MARKET SNAPSHOT
U.S. stocks settled mostly higher on strength in the financial and healthcare sectors. Treasury yields and oil futures fell amid renewed hopes for U.S.-Iran talks. Gold and silver rose as the dollar weakened.
MARKET WRAPS
EQUITIES
Healthcare and financial stocks pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average sharply higher Thursday while tech stocks lag behind.
Shares in UnitedHealth, a Dow component, rose more than 5% after Bank of America upgraded the stock, part of a broader rally in health-care. Financial names in the blue-chip index including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and American Express also saw gains, as did payments giant Visa. The Dow finished up 1.7%.
The Nasdaq composite lagged behind, ending down less than 0.1%, as Broadcom's latest results prompt investors to hit pause on the AI trade. The semiconductor and software maker's shares tumbled more than 13% after its guidance on AI demand failed to live up to investors' lofty expectations. That cascaded through other stocks tied to AI, with Micron Technology, AMD and Qualcomm all falling.
The S&P 500 finished up 0.4%, but its tech sector slid 1.4%, dragged down by semiconductor names.
Earlier Thursday, Asian equity markets largely retreated as escalating geopolitical and trade tensions damped investors' risk appetite.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gave back 1.4% and South Korea's Kospi declined 1.8%. Singapore's FTSE Straits Times Index closed down 1.4%.
In China, the Shanghai Composite ended 0.6% lower, the Shenzhen Composite declined 0.5% and the ChiNext Price Index fell 0.8%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.5%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 Benchmark Index fell 1.2%, and New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 0.1%.
COMMODITIES
Oil futures pulled back after three straight sessions of gains, with a tentative ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon suggesting possible support for U.S.-Iran talks.
"The problem is that Iran-backed Hezbollah is not part of the agreement, " Arlan Suderman of StoneX said. Recent data show some ships getting through the Strait of Hormuz, he noted. "The increased passages does not come close to erasing the energy deficit, but it does help for the time being. Nor do we see production being restored in the region."
WTI settled down 3.1% at $93.04 a barrel. Brent fell 2.8% to $95.03.
Gold settled 0.9% higher, up four of the past six sessions, and silver rose 0.4%, up two of the past three sessions.
TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES
Technology Sector Leads U.S. Layoff Plans
U.S.-based employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May with technology remaining the leading sector for staff reductions, according to a report from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Employers in the tech sector announced 38,242 cuts last month. For the year, the tech sector has announced 123,653 cuts, up 66% through the same period in 2025.
Despite job cuts in the tech sector, overall layoffs have been largely stable. Job cuts this year were down 43% from the first five months of 2025, when reductions to the federal workforce drove totals to historic highs, the report said.
Iran Ratchets Up Pressure on Trump With Kuwait Airport Attack
Kuwait had just reopened its war-damaged international airport when a drone smashed into Terminal 1 on Wednesday, an attack that demonstrated Iran's willingness to ratchet up the escalation ladder to counter a crippling U.S. economic blockade.
The strike came after the U.S. military had disabled a ship it said was heading to an Iranian port. Iran denied hitting the airport, but video footage released Thursday by Kuwait's civil aviation authorities showed what looked like an Iranian Shahed drone slamming into the roof and erupting in a ball of fire.
Images inside the building showed flying glass and plumes of smoke in a cavernous passenger hall where people ran for cover. A gaping hole appeared in the terminal roof, with debris littering the floor and structural elements exposed. Dozens of people were injured in addition to the one who was killed.
Blackstone Investors Ask to Pull $4.4 Billion From Private-Credit Fund
Investors are trying to pull more money from the biggest private-credit fund in the world.
Investors in Blackstone's flagship private-credit fund, known as Bcred, asked to redeem 10% of their shares in the second quarter, up from about 8% in the first quarter. That amounted to investors asking for $4.4 billion.
Blackstone will limit redemptions from the $79 billion fund to 5%, a reversal from its strategy in March when it opted to pay the full amount requested. The about-face highlights rising financial strain on managers of large private-credit funds marketed to individual investors who continue to ask for their money back.
Anthropic Urges Global Pause in AI Development, Flags 'Self-Improvement' Risk
Anthropic is calling for top artificial intelligence labs to weigh slowing the pace of development, suggesting that AI systems are advancing so rapidly that they may soon be able to improve themselves without human intervention in ways that could pose significant societal risks.
The ability to slow global AI development would "likely be a good thing, " the company said Thursday in a blog post that disclosed internal data documenting how quickly its most advanced models are improving.
The post, written by the head of its internal research institute and head of policy, noted that model advances appear to be on a path toward "recursive self-improvement," when AI systems can improve on their own without human intervention. Some AI insiders have seen that threshold as a potential marker of danger and enormous societal upheaval.
Quantinuum Stock Fizzles in Highly Anticipated Quantum IPO Debut. What Went Wrong?
Quantinuum stock popped in its trading debut, opening 13% above its initial public offering price in what seemed to be a major win for the quantum computing industry. Those gains quickly faded.
Shares opened at $68 before easing to $60.38, ending the session with a gain of just 0.6%. Regardless, the stock outperformed other notable names in the rest sector: IonQ closed down 3.8% while D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing added 0.3% each.
At first, the investor appetite for Quantinuum was undeniable. The Honeywell-backed upstart raised $1.68 billion in its upsized initial public offering of 28 million shares late Wednesday, setting the stage for one of the most anticipated tech listings of the year. Underwriters were granted the option to sell an additional 4.2 million depending on demand.
Lululemon Cuts Outlook as Headwinds Mount
Lululemon Athletica lowered its outlook citing recent challenges after what it described as a solid start to the fiscal year.
The athleisure company said Thursday it saw some positive signals in its latest quarter due to work to improve results in North America, its largest market, where sales continued to decline. However, Lululemon said it has been navigating headwinds more recently, and is working to take additional steps to reposition and bolster its product offerings.
"We recognize that we have more work to do," interim co-Chief Executive Officer André Maestrini said.
Expected Major Events for Friday
01:00/PHI: May CPI
03:00/THA: May CPI
05:00/SIN: Apr Retail Sales
05:00/JPN: Apr Indexes of Business Conditions - Preliminary Release
06:30/AUS: May Official Reserve Assets
07:30/THA: Weekly International Reserves
08:00/TAI: May Price Indexes: Consumer Prices (CPI)
08:20/TAI: May International Reserves
08:30/HK: May Foreign Exchange Reserves
09:59/PHI: Apr Money Supply (M3)
09:59/PHI: May Gross International Reserves
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 04, 2026 16:43 ET (20:43 GMT)
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