01 Stock Market
As of May 19, U.S. stock index futures performed as follows: Dow Jones futures slipped 0.28%, S&P 500 futures eased 0.44%, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.79%, signaling a cautious tone as investors weigh a dense slate of technology earnings and macro-sensitive headlines.
Notable Stock Movers: SOXS rose 5.83% at $10.53 amid renewed profit-taking across semiconductors, while inverse peer SOXL fell 5.77% at $143.00. Mega-cap tech was mixed: MSFT up 0.97% at $427.67 and GOOG up 0.45% at $394.87 contrasted with NVDA down 1.04% at $220.00 and AAPL down 0.76% at $295.59. Memory name MU fell 2.55% at $664.15, electric-vehicle leader TSLA slid 1.26% at $404.82, and workflow platform NOW jumped 5.67% at $109.28 following upbeat software sentiment. Chinese ADRs diverged: BABA gained 1.10% at $134.73, whereas LI fell 4.73% at $15.90.
02 Other Markets
• 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell 0.17%, to 4.62%.
• U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.28% to 99.24.
• WTI crude oil futures fell 0.62% to 103.73 USD/barrel; COMEX gold futures fell 0.43% to 4,538.50 USD/ounce.
03 Key News
1. Alphabet and Blackstone formed a joint venture to build an AI-focused cloud infrastructure platform. The new U.S. company will deploy Google Tensor Processing Unit chips as a “compute-as-a-service” offering, with Blackstone committing $5 billion of equity and an initial target of 500 MW of data-center capacity, aiming to broaden access to custom AI hardware and challenge existing GPU-centric providers.
2. Akamai Technologies announced a $2.6 billion convertible-notes offering to accelerate cloud-infrastructure expansion. Proceeds will fund rapid data-center build-outs and general corporate purposes, giving the edge-cloud provider added flexibility as it pursues scale in security and content-delivery services.
3. Home Depot reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and reaffirmed full-year guidance. Net sales rose 4.8% to $41.8 billion, comparable sales inched 0.6% higher, and diluted EPS of $3.41 topped estimates, suggesting resilient home-improvement demand despite higher borrowing costs.
4. KE Holdings posted a quarterly profit of $0.20 per ADS on revenue of $2.74 billion, surpassing consensus. Management highlighted cost controls and improved transaction efficiency, although year-over-year sales eased amid China’s softer property market.
5. Bilibili delivered adjusted EPS of $0.19 and revenue of $1.08 billion, beating profit forecasts while narrowly missing top-line estimates. Management cited solid user-engagement growth and improving monetization; shares edged lower in early trade as investors focused on revenue guidance.
6. Hesai Group returned to profitability with first-quarter net income of RMB 18.3 million on 29.6% higher revenue. Lidar shipments more than doubled, gross margin held near 39%, and the company was confirmed as a strategic supplier for forthcoming Mercedes-Benz Level-3 autonomous models.
7. Agilysys beat fiscal-fourth-quarter estimates, recording its 17th consecutive period of record revenue. Subscription sales grew 24%, reinforcing momentum for the hospitality-software specialist and underpinning a more than 15% pre-market share jump.
8. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will introduce an innovation-exemption framework for tokenized securities. The forthcoming sandbox aims to streamline approval for blockchain-based stocks, bonds, and treasuries, potentially accelerating institutional adoption of distributed-ledger settlement.
9. Minnesota enacted legislation permitting state-chartered banks and credit unions to offer digital-asset custody services from August 1. The law modernizes banking rules, opening a regulated pathway for regional institutions to safeguard cryptocurrencies on behalf of clients.
10. Bitmine disclosed the purchase of 71,672 Ether, investing approximately $154 million to expand its crypto treasury. The acquisition underscores continued institutional interest in Ethereum despite recent price volatility, positioning the firm for potential upside from upcoming network upgrades.
Sources: Reuters, Dow Jones, Tiger Newspress, public market data
Disclaimer: For informational purposes only; not investment advice.
