Markets
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Luke Kawa

Scott Bessent’s ascendance is the salve for a shaky US stock market

For traders, it’s important to know who has the president’s ear.

Personnel is policy, or so the old saying goes, and the various officials swirling around the Oval Office have different preferences on the best measures to take for the US economy. It’s something that bears close watching as some of the administration’s harsher stances on trade and monetary policy were softened, at least rhetorically, on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the April 9 announcement from President Trump to water down reciprocal tariffs on most nations was in part spurred by a window of opportunity: noted trade hawk Peter Navarro wasn’t around to dissuade the president.

Neil Dutta, head of US economics at Renaissance Macro Research, took this a step further in a morning note to clients, breaking down how the S&P 500 has performed on days when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (a hedge fund chief in his previous life) is mentioned more in news articles than Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick or Navarro.

His findings:

“Since the beginning of March, the S&P 500 has shed a total of 719 points on days Howard Lutnick and Peter Navarro have been the biggest story. By contrast, if Bessent has been the biggest story on the day, the S&P 500 has advanced a total of 52 points. So, Bessent is good for about 1ppt up on the S&P500. By contrast, the others are a drag of about 13.5ppt. Trump’s recent comments around Powell, his soothing words around China, all tell you that Trump is starting to ‘feel the market.’ I’m not sure how long it lasts or when it stops (probably until the next bad hard data point), but it is welcome.”

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J. Edward Moreno

Intel rebounds as executives tout AI progress, new deals

Intel rose Wednesday morning, recovering some of its losses from earlier this week after Nvidia announced that it would enter the laptop market with its new PC “superchip.”

Speaking at the Computex ​expo in Taipei on ‌Tuesday, Intel executives gave bullish updates on the company’s business, including:

  • Intel’s 18A process is now “at full scale” with “hundreds of design wins” and has been ramped to “high volume with multiple products,” according to Alex Katouzian, head of the company’s physical AI group.

  • It also noted new deals for custom silicon, including a deployed Google Infrastructure Processing Unit and infrastructure silicon for Ericsson.

  • Intel is making “tremendous progress” building its foundry business, according to CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

  • A new partnership with Foxconn will “develop rack scale products built upon Intel Xeon processors.”

Intel has risen about 3.4% as of 11 a.m. ET Monday, leaving it only slightly red for the week. The stock has nearly tripled in value since the start of the year.

markets
Helena Cheng

KKR, Blackstone lead private equity sell-off after Partners Group curbs investor withdrawals

Shares of major US alternative asset managers like KKR & Co., Blackstone, Ares Management, and Blue Owl Capital are tumbling after Switzerland-based Partners Group capped investor withdrawals from a flagship private equity fund, reigniting broader market anxieties over private asset valuations and systemic liquidity.

Overseas, Partners Group’s stock dropped 17% in Zurich trading, marking its worst single-day drop on record and sending it to a 52-week low, according to CNBC.

The panic was triggered when Partners Group announced it had restricted redemptions within its $8.6 billion Global Value SICAV fund in a statement and filing to investors, according to Reuters. In a Bloomberg TV interview, Partners Group CEO David Layton said that the sudden surge of investor exit requests hit 9.8% of the fund’s total value during the second quarter. Because this nearly doubled the fund’s internal safety threshold, Partners Group automatically triggered structural guardrails to limit quarterly cash withdrawals to just 5% of net asset value.

“There are some idiosyncratic factors for this fund in particular, but indeed you do see investors broadly, after having redemption pressure within private credit for a number of quarters, now starting to redeem other asset classes,” Layton said on Wednesday.

The sector-wide drop followed a similar announcement just one day ago from asset manager Cliffwater, which capped quarterly redemptions at 5% after investors asked to withdraw roughly 17% of shares from the $31 billion private credit fund, according to Bloomberg.

The market’s sharp reaction stems from the fact that US giants like Blackstone, KKR, and Ares have spent years courting wealthy individual and retail investors to fuel their growth. With a surge in redemption requests starting in private credit late last year and now officially bleeding into private equity, investors are growing skittish that portfolios are holding over-marked assets that cannot be quickly liquidated.

markets
Max Knoblauch

Beta Technologies climbs after Transportation Sec. Duffy posts a “Love Island” meme about his flight in electric aircraft

Air taxi maker Beta Technologies climbed by 5% in premarket trading on Wednesday after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted a video about his recent flight in the company’s electric aircraft.

The Department of Transportation announced Duffy’s Beta flight on Monday, writing that he’d become “the first Transportation Secretary in American history to fly in an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.”

Late Tuesday, Duffy posted another video referencing the flight, writing, “🔥A HOT NEW AIRCRAFT ENTERS THE VILLA👀”

Air taxi rivals Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation were each down about 1.4% in premarket trading. All three companies are participating in the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. All three are also down at least 10% year to date heading into market open on Wednesday.

Tom Jones
hedge of glory
3h
A New York bar is using Kalshi to offer patrons free drinks during the first Knicks Finals game

Sentences are being written that have never been written before.

NBA: MAY 31 NBA Finals Preview - New York Knicks
markets
Helena Cheng

Macy’s rises on Q1 earnings, revenue beat, and raised full-year outlook

Macy’s shares are rising Wednesday morning after the department store giant exceeded Wall Street expectations for Q1 and management lifted the company’s full-year guidance.

Key numbers:

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.13 (compared to analyst estimates of $0.04).

  • Revenue of $4.7 billion (estimate: $4.6 billion).

Macy’s raised its guidance for the full fiscal year and now projects full-year net sales between $21.5 billion and $21.75 billion, up from the previous range of $21.4 billion to $21.65 billion. Adjusted earnings per share also got an upgrade to between $2.00 and $2.20, compared to the prior view of $1.90 to $2.10.

Macy’s Q1 comparable sales increased 3%, exceeding the company’s guidance. The standout performer was Bloomingdale’s, where comparable sales surged 10.2%, capturing its seventh straight quarter of growth. Meanwhile, beauty and skin care retailer Bluemercury also posted a robust 6.4% comparable sales gain.

The company ended the first quarter of 2026 with cash and cash equivalents of $1.3 billion and had $2.0 billion of available borrowing capacity under its asset-based credit facility. Through its quarterly dividend, Macy’s returned $50 million in cash to shareholders in the first quarter of 2026.

“We’re off to a strong start to the year, exceeding expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter as our Bold New Chapter strategy continues to build momentum,” Tony Spring, chairman and CEO of Macy’s, said in a statement. “Customers are responding — driving comparable sales growth at Macy’s and another standout quarter at Bloomingdale’s, underscoring its leadership in modern luxury.” Spring’s “A Bold New Chapter” turnaround strategy, which was announced back in 2024, relies heavily on luxury expansion and store optimization to attract affluent consumers.

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