MARKET WRAPS
STOCKS: Stocks continued a recent retreat as the prolonged energy shock sparked broader inflation concerns.
TREASURYS: Treasury yields rose to their highs of the year due to inflation and anticipated central-bank responses.
FOREX: The U.S. dollar ticked up on Federal Reserve rate bets.
COMMODITIES: Oil futures slipped, but held near $108 a barrel in New York, as traders awaited updates from U.S.-Iran negotiations.
HEADLINES
Mediators See Little Progress in U.S.-Iran Talks
Iran's position in talks with the U.S. to end the war hasn't changed much from earlier iterations that failed to yield progress toward a deal, regional mediators and U.S. officials familiar with the terms said, raising questions about whether an offramp to the conflict can be found.
The comments came after President Trump said he had called off military strikes planned for Tuesday in light of what he called positive developments at the negotiating table.
But mediators said Iran continues to insist on an end to hostilities, financial relief, reparations for war damage and a role overseeing the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway while remaining at odds with U.S. demands regarding the closing or long-term suspension of its nuclear program.
U.S. Pending Home Sales Rose in April Despite Economic Uncertainty
The number of homes going under contract in the U.S. rose in April, according to a monthly index. Here are the main takeaways from the National Association of Realtors' report released Tuesday.
-The pending home sales index, a leading indicator of house sales based on contract signings, rose 1.4% on month to 74.8. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 1% increase.
-"Buyers are coming out with cautious optimism despite increasing economic uncertainty and a slight rise in mortgage rates," said NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun. "Demand will easily be even higher once mortgage rates retreat to the levels they were at earlier this year."
Andrej Karpathy, Tesla Alum and OpenAI Co-Founder, Joins Anthropic
Andrej Karpathy, an OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla executive, has joined Anthropic.
Karpathy announced his move in a Tuesday post on X. "I think the next few years at the frontier of LLMs will be especially formative," he wrote. "I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D."
Karpathy joined Anthropic's pretraining team, which oversees the data training process for the company's Claude artificial-intelligence models. He will lead a new group focused on using Claude to accelerate pretraining research, according to Anthropic.
Google Unveils New Gemini AI Agent for Personal Tasks
Google is supercharging its Gemini artificial-intelligence model to become more competitive in the era of agentic AI.
The company has started rolling out what it calls Gemini Spark, a personal agent it says is capable of navigating a user's digital life and acting on his or her behalf. The agent will work across many of Google's products and run on the company's cloud infrastructure.
"We've been bringing agents to developers and enterprises for a while now," said Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google parent Alphabet. "We are super focused on bringing that frontier capability of agents safely and securely to consumers so that they work for everyone."
UN Lowers Growth Forecasts as Middle East Conflict Extends
The global economy is set for one of its weakest expansions this century as the conflict in the Middle East pushes energy prices higher, but could grow even more slowly if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the United Nations said Tuesday.
However, the body left its growth forecast for the U.S. economy this year unchanged at 2%, citing support from strong consumer spending and investment in technologies driven by artificial intelligence.
The U.N. said it now expects the global economy to grow by 2.5% in 2026, down from the 2.7% it projected in January. That would be the slowest expansion since output fell in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic spread. Before that year, growth was last weaker in 2009, when output fell in response to the global financial crisis.
Home Depot Posts Lower Profit as Homeowners Hold Off on Large Projects
Home Depot reported lower fiscal first-quarter profit and Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said in an interview that homeowners are continuing to pull back on large home-improvement projects due to economic uncertainty.
"When we talk to our customers, they do tell us that they have concerns over uncertainty and housing affordability. They point out that fuel costs are rising, mortgage rates have risen again after falling throughout 2025, and layoffs are increasing," McPhail said. "And as a result, they tell us they're continuing to hold off on larger projects."
McPhail said homeowners continue to show interest in improving their home, as evidenced by strong sales in outdoor categories and paint, but that hesitation in undertaking larger projects was leading to weakness in lumber, flooring, lighting and millwork.
Target Names a New Supply-Chain Head as It Struggles With Weak Sales
Target named a former Walmart executive as its new head of supply chain as it tries to reverse years of sluggish sales that were caused, in part, by unreliably stocked shelves.
Target said Tuesday that former Walmart executive Jeff England would become its chief global supply-chain and logistics officer, replacing longtime Target executive Gretchen McCarthy.
England, most recently the head of supply chain at building-products distributor QXO, will start the job at the end of this month. The 48-year-old will "be responsible for accelerating Target's supply chain plans to improve its shopping experience," the company said. Previously England spent nearly two decades at Walmart.
United Airlines Expects an Uptick in Summer Travelers
Inflation-weary consumers aren't giving up their summer vacations.
United Airlines said Tuesday it expects to serve about 53 million travelers this summer-about 3 million more than last year.
The company said demand is particularly strong for destinations tied to once-in-a-lifetime moments such as the total solar eclipse in Europe, as well as international soccer matches and major global concert tours.
Banana Republic Taps PVH's Donald Kohler as CEO
Gap has tapped a PVH executive to helm its Banana Republic brand.
Donald Kohler will join Gap as global brand president and chief executive of its Banana Republic brand, the retailer said Tuesday.
Kohler most recently served as chief executive of PVH Americas, overseeing its Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands in the region, as well as the company's retail, e-commerce, wholesale and licensing businesses.
TALKING POINT Blue Owl Co-Founder Sells Stake in Washington Commanders
One of the co-founders of private-credit behemoth Blue Owl Capital recently sold the last of his stake in the NFL's Washington Commanders football team.
Doug Ostrover was among the individuals who cashed out their investments in the Commanders in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Ostrover started selling much of his stake in 2025 and is currently liquidating the remaining piece, one of the people said.
The billionaire bought his share in 2023, when he joined a consortium led by private-equity titan Josh Harris to purchase the team. The group also included another Blue Owl co-founder, Marc Lipschultz, who hasn't sold his stake, one of the people said.
Harris is the buyer of Ostrover's most recent sale, the people said. The recent sales valued the Commanders in the neighborhood of $9 billion, some of the people said. That is up from roughly $6 billion when Harris's group bought the team three years ago.
Ostrover's wealth has taken a ding as Blue Owl's stock has lost about 50% of its value over the past year. Investors have grown wary of private-credit funds, especially those heavily exposed to the software industry amid the rise of artificial intelligence.
Ostrover and Lipschultz had taken out personal loans backed by around 76 million shares, raising concerns about potential margin calls and continued downward pressure on the stock. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the two removed those shares as collateral for their loans.
Ostrover started selling his Commanders stake before the selloff in Blue Owl shares and the divestiture is unconnected to the margin loans, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
--Matt Wirz and Lauren Thomas
Expected Major Events for Wednesday
05:00/JPN: Apr Convenience Store Sales
06:00/GER: Apr PPI
06:00/UK: Apr Producer Price Index
06:00/UK: Apr CPI
08:30/UK: Mar UK House Price Index
10:00/UK: Apr Aluminium Production report
11:00/US: 05/15 MBA Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey
14:30/US: 05/15 EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report
23:01/UK: BRC Consumer Sentiment Monitor
23:50/JPN: Apr Provisional Trade Statistics for the Month
23:50/JPN: Mar Orders Received for Machinery
All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.
Expected Earnings for Wednesday
American Superconductor Corp $(AMSC)$ is expected to report $0.10 for 4Q.
Analog Devices Inc $(ADI)$ is expected to report $2.17 for 2Q.
Arcadia Biosciences Inc $(RKDA)$ is expected to report for 1Q.
Associated Capital Group Inc (ACGP) is expected to report for 1Q.
Borr Drilling Ltd (BORR,BORR-OS) is expected to report $-0.04 for 1Q.
ClearSign Technologies Corp $(CLIR)$ is expected to report for 1Q.
Computer Modelling Group Ltd (CMG.T) is expected to report $0.06 for 4Q.
CorVel Corp (CRVL) is expected to report for 4Q.
Dorian LPG Ltd (LPG) is expected to report $1.50 for 4Q.
EnerSys $(ENS)$ is expected to report $2.81 for 4Q.
Excellon Resources Inc (EXN.T) is expected to report for 1Q.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
May 19, 2026 16:37 ET (20:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments