A Reuters report said Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, ordered that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium not be sent abroad. That matters because moving enriched uranium out of Iran had been seen as one possible path toward easing tensions with the United States. By refusing that step, Tehran made a quick diplomatic breakthrough look less likely. Markets noticed immediately and futures went in the red.

Oil jumped. Brent crude rose nearly 2%, trading around $106.75 a barrel. Earlier optimism about U.S.-Iran talks faded. The 10-year Treasury yield rose again, reaching about 4.607%. The bond market has become the place where all of today's anxieties meet: inflation, government borrowing, energy prices, and doubts about how the Federal Reserve will respond.

Corporate news did not offer a clean escape hatch. Walmart slipped after maintaining its annual targets but forecasting second-quarter profit below expectations.  The retailer is a basic gauge of the American consumer. If Walmart sounds cautious, investors should pay attention. Intuit gave another signal that the economy is not all sunshine and stock buybacks. The maker of TurboTax cut its annual revenue forecast for its tax-filing software and said it would reduce its full-time workforce by 17%. The company says it wants to invest in bigger bets, especially artificial intelligence. 

Then there is Nvidia, which remains both a company and a market weather system. Its latest quarter was extraordinary: record sales and income, revenue above expectations, and an $80 billion share repurchase program. And yet the stock was roughly flat to slightly weaker in early trading. This says less about Nvidia's weakness than about investor expectations. The company has become so successful that merely being spectacular can feel slightly underwhelming. 

There was one clear pocket of enthusiasm: quantum computing. IBM rose after a Wall Street Journal report said the Trump administration was preparing $2 billion in grants for nine quantum-computing companies, with IBM receiving $1 billion. GlobalFoundries, D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion also rallied.

The tech IPO story also remains powerful. SpaceX has revealed new financial details ahead of what could be a massive listing, while OpenAI is also expected to move toward an IPO. The rivalry between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has become a market subplot of its own.

Today's economic highlights:

See the full calendar here.

  • Dollar index: 99.360
  • Gold: $4,515
  • Crude Oil (BRENT): $106.09 (WTI) $100.50
  • United States 10 years: 4.6%
  • BITCOIN: $77,128

In corporate news:

  • SpaceX signed a cloud-computing agreement to provide Anthropic access to its server infrastructure, with payments running through May 2029.
  • Tesla generated about $890 million in revenue from sales of EVs and battery systems to SpaceX and xAI since 2023, according to a SpaceX filing.
  • Gilead Sciences renewed its WHO partnership through 2030 to support treatment of visceral leishmaniasis with AmBisome donations and funding.
  • Johnson & Johnson said its drug nipocalimab has been approved in China.
  • JSW Group and Uber agreed to co-develop and deploy electric vehicles for India's ride-hailing market.
  • AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential are reportedly nearing a merger that would create a major U.S. apartment-owning group.
  • AT&T sued California in an effort to stop offering traditional copper-wire phone service to new customers and accelerate its shift to IP-based networks.
  • Amgen's Tavneos received a revised Japanese package insert from Kissei Pharmaceutical warning of possible serious liver dysfunction.
  • NextEra Energy agreed to buy Caliber Resource Partners for $1.3 billion and form a shale-asset joint venture with Quantum Capital, according to a report.
  • Devon Energy reportedly accounted for more than half of a $4 billion U.S. government oil and gas lease sale in New Mexico and Texas.
  • Hershey plans to restore original recipes with higher cocoa content for Hershey's and Reese's products as falling cocoa prices make real chocolate more attractive again.
  • Nvidia reassures investors, despite its share price losing some ground after the close.
  • Exxon Mobil has signed a gas cooperation agreement with Egypt.
  • US REITs AvalonBay and Equity Residential are close to a merger, according to several sources.
  • PepsiCo is set to raise the price of small packets of crisps in response to rising costs in the US, according to Bloomberg.
  • Intuit is set to cut its workforce by 17% to embrace AI.
  • Starbucks' single-use plastic cups in its US cafés are not as recyclable as the company claims, according to an NGO.
  • West Pharma says it is fully operational following a cyberattack and is maintaining its forecasts for 2026.
  • OpenAI is laying the groundwork for a fundraising round targeting a valuation of over $1 trillion, according to the FT, whilst the WSJ reports that the filing of the IPO prospectus is imminent.
  • SpaceX unveiled its IPO prospectus on Wednesday.
  • Today's key earnings releases: Walmart, Deere, Ross Stores,Generali, BT Group, Swiss Life, Lundberg, Asmodée…

Analyst Recommendations:

  • Ge Healthcare Technologies Inc.: UBS upgrades to neutral from sell and reduces the target price from USD 75 to USD 69.
  • Occidental Petroleum Corporation: Goldman Sachs upgrades to neutral from sell with a price target raised from USD 57 to USD 64.
  • Analog Devices, Inc.: Daiwa Securities maintains its buy recommendation and raises the target price from USD 385 to USD 470.
  • Applied Digital Corporation: Citizens maintains its market outperform recommendation and raises the target price from USD 40 to USD 60.
  • Dell Technologies Inc.: Morgan Stanley maintains its underweight recommendation and raises the target price from USD 110 to USD 170.
  • Estee Lauder: Baptista Research maintains its hold recommendation and reduces the target price from USD 113.30 to USD 89.10.
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company: Morgan Stanley maintains its equalwt recommendation and raises the target price from USD 25 to USD 33.
  • Intuit Inc.: BMO Capital Markets maintains its outperform rating and reduces the target price from USD 550 to USD 412.
  • Nvidia Corporation: Seaport Global maintains its sell recommendation and raises the target price from USD 140 to USD 180.