Ten Stories Moving the Market

Ten Stories Moving the Market:

U.S. President Donald Trump said he had paused a planned attack against Iran to allow ‌for negotiations to take place on a deal to end the U.S.-Israeli war, after Iran sent a new peace proposal to Washington – WSJ. (Why you should care – Trump said the military has been instructed to move forward with an all-out assault if an acceptable deal is not reached)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said enterprise AI has moved past initial pilot phases into an era of truly "useful AI," causing enterprise demand to go "parabolic"; Huang noted the computing requirements associated with Agentic AI have multiplied by 100x to 1,000x compared to simple, single-turn prompt answers – Bloomberg. (Why you should care – he said that demand for memory and AI semiconductors is growing so fast, it could take a decade before supply catches up)

Alphabet’s Google and Blackstone plan to create an artificial-intelligence cloud company to rival the likes of CoreWeave, using Google’s specialized chips; the duo plans to launch the unnamed U.S. company with $5 billion in equity capital from Blackstone, which will be the majority owner – WSJ. (Why you should care – the deal highlights the strength in demand for compute capacity and power generation)

Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter said its worried higher energy costs will feed through to consumer prices quickly given the ​stretched state of the domestic economy, potentially creating a ‌significant shift in inflation expectations – Reuters. (Why you should care – the commentary leans in the direction of additional RBA rate hikes if oil prices stay elevated)

The Trump administration plans to unveil a framework for trading tokenized or ​digital versions of securities; the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to release its so-called innovation exemption for tokenized stocks as soon as this week – Bloomberg. (Why you should care – the SEC is considering the use of third-party tokens that do not have the backing or consent of the public companies whose shares they track)

Japan's economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter on solid ‌exports and consumption, according to Ministry of Commerce data; Japan's real gross domestic product (GDP) increased an annualized 2.1% rate compared to the 0.8% rise in the prior quarter – Reuters. (Why you should care – it’s likely that high oil prices in the second quarter weighed on business investment and consumer spending, potentially keeping the Bank of Japan on hold)

NextEra Energy’s $67 billion deal for rival Dominion Energy is the largest utility acquisition in U.S. history; it suggests even the industry’s biggest companies need to grow in order to accommodate the power demand driven by artificial intelligence – Bloomberg. (Why you should care – Wall Street expects power companies and grid operators to spend more than$1.1 billion over the next five years on power generation and transmission projects)

AWS CEO Matt Garman pushed back against extreme predictions that Artificial Intelligence will cause mass unemployment on the scale of the Great Depression; he believes AI has the potential to create massive value and entirely new categories of employment – WSJ. (Why you should care - Garman frames automation as a tool to scale up output because less people will be required to accomplish single tasks)

U.S. home builder sentiment unexpectedly improved in May, but ​construction firm attitudes about the housing market remain subdued as the war in Iran stokes inflation pressures that are ‌elevating everything from building material prices to buyers' mortgage rates – Reuters. (Why you should care – high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty continue to weigh on industry sentiment and demand)

The U.S. issued a new waiver allowing the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products that are already loaded on tankers, days after the previous one lapsed; the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a so-called general license waiver, which now extends to June 17 – Bloomberg. (Why you should care – the White House is trying to keep a lid on oil price increases while it works toward a peace deal with Iran)

Economic Calendar:

Earnings: CAVA, EXP, HD, TOL, VSAT

Japan – GDP for Q1

RBA Meeting Minutes

Japan – Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization for March

BoE’s Breeden (Deputy Governor) Speaks (4:10 a.m.)

Eurozone – Exports, Imports for March (5 a.m.)

Fed’s Waller (Board Member, Voter) Speaks (8 a.m.)

ECB’s Lane (Chief Economist) Speaks (8 a.m.)

U.S. – ADP Employment Change Weekly (8:15 a.m.)

Canada – CPI for April (8:30 a.m.)

U.S. – Pending Home Sales for April (10 a.m.)

Treasury Auctions $85 Billion in 6-Week Bills (11:30 a.m.)

U.S. - American Petroleum Institute Crude Oil Inventory Data (4:30 p.m.)