MARKET WRAPS
STOCKS: Stocks rose to record highs as a sharp drop in oil prices buoyed the consumer-discretionary sector.
TREASURYS: Treasury yields fell, with the yield on the 10-year note completing its largest three-session drop since April.
FOREX: The U.S. dollar ticked up as traders awaited developments in U.S.-Iran negotiations.
COMMODITIES: Oil futures fell 5.6% in New York to under $90 a barrel as a truce between the U.S. and Iran held, spurring hopes for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
HEADLINES
Amazon Strikes $6 Billion Deal With Snowflake for Its Agentic Computing Chips
Amazon Web Services has signed up cloud storage company Snowflake as its latest chips customer, as the proliferation of artificial intelligence agents continues to drive high levels of demand for computing hardware.Snowflake plans to pay $6 billion over the next five years for access to Amazon's Graviton chips inside AWS data centers. Graviton, which AWS released in 2018, is a central processing unit, or CPU-the main computer brains that power everything from personal devices like smartphones and laptops to car computers, data center servers and advanced AI systems.
The deal will make Snowflake one of AWS's largest customers for CPU-based computing. Other major buyers of Graviton chips include Meta Platforms and Apple. AWS also offers chips customized from training and running AI models.Snowflake was founded on AWS's platform in 2015 and has been expanding its relationship with Amazon ever since. The company has nearly 14,000 customers, including rewards and advertising startup Fetch and AI analytics platform Hex.
As AI agents, which are autonomous bots that can perform a variety of jobs for human users, have grown more popular, demand for CPUs has surged, in part because agents require a large number of the processors to help them orchestrate computing tasks, or arrange them in the proper order. Companies that sell CPUs, including Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Arm Holdings, have seen their share prices rise and sales flourish in recent months as agentic AI has expanded.
Salesforce First-Quarter Sales, Profit Rise Amid Agentforce Efforts
Salesforce recorded higher profit and sales in the first quarter as it pushes its artificial intelligence tools as a growth accelerator.
The enterprise software company on Wednesday posted a profit of $2.11 billion, or $2.42 a share, in the quarter ended April 30, compared with $1.54 billion, or $1.59 a share, a year earlier.
Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings were $3.88, ahead of the $3.13 anticipated by analysts, according to FactSet.
Trump Says He Doesn't Fear Political Fallout From Prolonged War With Iran
President Trump said Iran was miscalculating if it thought he would soften his position to avoid a prolonged standoff with Tehran.
"They thought they were going to outwait me," Trump said Wednesday at the start of a cabinet meeting at the White House. "He's got the midterms [they thought]. I don't care about the midterms. Look, what happened last night."
Trump was referring to Ken Paxton's victory in the Republican-primary runoff in Texas in which he defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn with the president's endorsement.
Lululemon Settles Dispute With Founder
Lululemon Athletica is making peace with company founder Chip Wilson.
The two sides have reached a deal that will allow Wilson to name two new directors to the company's board after its annual meeting in June. The company also agreed to add a third director with product and brand expertise in apparel to the board by Oct. 1.
In exchange, Wilson, who owns 8.7% of Lululemon's shares, has agreed to an 18-month standstill and nondisparagement agreement.
Jamie Dimon Says JPMorgan Could Spend $20 Billion on Deals
Jamie Dimon said JPMorgan Chase could consider an acquisition worth up to $20 billion in the next few years now that it has greater flexibility from regulators to spend capital.
Dimon said at an investor conference Wednesday that the bank is first focused on growing its businesses organically, and would only consider a deal that is the right fit. But regulatory changes and high profits mean the bank has a pile of cash it has to put to work.
"It's not burning a hole in our pocket at all," Dimon said of the firm's capital. "If it sits there for a while, no problem."
Canada Moves Toward Energy Superpower Goal With German LNG Deal
OTTAWA-Canada unveiled a deal to sell liquefied natural gas to Germany, marking a significant step in Prime Minister Mark Carney's effort to capitalize on its oil-and-gas reserves and position the country as an energy superpower.
Canadian Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said Wednesday that Germany's state-owned utility, SEFE, has agreed to purchase one million metric tons a year of LNG for up to 20 years, with shipments starting early in the 2030s. SEFE said the agreement, once concluded, would mark Germany's first partnership with a Canadian LNG supplier.
The deal is the result of geopolitical developments this decade - Germany attempting to reduce its reliance on Russian gas, and Canada trying to increase exports of its energy products to non-U.S. markets amid heightened trade tensions between Ottawa and Washington.
Abercrombie & Fitch Faces Weakness in Europe, Middle East Due to Iran War
Abercrombie & Fitch said sales rose, even as the company faced softer demand in certain markets due to the war in the Middle East.
Sales ticked up 1.5% on the year to $1.11 billion in the fiscal first quarter, roughly in line with Wall Street models. However, sales across Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell 10% to $167.4 million, as those shoppers reined in purchases as the conflict across the region intensified.
The clothing company will likely continue to see softer demand across EMEA during the current quarter and for the full year, Chief Financial Officer Robert Ball said on a call with analysts Wednesday. Abercrombie expects to mitigate some of the impact, though, by adjusting inventory levels and dialing in promotions, he added.
Meta Starts Rollout of Subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram
Meta Platforms has started the rollout of subscription plans for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The company said earlier this year that it planned to offer subscriptions for its signature apps that would give users additional features. A spokesperson for the company said Wednesday that Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus will be priced at $3.99 per month, while WhatsApp Plus will cost $2.99 a month.
Meta's head of product, Naomi Gleit, said that subscriptions will include enhanced features for users and premium tools for businesses and creators.
Universal Music Shareholder Deals Blow to Bill Ackman's $65 Billion Bid
Universal Music Group shareholder Bollore Group said it was calling on the record label to reject a $65 billion bid from Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital, a move that could derail efforts from the billionaire to seize the world's largest music company.
Cyrille Bollore, chief executive of the Bollore Group, said Ackman's bid undervalued Universal. Pershing Square Capital in April offered 30.40 euros a share in a cash-and-stock deal that values Universal's current stock outstanding at 55.89 billion euros, equivalent to $65.01 billion.
"I don't think that this offer is positive. I don't think it would be positive for the company and I encourage UMG management to reject that offer," Bollore told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday.
Canada in Talks to Acquire Saab Spy Planes, PM Carney Says
OTTAWA-Canadian officials have entered into talks to acquire surveillance aircraft from Saab, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, as the nation rebuilds its military and strengthens security ties with Europe.
At a defense conference Wednesday in Ottawa, Carney said the Swedish company's GlobalEye aircraft would help detect and deter threats across the Arctic. Saab said it has offered to build, maintain and upgrade the planes that Canada purchases in partnership with Canadian firms.
Saab added that it has neither signed an agreement nor received an order from Ottawa.
TALKING POINT Robinhood Lets Customers Use AI to Trade Stocks, Make Credit-Card Purchases
AI agents were already dispensing advice on stock investments and recommending Amazon.com purchases. Now they can do all of that trading and shopping for you.
Robinhood Markets is launching a new feature that lets customers hand their trading and credit-card purchasing decisions to their favorite artificial-intelligence tools.
Robinhood is part of a crowded field of financial firms that have introduced AI tools into a range of services they offer individual customers, from stock research to automated investing management. The agentic trading and credit-card spending feature marks another step forward, said Abhishek Fatehpuria, Robinhood's vice president of product management.
"These AI agents for consumers have started to trade in the market," Fatehpuria said. "One thing that we've learned from talking to our customers is that they want to give their agents the power of Robinhood, but in a very safe way."
Robinhood users can link an AI agent like Anthropic's Claude or the coding agent Cursor to a separate, dedicated investment account. There, the agent can access the dedicated funds and place trades as directed.
For example, users might instruct their agents to root out risks created by being overly concentrated in one part of the market, or monitor a basket of promising semiconductor stocks.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
May 27, 2026 16:33 ET (20:33 GMT)
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