Market Review: May 13, 2026

Closing Recap

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Index	Up/Down	%	Last
DJ Industrials	-66.34	0.13%	49,694
S&P 500	43.38	0.59%	7,444
Nasdaq	314.14	1.20%	26,402
Russell 2000	1.13	0.04%	2,843

Inflation data soared (April PPI) well above consensus and prior month readings, Treasury yields hit multi month highs as the 10-year approaches 4.5%, energy prices remain above $100 per barrel and FOMC rate cut expectations are no longer given the surge in inflation…and yet…U.S. markets extended their record making run, again led by technology as major averages melted higher all afternoon ending near highs. Outside of the massive market demand for technology stocks/AI plays, nothing else has mattered for weeks as the Nasdaq Comp jumped as much as +1.45% today, or about 475 points before paring gains, off the morning lows of 25,990 to 26,470, (now well off the March 30 low of 20,690) almost a straight line rally since the initial dip on the open after the hotter PPI inflation reading that was quickly dismissed. While markets rally daily, there remain signs of a stressed consumer as @charliebilello noted on X, “13.1% of credit card balances in the US are now 90+ days delinquent, the highest since 2011. 10.3% of student loan balances are now 90+ days delinquent, the highest since 2020. 5.6% of auto loan balances are now 90+ days delinquent, the highest level on record.” That coupled with surging food, shelter, energy, and auto prices given the recent rally in inflation data points, gives food for thought about the strength of the economy. More AI in focus tonight as Cerebras (CBRS) Ai chipmaker is expected to guide its IPO tonight above the top of its marketed range. The company is offering 30M shares in the IPO for $150 to $160 each, after revising the range and number of shares higher on Monday. At that price and size, the IPO would raise $4.8B, making it the year’s largest first-time share sale, excluding offerings with private placements.

The same sectors continue to lead the charge as The Philadelphia Semi Index (SOX) surged back above 12,000 after hitting lows of 11,263 yesterday morning and only 100 points way from its record of 12,108 as the tech sector (XLK) extends YTD gains to 22% and the SOX back up around 70% YTD. Ai headlines every day, positive analyst commentary and massive momentum buying in chip stocks, memory stocks, hyperscalers, neocloud, data center, ai infrastructure, power plays are rallying day after day and taking this market to new highs. Market breadth 4 of the last 5 days has actually been negative for the market and there were more 52-week lows than highs in the NYSE today, despite the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs as the markets remains driven by the largest components (AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, NVDA, TSLA, semis, etc.) Can the S&P 500 and Nasdaq make it a 7^th straight week of gains?

Stock markets now eagerly await the meeting between US President Trump and Chinese President Xi on Thursday and Friday. President Trump downgraded Iran on the China agenda from the centerpiece of the trip to “not a priority,” saying the talks would focus mainly on trade and that the US doesn’t need China’s help managing Iran. Posting on Truth Social from AirForce One, Trump said he was going to ask President Xi to open up China and noted that Nvidia CEO Huang was also aboard AirForce One. Speaking of NVDA, today it became the first company in history to hit a market cap of $5.5 trillion, new record highs ahead of his visit to China (many hoping for headlines about chips to China).

Economic Data

The U.S. Producer Price Index jumped 1.4% M/M in April, well above the +0.5% consensus, while March’s PPI was revised to an increase of +0.7% from the +0.5% rise it originally estimated. April’s increase is the largest one-month advance since March 2022, when it rose 1.7%. Almost 60% of the rise in final demand prices can be attributed to a 1.2% advance in final demand services, the BLS said. On a year-over-year basis, PPI climbed 6.0%, compared with the +4.8% consensus and +4.3% in March (revised from +4.0%). That’s the largest Y/Y increase since December 2022, when it jumped 6.4%.

Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, increased 1.0% M/M vs. +0.3% consensus and +0.2% prior (revised from +0.1%). That put the Y/Y increase at 5.2% vs. +4.3% consensus and +4.0% prior (revised from +3.8%). Ex: foods, energy, and trade services, the gauge rose 0.6% M/M in April, higher than the +0.3% consensus and accelerating from +0.2% in March.
More than three-quarters of the 2.0% increase in the index for April final demand goods comes from a 7.8% jump in final demand energy. The gasoline index surged 15.6% M/M.

Commodities

June gold rises +$20.00/oz, or +0.43%, to settle at $4,706.70 while July silver jumps +$3.78/oz, or +4.41%, to settle at $89.37 an ounce. The moves come after April producer prices increased more than expected in April, posting their biggest gain since early 2022.

Oil prices opened much higher but ended lower as WTI crude dipped -$1.16 or 1.14% to settle at $101.02 per barrel while Brent crude settle at $105.63/bbl, down $2.14, or 1.99%
Weekly oil inventory data bullish again as the EIA said U.S. weekly crude stocks declined -4.3M bbls to 452.88M, vs forecast of a -2.1M bbl draw. Bigger drawdowns for gasoline too at -4.1M bbls to 215.71M, vs forecast of -2.9M bbl draw and weekly distillate stocks up 190,000 bbls to 102.53M, vs forecast of 2.7M bbl draw.

Macro	Up/Down	Last
WTI Crude	-1.16	101.02
Brent	-2.14	105.63
Gold	20.00	4,706.70
EUR/USD	-0.0031	1.1706
JPY/USD	0.27	157.88
10-Year Note	0.01	4.48%

Sector News Breakdown

Retail, Consumer Staples & Restaurants:

Online Retail: BABA Q4 revs rose 3% y/y to $35.28B while adjusted EPS for fiscal Q4 fell 95% y/y and operating margin dropped to 0% from 12% a year earlier; Cloud Intelligence Group revenue rose 38% y/y with external revenue up 40%, and Quick commerce revenue rose 57% y/y.

Footwear Retail: BIRK shares fell on results as Q2 revs of 618.3M euros ($723.47 million) missed analysts ests of 620.07M euros ($725.54 million), and adj EPS of 0.50 euros, down 9% from 0.55 euros a year earlier; cites 6M euros ($7.02 million) impact to its EMEA segment. NKE struggling China business has become a cautionary example of how even deeply established U.S. brands can lose ground in an increasingly competitive and nationalistic market, with revenue down sharply despite industry growth and continued weakness, said the WSJ.
Apparel Retail: UAA was downgraded from Buy to Hold at Stifel and lowering PT $9 to $6 after results as contemplates a more challenging risk/reward profile related to 1) higher than previously anticipated SG&A expense, 2) inflection to a normalized net debt position, and 3) persistent challenges to topline growth.
Mattress retail (SGI, LEG, SNBR): Piper noted the April 2026 PSC Mattress Retailer Survey (with ~15 retailers representing >600 stores) demonstrated a healthy sequential improvement in sales, accelerating to +5.5%/+1.0% Y/ Y even with significantly more challenging Y/Y compares. Sales were AUP driven (+5.9%/ +4.0% Y/Y) though units improved sequentially (-0.3%/-2.0%). Importantly, the Q2 outlook remains healthy at +MSD% growth with retailers expecting a solid Memorial Day Weekend (MDW).

Energy

Energy Services: FLNC prices 20M Class A shares by controlling stockholders at $21.00 per share; EOSE shares surged after the company and Cerberus Capital Management are establishing a development and investment company called Frontier Power USA, that will bring together Eos’ energy storage technology and Cerberus’ institutional capital and operating experience. Cerberus is providing a $100 million equity commitment and will receive Eos warrants and controlling equity in Frontier Power USA in exchange. AEIS announced a private offering of $1 bln convertible bonds (CBs) due 2031. SEI announces completion of $2 billion financing and expansion of existing power contract. FRVO shares opened at $36 apiece vs IPO price of $27, valuing the geothermal energy developer at around $10.21 billion after selling 70Mshares in an upsized IPO of $25 to $26 apiece.

In Utility, Solar & Nuclear sector: AEP 20.47M share Spot Secondary priced at $127.00; OKLO shares fell after reported a Q1 loss (-$0.19), matching analyst expectations, but was wider than the (-$0.07) per-share loss recorded y/y.; NXT shares jumped after Q4 results beat on both revenue and EPS, posted solid bookings quarter in excess of $1B and exited the fiscal year with a backlog of more than $5.25B and raises FY27 revenue view to $3.8B-$4.1B from $3.6B-$3.8B, (and consensus $3.93B), while backs its profit outlook.

Financials

Financial Information: shares of SPGI and MCO were broadly lower today as both have been pressured this year amid ongoing fears of Ai disruption in financial data, analytics, and research services. Note both companies have significant exposure in their non-ratings segments (Moody’s Analytics and SPGI’s Market Intelligence) and markets have remained concerned that Ai Tools could commoditize data analysis, regulatory research, and market Intelligence workflows, eroding pricing power and growth.

Financial Services/FinTech: PYPL announced a partnership with Anthropic. "Eighty-two percent of small businesses surveyed say adopting AI is essential to staying competitive, but seventy-three percent say they don’t have the tools or training to do it. PayPal is partnering with Anthropic to close that gap.
Consumer Finance: @charliebilello noted on X, “13.1% of credit card balances in the US are now 90+ days delinquent, the highest since 2011. 10.3% of student loan balances are now 90+ days delinquent, the highest since 2020. 5.6% of auto loan balances are now 90+ days delinquent, the highest level on record.”

Biotech & Pharma:

CORT was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS and raise PT to $72 from $44 saying Lifyorli’s recent approval in ovarian cancer makes them optimistic on the stock as the launch should see near-term strong uptake.

GRWG Q1 revenue rose 7.5% Y/y to $38.4M, beating analyst expectations of $36.45M as its net loss narrowed to $4.9M from $9.4M, reflecting cost reduction efforts and reaffirmed 2026 outlook for revenue and breakeven adjusted EBITDA
JNJ was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Leerink saying the company’s strong new drug momentum will drive accelerating revenue growth and share outperformance. Leerink upped its estimates for Icotyde and Inlexzo.
Healthcare Services: The Trump administration will block new home healthcare and hospice providers from enrolling in Medicare for at least the next six months, according to a government statement posted today citing fraud concerns. The moratorium will temporarily bar new providers in those categories from signing up for reimbursement from Medicare. Major home health operators in the U.S. include BTSG, UNH while CHE subsidiary VITAS Healthcare is among the top hospice care providers.

Industrials & Materials

In Aerospace & Defense: KRMN reported 1Q26 earnings largely in line with the Street and modestly increased its 2026 revenue/EBITDA outlook slightly above Street as raises FY26 revenue view to $720M-$735M from $715M-$730M and UPS EBITDA guidance to $208.5M-$219.5M from $207M-$218M. drone maker RCAT shares tumbled after saying it sold 23.94M shares (or $225M) at $9.40 per share in an offering that was increased from $200M, which was priced at a 14.8% discount to its last sale. ATRO Q1 sales rose 12% Y/y to $230.61M vs. est. $227.7M; Q1 Aerospace operating margin expanded to 16.5%; raises 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $970M to $1B.

E&C Sector: MTZ was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim with a $480 price target following the company’s analyst meeting where the company presented a multi-year outlook that the analyst views as reasonable or perhaps even conservative.
Transports: FDX said it would allot its shareholders one share of the trucking unit it is hiving off for every two shares they hold in the parcel delivery firm. The unit, FedEx Freight, will list as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange on June 1 under the symbol ‘FDXF‘. FedEx Freight said last month it expects an operating margin of 12% in 2026, on projected revenue of $8.7B and adjusted operating income of $1.1B. In autos, Ford (F) shares rallied after Morgan Stanley noted the automaker’s energy business and its partnership with Chinese battery giant is an "underappreciated" competitive advantage.

Internet, Media & Telecom

AI Sector: Anthropic in talks to raise $30B+ at a >$900B valuation, with a deal potentially closing by month end, Bloomberg reported overnight. In Neo Cloud/Data center, NBIS shares jump on results and company updates as Q1 revs jumped to $399M from $50.9M y/y and above consensus of $371.4M, benefiting from rising demand for Q1 infrastructure and cloud services while investments in GPUs and data center hardware for its core Ai biz drove Q1 capex to about $25B vs $544M y/y and above ests $2.4B spending – and said they’ve secured up to 1.2GW of power and land for a new, owned AI factory at a site in PA.; GOOGL said plans to roll out new Gemini/AI features for Android at the upcoming I/O conference. Bloomberg reported ARM and majority owner SoftBank Group (SFTBY) expressed preliminary interest in acquiring AI computing company Cerebras Systems (CBRS) weeks before its expected initial public offering, but the company rebuffed the interest.

Satellite & Telecom: SATS shares rose after the FCC approved EchoStar’s $40 billion sale of wireless spectrum to SpaceX and AT&T because the move would boost connectivity across the country. SATS is selling approximately 50 megahertz of its nationwide spectrum to AT&T for its 5G network for $23 billion, including 30 MHz of mid-band spectrum and 20 MHz of low-band spectrum. EchoStar is selling 65 megahertz of its spectrum to SpaceX for $17 billion to boost Starlink’s next-gen device to device offering. GILT Q1 revs rose 20% y/y to $110.5M but missed consensus of $114.5M while backs FY26 revenue view $500M-$520M.
In Internet: WIX shares tumbled after Q1 revs $541M vs. est. $544.2M, Q1 bookings grew 15% yr/yr, driven by strong new user cohort and Base44 momentum; maintains full-year 2026 outlook for bookings and revenue growth at mid-teens percentage y/y

Hardware & Software movers:

Electronic Equipment & Components: AVT was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Bank America and raise PT to $96 from $66 as backlog extends, B:B stays >1 and leaner inventory supports a more balanced risk/reward setup. ARW was upgraded to Neutral from underperform at Bank America and raise PT to $233 from $122 on improving fundamentals, extending backlog, better near-term visibility and leaner inventories; but risks remain. As volumes Re-build, incremental margins should improve and ARW can see operating leverage. ZBRA was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight after strong Q1 results.

Delivery Content: AKAM was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Bank America and raise PT to $175 from $130 with Ai-led Re-rating, as large wins validate Akamai’s shift to distributed Ai infrastructure demand; CIS growth inflecting at 40% YoY, with Ai workloads driving recurring revenue and reinforcing edge vs hyperscaler positioning.
Optical stocks strong again led by shares of COHR, LITE, GLW and AAOI in ongoing strength. All four stocks have climbed at least 100% so far this year. Applied Optoelectronics, the leader of the group, has surged 440%. For COHR, Bank America recently raised their tgt to $400 as they forecast a total addressable AI data-center market of $1.7 trillion in 2030, up from a previous forecast of $1.4 trillion.
In Robotics: Mind Robotics is now valued at $3.4B following a new funding round led by Kleiner Perkins. Mind Robotics, started by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, secured an extra $400M, raising its total funding to over $1B. The higher valuation helped boost other robotics related names today RR, ARBE, AEVA, SERV, XPEV etc.

Semiconductors:

Chip stocks across the globe have seen eye-popping gains this year as booming AI data center demand creates a shortage of chips, although recent gains have raised concerns about extreme valuation in the sector. Still after a one day pullback on Tuesday, the semi rally is back in business as the SOX index continues its march to new highs (SOX up around 70% this year alone after +40% gains last year). MU, WDC, STX, SNDK been the biggest leaders as memory shortages lead to higher revs and margins, but rally remains across entire segment with AMD, QCOM, INTC and of course NVDA which hit a $5.5 trillion valuation today. OUST and MBLY among names rallying higher as AI mobility plays as well as equipment stocks in this runaway train of semis.

NVDA shares jumped after CEO Jensen Huang’s last minute addition to Trump’s China trip puts AI squarely at the center of the Beijing summit, raising hopes for progress on Nvidia’s China market access – particularly around advanced AI chip approvals.
AIP Q1 adj EPS $($0.03) vs est ($0.07) on revs $22.9Mm vs est $21Mm; guides Q2 revs $23-24Mm and adj operating loss $2.0-3.0Mm; sees FY revs $91-95Mm vs est $91Mm and adj operating loss $4.5-8.5Mm.
QUIK posted a wider-than-expected Q1 net loss of (-$0.08) vs. est. loss (-$0.05) and revs rose 17% y/y to $5.05M missing the $5.51M consensus; said began initial shipments of RadPro FPGA Dev Kit and secured new contracts; did not provide specific guidance for the current quarter or full year
TSEM shares jumped on results as Q1 revs $414M topped ests $411M on better EPS while guided Q2 revs $455M above consensus $436M and said it landed $1.3 billion in deals for 2027 to supply chips that use light to move data at high speeds through artificial intelligence data centers.
WOLF shares extend gains to 7th straight day of gains after Citrini Research recommended the stock, highlighting it as “a crouching tiger getting ready to reveal a dragon that deserves to not just be priced based on what their fab’s replacement value theoretically is, but reflect the fact that it’s not going to be replaced."

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Market commentary provided by Hammerstone Markets, Inc, a firm separate from and not affiliated with Regal Securities. Regal Securities has not participated in the creation of the content, and does not explicitly or implicitly endorse the content.