Morning Preview: April 21, 2026

Early Look

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

After a modest pullback on Monday for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Comp, snapping the streak of 13 straight daily advances for the Nasdaq, U.S. futures are pointing to a higher open as investors weighed Tim Cook’s exit as Apple (AAPL) CEO and debated the chances of an extension of the US-Iran truce. President Trump signaled Monday that the US doesn’t plan to extend its temporary ceasefire with Iran, which is set to expire late Wednesday. Dow futures outperform early following a rise in UNH shares after a quarterly beat and raise, with shares up 5% early. Meanwhile the Russell 2000 index (IWM), which made another record high on Monday is also looking higher. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index advanced 524 points to 59,349, the Shanghai Index edged higher 2 points to 4,085, and the Hang Seng Index climbed 126 points to 26,487. In Europe, the German DAX is higher by 150 points to 24,571, while the FTSE 100 is up 10 points to 10,620. In corporate news, Apple (AAPL) announced that CEO Tim Cook will step down and hand over the CEO role to hardware engineering head John Ternus. Also, several earnings this morning with UNH, MMM, GE, DHR all out with results (see below). The Fed remains in blackout period of upcoming FOMC meeting but the Senate confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh is being held today. Retail sales data for March due later will shed light on the consumer and the economy.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped -4.87 points, or 0.01%, to 49,422.56
• The Nasdaq Composite dropped -64.09 points, or 0.26%, to 24,404.39
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 16.06 points, or 0.58% to 2,792.96

• 8:30 AM ET                  Retail Sales M/M for March…est. +1.4% (prior +0.6%)
• 8:30 AM ET                  Retail Sales – Less Autos M/M for March…est. +1.4% (prior +0.5%)
• 8:55 AM ET                  Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales
• 10:00 AM ET                Business Inventories M/M for February…est. +0.3%
• 10:00 AM ET                Pending Home Sales M/M for March…est. +0.5%
• 4:30 PM ET API Weekly Inventory Data

• Earnings After the Close: ADC AERO BBNX BWB CALX CB COF CYH ELS EQT EWBC HAFC HWC IBKR ISRG MANH MCB MCRI NBHC NLY OZK PEGA RRC SON TFIN TRST UAL WAL WRB WSBC ZWS

• President Trump told Bloomberg the ceasefire is unlikely to be extended beyond Wednesday when it expires, while also saying the US has “all the time in the world to make a deal.”

• D.R. Horton (DHI) Q2 EPS $2.24 vs. consensus $2.12; Q2 revs $7.6B, in-line with consensus $7.6B; Net sales orders increased 11% to 24,992 homes with an order value of $9.2B; Debt to total capital of 21.7%; Book value per share increased 5% to $82.91; guides FY revs $33.5-$34.5B vs. est. $33.8B.

• GE Aerospace (GE) Q1 adjusted EPS $1.86, tops consensus $1.60; Q1 adj revenue $11.61B, tops consensus $10.71B; still sees FY26 adjusted EPS $7.10-$7.40 vs. est. $7.46 and sees FY adjusted free cash flow $8B-$8.4B; said it was on track to hit the high end of its 2026 profit outlook of $7.10-$7.40, even as it warned of bottlenecks from higher oil prices, fuel supply constraints and slower global growth.
• Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk increased his stake in SpaceX last year by purchasing $1.4B worth of stock from current and former employees, The Information reported. SpaceX also approved a plan last month that would award the billionaire CEO 60 million additional shares if the company’s market capitalization climbs from $1.1T to as high as $6.6T.
• Steel Dynamics (STLD) Q1 EPS $2.78 vs. consensus $2.79; Q1 revs $5.204B vs. est. $5.09B; Q1 operating income for the company’s steel operations was $557M, or 73% higher q/q, due to record shipments and metal spread expansion; says underlying steel demand strengthened during 1Q; customer orders rebounded, backlogs increased across steel and steel fabrication ops.

• Arch Capital (ACGL) increases buyback authorization to $3B
• BOK Financial (BOKF) Q1 adj. EPS $2.58 and sales rose 10.26% y/y to $553.82M; Q1 net interest income was #342.6M and net interest margin 2.9%.
• RBB Bancorp (RBB) Q1 GAAP EPS of $0.66 beats est. $0.45; Q1 revs $34.75M beats by $2.3M; Q1 pre-tax pre-provision income totaled $15.5M, +16% q/q; Q1 return on average assets of 1.09%, compared to 0.96% for the prior quarter and net interest margin increased to 3.15%, from 2.99% for the prior quarter.
• ServisFirst Bancshares (SFBS) Q1 EPS $1.52 vs. est. $1.54; Q1 Net Income $83.0M; Q1 Net Interest Income $148.1M and Net Interest Margin 3.53%; Q1 Book Value Per Share $34.99; Q1 CET1 Ratio 11.86%
• Synchrony (SYF) Q1 EPS $2.27 vs. est. $2.16; Q1 CET1 ratio 12.7%; Q1 net interest margin increased 76 basis points to 15.50%; Q1  Tangible book value per share increased 8% to $37.62; board plans to increase quarterly dividend to 34c per share; approves share repurchase program up to $6.5B.
• Wintrust Financial (WTFC) Q1 EPS $3.22 vs. est. $2.97; Q1 revs $713.16M vs. est. $707.4M; Q1 Total loans increased by $1.0B, or 7% annualized and Q1 total deposits increased by $1.2B, or 8% annualized; Q1 Net interest income decreased to $579M from $583.9M q/q; Q1 BV per share $103.10.
• Zion Bancorp (ZION) Q1 EPS $1.56 tops consensus $1.43 on revs $860M vs. est. $855.45M; Q1 adj pre-tax pre-provision net revenue increased 13%, as adjusted taxable-equivalent revenue rose 7.4% and adjusted operating expenses increased 4.7%, resulting in positive operating leverage of 2.7%.

• Danaher (DHR) Q1 adj EPS $2.06 vs. consensus $1.94; Q1 revenue $6B, in-line with consensus; sees Q2 non-GAAP core revenue up in LSD percentage range y/y; raises FY26 adjusted EPS view to $8.35-$8.55 from $8.35-$8.50.
• Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) commences $250M underwritten public offering of common stock.
• Spruce Biosciences, Inc. (SPRB) prices public offering of 1,150,000 shares at $50.00 per share.

• Apple Inc. (AAPL) Tim Cook to become Apple executive Chairman while John Ternus to become Apple CEO effective September 1, 2026. Tim Cook to remain CEO through summer to oversee transition. John Ternus to join Apple Board of Directors effective September 1, 2026.
• Axt Inc (AXTI) files for mixed shelf; size not disclosed – SEC filing
• Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) announced that the company is collaborating with Texas Instruments (TXN) to simplify sensor integration and to scale real-time edge AI systems.