The market is treating the energy shock as serious, but not serious enough to derail the artificial-intelligence trade. The clearest example today is Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The company's shares surged after results that gave investors exactly what they wanted: proof that the AI infrastructure boom is not just a story told by chipmakers with heroic valuations. HPE pulled forward its long-term financial targets by two years, and suddenly a company that once sounded like the plumbing of corporate IT is being treated like a front-row participant in the next industrial cycle.

Dell and Super Micro Computer also rose, helped by the same logic. If your hardware belongs in a data center, the market has decided you are useful again. For years, investors preferred software companies with light assets and fat margins. Now, in a twist that must be quietly satisfying in server rooms everywhere, the physical stuff matters again.

Alphabet offered another reminder of the scale of the race. The company is looking to raise $80 billion in equity offerings, with Berkshire Hathaway involved, to fund its AI infrastructure buildout. Its shares slipped, which is not shocking. Investors like ambition, but they like it even more when someone else pays for it. Still, the number itself is the point. The AI race is no longer about clever demos or vague promises. It is about capital spending on a level that makes even very large companies look like they are renovating the planet.

Nvidia remains the gravitational force. Its shares jumped on Monday after it unveiled a new processor aimed at bringing AI capabilities to personal computers. Marvell Technology then surged after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described it as a future trillion-dollar company, helped by Nvidia's earlier $2 billion investment. 

The result is a stock market that looks strong on the surface but narrow underneath. Money keeps moving toward companies tied to AI chips, servers, memory, data centers, and the infrastructure behind all of it. Samsung Electronics is nearing a $1.5 trillion market value, putting it close to the top tier of global companies, thanks in large part to its role in AI-related memory chips. Anthropic, OpenAI's rival, was valued at $965 billion in its latest funding round and has filed early paperwork for a public listing. These are not small signals. They are the market's way of saying that AI is not a sector anymore. It is becoming the organizing principle of equity investing.

Companies outside the AI supply chain have to fight harder to get noticed. A solid business update is nice. A decent margin is respectable. But unless a company can plausibly say "data center" in a sentence, investors may respond with the emotional range of a printer jam. Microchip Technology rose after giving an upbeat data-center revenue forecast. Philip Morris slipped after lowering its annual profit outlook. The contrast was not subtle.

In the Middle East, hopes for a U.S.-Iran agreement and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz have helped sentiment. But the news remains confusing. Lebanon announced a partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, while reports still point to fighting. Iran said it was suspending talks with the United States because of the violence in Lebanon. Donald Trump, meanwhile, said negotiations with Tehran were moving quickly. Investors have been willing to believe in progress, but they are not being offered a clean picture.

Investors are waiting for the April JOLTS job openings report, expected to show roughly 6.866 million openings, ahead of Friday's more important employment report. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack is also scheduled to speak, and traders will listen for clues on rates. Money markets have nearly priced out rate cuts for 2026 and are assigning growing odds to an eventual hike if inflation pressures keep building.

Today's economic highlights:

See the full calendar here.

  • Dollar index: 99.070
  • Gold: $4,527
  • Crude Oil (BRENT): $93.64 (WTI) $90.84
  • United States 10 years: 4.43%
  • BITCOIN: $69,285

In corporate news:

  • Alphabet plans to raise $80 billion for AI, with Berkshire committing $10 billion.
  • Anthropic files confidentially for IPO, ahead of OpenAI.
  • Fulcrum scraps its lead sickle-cell drug over FDA concerns.
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise raises fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $3.35-$3.45 range.
  • QXO launches a $3 billion senior notes offering to help fund its TopBuild acquisition.
  • Dollar General raises its annual profit forecast.
  • EchoStar delays interest payments on debt ahead of AT&T cash infusion.
  • Philip Morris to post 500 MUSD impairment on its Canada affiliate.
  • Venture Global prices 2.25 billion dollars in senior secured notes to refinance 2028 debt.
  • McKesson closes a strategic investment with Apollo Funds for a minority stake in its Medical-Surgical Solutions business.
  • Tesla extends Chinese-made EV growth as sales surge in May.
  • Intel launches new AI products.
  • Coca-Cola explores a 2027 India listing for its bottling business.
  • BlackRock to acquire a 15% stake in Japanese taxi app Go.
  • WeRide and Uber Technologies plan to launch a robotaxi service in Madrid.
  • Snowflake and Anthropic expand their partnership targeting enterprise adoption of AI tools.
  • General Mills to sell Haagen-Dazs shops in China.
  • Mueller Industries plans a 2-for-1 forward stock split.
  • Forgent Power Solutions closes offering of Class A common shares.
  • Nvidia has the necessary capabilities to support robust AI growth despite constraints, according to its CEO.
  • Nvidia, Fluence, and Siemens AG are developing a reference architecture for Vera Rubin AI data centers.
  • Amazon and other platforms have been ordered by the Australian regulator to remove banned magnetic toys.
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise soars 28% in after-hours trading following its quarterly results.
  • Arm Holdings announces that ByteDance and Oracle are using its data center processors.
  • Nubank appoints Livingston, a former Visa executive, as CFO to support its expansion outside Latin America.
  • GE Vernova fails again to halt construction on a wind farm in New England.
  • L3Harris Technologies wins a $495 million contract with the U.S. Army.
  • Samsung Electronics is approaching a market capitalization of $1.5 trillion.
  • Kioxia is seeking to regain ground in the NAND memory market against Samsung.
  • Today's key earnings releases: Palo Alto, Dollar General, Ulta Beauty, Paragon Banking Group PLC, GB Group plc, NewRiver REIT plc, Gooch & Housego PLC

Analyst Recommendations:

  • Integrafin Holdings Plc: Shore Capital upgrades to buy from hold and raises the target price from GBX 350 to GBX 400.
  • Easyjet Plc: Bernstein maintains its market perform recommendation and raises the target price from GBX 350 to GBX 450.
  • Experian Plc: Autonomous Research maintains its outperform recommendation and reduces the target price from GBP 39 to GBP 38.
  • Rio Tinto Plc: Deutsche Bank maintains its hold recommendation and raises the target price from GBX 6900 to GBX 7400.
  • Vesuvius Plc: Peel Hunt maintains its buy recommendation and reduces the target price from GBX 525 to GBX 5.25.
  • Compagnie Financiere Richemont Sa: Research Partners AG maintains its hold recommendation and raises the target price from CHF 175 to CHF 184.
  • Bank Of Ireland Group Plc: Mediobanca maintains its outperform recommendation and raises the target price from EUR 19.60 to EUR 20.
  • Philips Nv: ING Bank maintains its hold recommendation and reduces the target price from EUR 26 to EUR 25.
  • Dassault Aviation: Bernstein maintains its market perform recommendation and reduces the target price from EUR 340 to EUR 330.