Mid-Morning Look: May 20, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

U.S. stocks open higher after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both fell for a 3^rd straight day on Tuesday, their longest losing streaks since the end of March though pared losses late day amid a bounce in tech stocks, as markets now await earnings results from the biggest company in the world, NVidia (NVDA) tonight after the bell in the semi sector. Stocks got an additional bounce as oil prices fell around 4%, putting stocks at their highs this morning which lifted gold prices off lows and Treasury yields slipped. Smallcaps bounce as the Russell 2000 outperforms. Overnight, Al Arabiya reported that President Trump said that Iran’s leaders are begging to make a deal, but that a new U.S. attack would happen in the coming days if one was not reached. Reuters is reporting that U.S. President Donald Trump again asserted the war with Iran will end “very quickly,” ‌on Tuesday night. Peace talks between the U.S. and Iran are making limited progress as both countries have rejected each other’s latest proposals. Iran described the U.S. proposal as containing “excessive demands and unrealistic positions,” while the U.S. said Iran’s revised proposal was not a meaningful improvement and remained insufficient for a deal. With no major US economic data today and earnings in retail mostly better today, but guidance weighed on shares of Target (TGT) and Lowe’s (LOW), the attention remains firmly back on tech (XLK) and semis (SOX) after a small three day decline from record highs after a monstrous run in 2026 on Ai demand growth hopes.

• Software: software names (ADBE, CRM, HUBS, MNDY, TEAM, WDAY) resumed downward pressure amid rotation back into semis – software names (IGV) had enjoyed three days rally while semis pulled back from highs; RBRK was upgraded to Outperform (from Perform) at Oppenheimer as believes: (1) Rubrik is benefitting from a sharp recovery in backup & recovery/cyber-resilience sector demand; (2) its product leadership across various workloads continues to improve; and (3) given Rubrik protects mission-critical workloads, higher memory pricing doesn’t seem to be impacting demand, at least for now.
• Memory chip makers MU, SNDK saw gains early on reports Samsung (SSNLF) union set to strike on Thursday, as approximately 48,000 workers are scheduled to begin an 18-day strike over bonus payments, posing a potential risk to South Korea’s economy and global chip supply (and possibly raise memory costs). Media reports later noted Samsung Electronics and its South Korean labor union reached a preliminary pay deal on Wednesday, potentially averting a planned lengthy strike that threatened to disrupt the production of AI and other chips.

• CHRW +3%; was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies saying their visit to the company’s headquarters materially reinforced the firm’s conviction in the firms technology and productivity transformation.
• IBRX +9%; after the FDA accepted for review the supplemental Biologics license application to expand the label for Anktiva in battling invasive bladder cancer.
• IMVT +22%; announced preliminary results from IMVT-1402 Trial in D2T RA. At the completion of Period 1, 165 of the 170 patients were evaluable for ACR20 response. Of these patients, 86.7% (143/165) had failed two prior mechanisms of advanced therapies, and the mean time since diagnosis was 12.8 years.
• TJX +5%; reported Q1 top and bottom line above consensus at $1.19/$14.3B vs. consensus $1.00/$140.01B; and Q2 guidance was in-line with consensus while raises year outlook for FY27 comp store sales growth between 3%-4% (vs. prior 2%-3%) and EPS $5.08-$5.15, above prior view $4.93-$5.02.
• TOL +5%; Q2 results topped consensus as EPS $2.72 vs est $2.58, on home sales revenue $2.51B vs est $2.415B; Q2 adj home sales gross margin 26.2 raises full-year guidance across all key home building metrics as expects FY 2026 deliveries of 10,400-10,700 units, avg price $985,000-$1,000,000.

• LOW -3%; results beat for Q1 but only affirms guide; Q1 adj EPS $3.03 vs. consensus $2.97 and revs $23.08B vs. consensus $22.88B; Q1 comp store sales rose +0.6%; backs FY26 adjusted EPS view $12.25-$12.75 (est. $12.59), FY26 revenue view $92B-$94B (est. $93.07B) and backs FY26 comp sales view flat to up 2%
• TGT -6%; reported a big Q1 comparable sales and earnings beat (+5.6% Y/y vs consensus +2.4% and 1.71 vs consensus $1.47, respectively). Target raised FY’26 guidance (net sales by +2pp and EPS to the high-end of initial $7.50-$8.50 range), but the earnings range falls below current consensus expectations ($8.12).
• VFC -1%; Q4 revenue of $2.17B topped estimates of $2.13B helped by strong demand in Americas region, reports annual revenue growth of 4% excluding contributions from Dickies brand, which it sold in late 2025, marking the first revenue growth following three years of decline.
• VIAV -1%; shares dropped after announces pricing of 11.11M share offering at $45.00.
• WRBY -3%; adds to prior day weakness – Roth noted “The Google Io event from 5/19 included some modest new details around Warby’s Smart glasses product, with the most important one being timing: available “this fall.” While this was essentially in line with Roth view, it may have been disappointing for some Smart glasses bulls”