Mid-Morning Look: May 27, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

U.S. stocks opened at fresh record highs for the S&P 500, Nasdaq Comp, Russell 2000 and Philly semi index (SOX), though gains early were more subdued following the massive surge the last 4 days, as ground hogs day continues to play over and over again for Semis, Space & Solar Stocks – along with data center/AI infrastructure doing all the heavy lifting for US markets in recent weeks! Oil prices fall over -4% giving stocks a bounce early after Iranian state media announces initial details of the “Memorandum of Understanding” for the US-Iran peace deal. Precious metals tumble with gold falling to two-month low and silver prices slumping as war-driven inflation fuels rate-hike bets, ahead of key monthly PCE inflation data tomorrow morning. Bitcoin hits monthly lows and the dollar Is mixed. Early strength in Consumer Discretionary, Healthcare, Consumer Staples and Communications while Energy tumbles and tech gives up early gains. Several conferences ongoing on Wall Street in the financials and healthcare sector moving some names early. Can the S&P 500 (SPX) make it a 9^th straight week of gains on this holiday shortened week?

The details of the Iran MOU included: 1. US Military forces will withdraw from the vicinity of Iran, 2. The US Navy will lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, 3. Iran has committed to restoring the number of commercial transit ships through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within 1 month, 4. Iranian state media says military vessels are not included in this draft agreement, 5. The management and routing of ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will be handled by Iran in cooperation with Oman, 6. If a final deal is reached within 60 days, this agreement will be approved in the form of a binding UN Security Council resolution.

• In Chemicals: WLK was downgraded to Neutral from buy at Citigroup citing further housing recovery delay, less favorable PVC fundamentals, and less compelling operating leverage; while maintain positive view on PE producers DOW, LYB; updating estimates across PE & PVC producers given price normalization from peak and evidence of some supply normalization and demand destruction. Citi generally tempers 2H26 and 2027 expectations on normalizing PE & PVC prices from the Q2 peak. FUL was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan citing valuation for the upgrade. UBS upgraded shares of RPM to Buy from Neutral as they have a more constructive view of RPM’s pricing power in the current inflationary cycle and upgrade ECL to Buy from Neutral (tgt to $325 from $293) as expects the shares to re-rate higher as investors see Ecolab’s pricing accelerate to recover raw material costs in the second half of 2026.
• Metals & Mining: big declines in silver and gold prices, weighing in turn shares of miners AEM, B, CDE, NEM, PAAS, HL and others amid heavy selling pressure on rising interest rate fears given the increase in inflationary data points 9ahead of the PCE inflation reading tomorrow. The macro backdrop remains pretty challenging for gold and positioning has been pretty short. While yields have come off, they are still comfortably above pre-war levels, physical demand looks soft: India is actively curbing imports.
• Transports: FDX was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan and raise tgt to $460, taking a more positive stance on the shares into the company’s fiscal Q4 report on June 23 saying risk/reward is attractive heading into the separation of the freight business on June 1. GXO upgraded to Overweight at Barclays saying its leadership is likely to target a more profitable future leveraging automation and Robotics to achieve best-in-class margins while focusing growth ambitions in the North American market. In shipping, DSX increases all-cash offer to acquire GNK to $24.80 per share

• APPS +42%; Q4 adj EPS $0.16 tops consensus $0.09 on revs $142.5M vs. est. $133.2M; Q4 adj net Income $19.7M vs. est. $10.11M; Q4 adj EBITDA $31.4M vs. est. $25.14M (was upgraded to Buy at Bank America saying execution has become more consistent and FY27 visibility has improved).
• BBWI +117; Q1 sales $1.38B topped est. $1.36B on better adj EPS of $0.32 vs. est. $0.29 while maintained full-year forecasts for net sales and adj profit and said Eva Boratto will step down from her role as CFO, with Tom Javitch set to take over as interim CFO, effective June 12
• DY +24%; surges as Q1 adj EPS $4.42 crushed consensus $2.72 and revs rose 56% y/y to $1.96B above consensus $1.67B saying strong demand for fiber infrastructure and data center builds drove revenue growth; guidance also better for EPS and revs $1.94B-$2.01B vs. consensus $1.77B and raised its year outlook.
• IREN +4%; announced a hardware partnership with DELL for its Texas data centers. The deal accelerates IREN’s GPU deployment timeline and increases the company’s annualized run-rate revenue forecast to $4.4 billion. IREN agreed to buy NVDA’s air-cooled Blackwell systems from Dell in a deal worth $1.6B.
• LUNR +8%; amid a rebound in shares after sliding Tuesday after NASA announced new lunar exploration contract awards that did not include the company; overall space companies strong today with shares of PL, RKLB, VOYG, YSS among movers.

• BSX -10%; after guidance at Bernstein conference as management reiterated their revised full-year organic growth guidance of 6.5% to 8%. Additionally, management set second-quarter growth guidance at 5%-7%; and CEO said the company has been seeing a decline in usage of its heart disease device, Watchman.
• PDD -12%; as Q1 net income fell -15% to 12.5B yuan and revenue totaled 106.23B yuan that missed market estimates of 109.33B yuan, as economic weakness dented demand at its domestic discount marketplace, Pinduoduo. PDD is also facing stiff competition from rivals JD and BABA
• PODD -7%; shares fell following a voluntary global Medical Device Correction (MDC) impacting Omnipod 5/DASH/Eros Pods due to manufacturing issues potentially resulting in insulin under-delivery; with ~8.5% of 2025 global Omnipod Pod production impacted and 24 serious adverse events, but no deaths.
• SATL -11%; as 10M share Block Trade priced at $9.94.
• VRRM -70%; shares tumbled as receives termination of agreement notice from CAR; said the termination is expected to reduce 2026 commercial services revenue by $135M-$145M; cuts FY26 adjusted EPS view to $1.19-$1.25 from $1.32-$1.38 and lowers FY26 revenue view to $985M-$995M from $1.020B-$1.030B.
• ZS -30%; reported a solid Q3 with organic ARR growth consistent q/q but the company maintained FY organic ARR guidance despite outperformance and introduced preliminary FY/27 ARR/revenue growth of 16-17%, below expectations; the lower outlook for Q4 and FY27 created some short-term pain.