Mid-Morning Look: May 06, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Wednesday, May 06, 2026

U.S. stock markets enjoying the massive upward momentum giving the confluence of several positive catalyst again this morning, with major U.S averages making new all-time highs on a daily basis lately. Stocks got a big bump overnight/this morning after President Trump said the U.S. would end its military campaign against Iran if Tehran agrees to terms under discussion, while warning of a sharp escalation if it doesn’t. “Assuming Iran agrees to what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be open to all, including Iran. If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Axios reported that the United States and Iran are closer to an agreement than at any point since the war began on February 28. The reporting cites two US officials and two additional sources briefed on the issue. The document is a one-page fourteen-point memorandum of understanding negotiated by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner with Iranian counterparts, directly and through mediators. The news sent oil prices tumbling and eased inflation fears for the time being with shares of airlines, cruise lines, consumer discretionary names all surging.

If that wasn’t enough, economic data this morning was positive with strong private payroll data as ADP National employment report shows U.S. employment increased by 109,000 private sector jobs in April, above the forecast of 120K and prior 62K). Lastly in stock news, Semiconductors (SOX) continue to rally while Software (IGV) space continues to lag, with renewed pressured today after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies that don’t evolve with Ai could face ruin. Amodei made his comments as part of a conversation with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin and JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon during Anthropic’s The Briefing: Financial Services event. Anything Ai related continues to lift tech, Nasdaq and S&P, from chips (AMD, NVDA, AVGO), memory (MU, SNDK, WDC), opticals (LITE, AAOI, GLW), data center infrastructure names (IREN, HUT, CIFR), cooling (ETN, VRT), new clouds (NBIS, CRWV), hyperscalers (AMZN, GOOGL, MSFT) with many of these names making new highs daily for weeks. And given the higher weighting of tech in major averages, U.S. markets extend their advances for a 6^th straight week now. Energy (XLE) and Utilities (XLU) the only S&P sectors lower on falling oil and Treasury yields.

• Supply chain pressures in April hit their highest level since July 2022, as the Middle East war heavily impacted firms’ ability to move goods around the world freely, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released. The April Global Supply Chain Pressures index moved up sharply to 1.82 in April, from March’s 0.68.

• Data Center/AI infrastructure sector: HUT shares surge after announced the commercialization of the first phase of its Beacon Point data center campus in Nueces County, Texas through a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for 352 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity. CORZ announced a multi-tiered strategy to scale its Muskogee, Oklahoma campus to approximately 1.5 gigawatt (“GW”) of gross power, or approximately 1.0 GW of leasable power.
• Apparel Retailers: ANF downgraded to Underweight at Barclays as believes risk-reward has turned asymmetric versus peer AEO. Barclays notes a promotional inflection at Hollister from “Flat” to “Deeper,” while Abercrombie remained Flat.” AEO was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight based on: big jump in promo score driven by “near-perfect” Aerie quarter; expected positive sales-to-inventory inflection in 1Q26E; 2H26 leverage of brand investments; and underlying brand heat at Aerie / Offline. CRI a mover on earnings. VFC was upgraded to Buy at BTIG saying after ~5 years of downward earnings revisions, estimates now appear appropriate with potential to move up as Vans returns to growth after years of rightsizing, and TNF momentum continues.
• Insurance Brokers AJG, BRO, MRSH and WTW were all upgrade to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup on valuation as it believes there is a systemic return opportunity in the sector. The firm said this is a consequence of three factors: (1) each stock now offers at least 15% potential upside to Citi’s 12-month targets; (2) the worst of cyclical growth pressures are likely to abate in the next 2-3 quarters; and (3) the stocks are now trading at multiples in-line with pre-COVID averages. Citi’s highest conviction idea is Aon, with Ryan offering the most asymmetric risk/reward.
• FinTech: DAVE reported Q1 revenue of $158M (+47% y/y), above consensus of $151M, driven by continued momentum in Service-based Revenue of $148M up 51% y/y and better earnings while operating expenses were $99M (+36% y/y), and adjusted EBITDA was $69M (+57% y/y), above its estimate of $60M. UPST shares fell on Q1 net loss of $6.6M vs. $2.4M y/y while adj EBITDA declined y/y; Q1 total originations rose 61% y/y, driving higher revenue to $277.6M; reiterated full-year 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA outlook.

• COMP +27%; shares surged after the real-estate developer reported a surprise Q1 profit as revenue surged 99% from a year ago to $2.7B thanks to the company’s merger with its rival Anywhere; Revenue +7% y/y PF vs. 4Q +12% and guided to +11% PF, a 1pt slowdown on 2-year basis.
• CVS +7%; better results and guide as Q1 adj EPS $2.57 vs. est. $2.20 and revs $100.4B vs. est. $95.1B; Q1 medical benefit ratio 84.6% vs. est. 87.58%; Raises FY2026 GAAP EPS guidance to $6.24-$6.44; ADJ EPS to $7.30-$7.50 (vs. est. $7.16); says maintaining cautious view for remainder of year.
• DIS +8%; Q2 revs rose 5% to $25.17B topping the $24.87B consensus on adj EPS $1.57, above $1.45 Y/y and consensus of $1.49; now expects adjusted per-share earnings growth of about 12% for the fiscal year.
• FLEX +28%; reported 4Q EPS of $0.93 vs. consensus of $0.87 and announced its intention to spin its DC biz into a separate public company and introduced its FY27 EPS guide 19% higher than consensus.
• GLW +9%; announced a multiyear commercial/partnership with NVDA to dramatically expand U.S.-based manufacturing of the advanced optical connectivity solutions needed to power next-generation AI infrastructure (GLW receives $500M investment).
• GOOGL +2%; Anthropic plans to spend about $200B on Google’s cloud and chips over five years, representing more than 40% of the “revenue backlog” Google disclosed last week, The Information reported.
• HUT +28%; after announced the commercialization of the first phase of its Beacon Point data center campus in Nueces County, Texas through a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for 352 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity.
• NVO +3%; said Q1 adj operating profit was 32.86B Danish crowns ($5.16B), above the 28.74B forecast and slightly improved its full-year outlook, forecasting adjusted sales and operating profit declines of 4% to 12% at constant exchange rates, versus a previous range of minus 5% to minus 13%.
• SMCI +17%; shares jump as guidance offsets weak quarter; Q3 sales $10.24B vs. est. $12.33B; Q3 adj EPS $0.84 vs. est. $0.62; guides Q4 EPS $0.65-$0.79 above consensus $0.55 and sales $11B-$12.5B vs. consensus $11.07B; said are exceptionally well-positioned to meet the massive demand for various AI and enterprise verticals.
• RCL +5%; along with gains in shares of other cruise line operators (CCL, NCLH, VIK) as falling oil prices were a boon to shares, which have grappled with rising fuel costs; shares of airlines also seeing a bounce.
• UBER +5%; Q1 revs rose 14% Y/y to $13.2B vs. est. $13.28B; and adj EPS $0.72 vs. est. $0.70 on bookings $53.72B vs. est. $52.84B; guides Q2 bookings $56.25B-$57.75B vs. est. $56B and adj EBITDA $2.7-$2.8B above consensus $2.64B; said for Q1, 20% Y/r increase in trips and 25% Y/y rise in gross bookings.

• CF -4%; US fertilizer and chemical companies slide as Iran, U.S. closer to ending Middle East war.
• COR -17%; Q2 revenue $78.4B misses estimates of $81.09B and EPS also miss though raises annual EPS to $17.65-$17.90 from $17.45-$17.75 expected previously.
• IEP -4%; after double earnings miss and announcement that CEO Andrew Taco is stepping down immediately, to be replaced by Ted Papapostolou.
• KVYO -29%; shares fell Q1 rev lighter beat (2.9% vs 4.5% avg since the IPO), the statement that guidance would be “closer to the pin”, commentary that KVYO will absorb telco Carrier fees rather than pass these on to customers and the announcement that CFO Amanda Whalen will step down in August.
• PRIM -46%; reported a very disappointing Q1 and an equally disappointing guidance as the problem renewable project inventory has expanded beyond the two highlighted last quarter; lowers FY26 adjusted EPS view to $4.80-$5.00, from previous view $5.80-$6.00 and below consensus $5.93.
• TMDX -20%; shares fell on results as Q1 adj EPS $0.30 misses the consensus $0.61; Q1 revs rose 21% y/y to $173.9M in-line with consensus; Q1 Gross margin declined to 58%; reaffirms FY26 revenue view $727M-$757M vs. consensus $739.04M.
• UPST -8%; shares fell on Q1 net loss of $6.6M vs. $2.4M y/y while adj EBITDA declined y/y; Q1 total originations rose 61% y/y, driving higher revenue to $277.6M; reiterated full-year 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA outlook.