DailyBrief: May 28
S&P 500 record high, PCE inflation surges, Snowflake soars 39%
Markets & Economics
S&P 500 Hits Record High as AI Stocks Rally; PCE Inflation Surges to Three-Year High
U.S. equity markets delivered a split session on Thursday: the S&P 500 climbed to a fresh record high, lifted by sharp gains in AI software and infrastructure names including Microsoft, Oracle, and Palantir, each up 3% to 4%. The Nasdaq finished marginally below the flatline while the Dow was essentially flat. The day's most closely watched data release, the April PCE price index, showed inflation rising to a three-year high, complicating the Federal Reserve's path forward. Incoming Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has signaled a preference for lower rates, but with headline PCE now running well above the 2% target, the consensus among policymakers is to hold steady with the door open to future hikes if conditions deteriorate further. Bond yields eased modestly as energy prices pulled back, softening the hawkish read on the inflation data. Source: CNBC, Tickmill, FX Macro Data
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Snowflake Surges 39% on Blowout Q1 Earnings and $6 Billion AWS Megadeal
Snowflake shares exploded from $175 to $244 on Wednesday after the data cloud company reported Q1 FY27 results that beat on every key metric: product revenue rose 34% year over year to $1.33 billion, total revenue hit $1.39 billion against a $1.32 billion consensus, and non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.39 versus the $0.32 estimate. The net revenue retention rate climbed to 126%, its first uptick in four quarters, suggesting expansion within existing customers is reaccelerating. Alongside the earnings, Snowflake announced its largest-ever contract, a five-year, $6 billion infrastructure deal with Amazon Web Services, and a planned acquisition of Natoma, an enterprise Model Context Protocol platform that governs how AI agents operate across tools like Slack, Salesforce, and internal APIs. Management raised FY27 product revenue guidance to $5.84 billion, implying roughly 31% full-year growth. Source: The Motley Fool, GuruFocus
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U.S. and Iran Sign 60-Day Ceasefire Memo; Brent Crude Falls as Energy Exports Set to Resume
Washington and Tehran agreed to a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend their ceasefire and gradually restore energy exports through the Persian Gulf, offering the clearest signal yet that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen to normal tanker traffic in the coming weeks. Oil markets responded with relief: Brent crude slipped below $95 per barrel and TTF natural gas fell under 47 euros per MWh, marking a second consecutive day of declines. The conflict has already removed more than 14 million barrels per day from global supply at its peak, with cumulative losses exceeding 1 billion barrels since fighting began. Analysts caution that full recovery will take months or years, as reopening the strait requires de-mining operations and major repairs to export infrastructure. Gas prices could still hit $5 per gallon this summer even with a deal in place. Source: Fortune, CNN Business, IEA
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Global Equity Markets Mixed; Euro Steady, Yen Near 160 as Dollar Holds
Equity markets were broadly flat across Europe and mixed in the United States on Thursday, with the AI stock rally in the S&P 500 failing to generate broader momentum. In currency markets, the euro was little changed against the dollar while the yen continued to hover around 160 per dollar, a level that reflects the Bank of Japan's cautious stance relative to the still-elevated U.S. rate environment. Consumer spending data released alongside the PCE report remained robust, providing some underlying support for risk assets even as inflation data keeps pressure on the Fed. Source: CaixaBank Research, Armstrong Economics
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Tech & AI
NVIDIA to Invest $150 Billion Per Year in Taiwan, Plans New Headquarters Near TSMC
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced the company intends to spend approximately $150 billion per year in Taiwan, a dramatic increase from the $10 to $15 billion it invested annually just four or five years ago. Huang described Taiwan as the "epicentre" of the AI revolution, and said the new Taiwan headquarters, scheduled to break ground this year and open in 2030 with roughly 4,000 employees, is designed to keep NVIDIA close to TSMC and its advanced chip packaging capabilities not yet available at TSMC's U.S. facilities. NVIDIA, currently valued at $5 trillion, is doubling down on its supplier relationships as demand for AI compute continues to outstrip capacity. The announcement lifted Taiwan chip stocks and reinforced the view that semiconductor supply chains remain concentrated in the region despite years of diversification efforts. Source: U.S. News, CNBC, Trading Pedia
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AI Consolidation Accelerates: Anthropic, Mistral, Google DeepMind, and Meta Each Make Acquisitions Within Five Days
The pace of AI industry consolidation intensified this week as four major labs completed acquisitions within a five-day window. Anthropic acquired Stainless, a developer tooling company; Mistral picked up Emmi AI; Google DeepMind brought on the full team from Contextual AI through an $80 to $90 million licensing arrangement; and Meta acqui-hired the team from Dreamer. The cluster of deals signals that frontier labs are moving beyond building core models and are now aggressively absorbing specialized talent and tooling to strengthen their application and developer ecosystem layers. The moves come as Q1 2026 venture funding into AI startups hit $300 billion globally, a record that underscores how rapidly capital and talent are concentrating in the sector. Source: StartupHub.ai, Crunchbase
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