A handsome, brown Pineywoods bull with a black head and large horns stands near a forest

A handsome, brown endangered heritage breed Pineywoods bull with large horns stands near a forest on a regenerative farm in North Carolina, looking calm and confident

S&P 500 posts weekly gain for its 8th consecutive week

The benchmark index is on its longest weekly winning streak since 2023.

Tasha Matsumoto

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all gained. This is the eighth consecutive winning week for the S&P 500, its longest run of weekly gains since 2023.

Pakistan’s army chief has traveled to Tehran to help broker a peace deal between the US and Iran. According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, indirect negotiations for a deal have seen “a little bit of movement, and that’s good.”

Healthcare was today’s best-performing sector, while communications was the worst.

Stocks that moved higher:

Dell, Super Micro Computer, and HP jumped as Lenovo’s huge AI revenue growth signaled hot demand for servers.
Quantum computing stocks D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion continued their rally on yesterday’s news that the Trump administration awarded grants to these firms, among others, in exchange for equity stakes. Other quantum computing firms like IonQ and Quantum Computing rose as well.
AMD rose as CEO Lisa Su forecast massive five-year CPU demand growth.
Imax had its best trading day since 2021 following a Wall Street Journal report that it’s exploring a sale.
Zoom surged after beating estimates and raising guidance.
Workday climbed on yesterday’s postive postmarket Q1 earnings report under its returning CEO.
Estée Lauder jumped after scrapping its merger talks with Puig.
Birkenstock continued to rise on yesterday’s $250 million share buyback announcement.
Ross shares rose after the company delivered strong Q1 results, with sales topping Wall Street’s projections.

Stocks that moved lower:

Chinese stocks Futu, UP Fintech, PDD Holdings, Alibaba, and Baidu dropped as Beijing regulators launched a crackdown on illegal cross-border securities activity.
Despite reporting better-than-expected Q4 net bookings after the bell yesterday, Take-Two Interactive dipped as analysts called its “GTA 6” revenue forecast absurdly conservative.
Reddit fell after Meta launched a competitor to its community-based discussion format.
Uber deepened losses on a report that it’s exploring a full takeover of Delivery Hero.

Paige Oamek2h

Hardware stocks jump thanks to server demand and record Lenovo revenue

Server stocks are rallying as Dell, Super Micro Computer, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ride the momentum of Hong Kong-based Lenovo. The PC maker’s stock rose 19% on Friday, hitting an all-time high, on record Q4 earnings.

Powering the positive earnings report was the company’s AI-related revenue, which grew 84% in the fourth quarter and now makes up over a third of total revenue. Investors seem to think the increased demand for servers could have trickle-down effects for other companies.

“The company’s results and commentary reinforced the outlook for strong AI-infrastructure demand while indicating resilient broader traditional server and storage spending,” wrote Woo Jin Ho, a senior technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Lenovo’s $21 billion AI-server pipeline and remarks that demand is outpacing supply support Dell’s AI-demand momentum and point to robust orders.”

AI’s insatiable computing demand is reshaping the hardware industry and driving up server demand.

Dell will report first-quarter earnings on Thursday, May 28.

Take-Two’s “GTA 6” forecast feels absurdly conservative

Take-Two issued a 2027 net bookings forecast about $1 billion below Wall Street’s estimates. The stock is falling on Friday.

Max Knoblauch5h

The D-Wave 2X quantum system, is operated at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., as seen on Tuesday December 8, 2015.

Quantum computing CEOs hope “validating” government backing proves their technology is no longer speculative

The government funding is a push to boost the foundational elements of quantum computing to get the industry ready for prime time. The CEOs of Infleqtion and D-Wave give us their thoughts.

Luke Kawa7h

Helena Cheng8h

Ross Stores surges as Q1 results beat expectations, full-year guidance raised

Ross shares are rising after the company delivered strong Q1 results, with sales topping Wall Street’s projections.

The stock soared 6.3% just after the open.

Key numbers:

Earnings per share of $2.02 vs. $1.47 year over year (estimate: $1.72).
Sales of $6.01 billion, up 21% year over year (estimate: $5.61 billion).
Comparable sales growth of 17% (estimate: 8.58%).

CEO Jim Conroy attributed the results to better traffic in stores. “Customer traffic was the primary driver of the strong sales trend as compelling merchandise assortments, higher customer acquisition and engagement from our ongoing marketing initiatives, and an improved in‑store experience are resonating with shoppers.”

The company also noted that transaction volume grew across all key demographics, including “income levels, ethnicities, and age groups, including younger customers.” Sales were also likely buoyed by standard seasonal tailwinds, including consumer spending from tax refunds.

Backed by the strong quarter, the company lifted its full-year targets. Ross now projects same-store sales growth of 6% to 7%, up from the prior forecast of 3% to 4%, topping Wall Street’s estimate of 4.64%. It boosted its annual EPS guidance to a range of $7.50 to $7.74, versus the prior outlook of $7.02 to $7.36.

Ross Stores has been one of the retail sector’s standout performers this year, rising around 20% year to date as of Thursday’s close.

Max Knoblauch8h

Imax surges on report it’s approached entertainment companies for a sale

Imax is on pace for its best trading day since 2021 following a Wall Street Journal report that it’s exploring a sale. Shares are up more than 15% in premarket trading on Friday.

The premium screen company has reportedly approached entertainment companies for a deal, though talks are early and may not come to fruition. Imax has been boosted in recent years by its higher ticket prices — a K-shaped trend in movie theaters — and last year accounted for more than 5% of domestic box office sales.

Theatrical release windows have become a large debate in Hollywood this year, amid the bidding war between Paramount and Netflix for Warner Bros. Discovery. It’s unclear if an entertainment buyer would favor its own films for Imax over a rival’s.

In the first quarter, Imax booked $81.4 million in sales, beating Wall Street expectations but down about 6.5% from last year, when China’s “Ne Zha 2” smashed records.