidia (NVDA) will present at the TD Cowen 54th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.
- Uber Technologies (UBER) CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy will present at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference.
- Salesforce (CRM) will present at the Jefferies Software, Internet, and AI Conference.
- Dell Technologies (DELL) will hold its earnings conference call at 4:30pm. Investors will be watching for color on AI infrastructure, ISG growth and margins, PC/CSG trends, and capital return strategy. Options trading implies a share price move of 11% after the report is released. Suppliers Intel (INTC) and Synaptics (SYNA) both generate more than 10% of their revenue from Dell and trade directionally with the stock more than 75% of the time after earnings.
Stock index futures slipped ahead of the open as investors prepared for a slew of macroeconomic reports, including personal income and outlays data.
Crude oil is up 1.6% at $90. Bitcoin is down 1.2% at $73,000. Gold is down 1.4% at $4,393.
The FTSE 100 is down 0.7% and the DAX is down 0.3%. India (SENSEX) markets were closed due to a holiday.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Unusual Machines (UMAC) +33% - Drone-related stocks are surging in premarket trading Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is considering funding agreements with several drone companies as part of a broader push to expand domestic production and reduce costs for the increasingly important defense technology.
Economic calendar:
- 8:30 am Durable Goods Orders
- 8:30 am GDP
- 8:30 am Jobless Claims
- 8:30 am Personal Income and Outlays