One Republican senator has threatened to block him unless the Justice Department drops its investigation into Jerome Powell. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to force Powell out when his term ends in May.
Another focal point today was somewhere else entirely: in the belief that artificial intelligence is still strong enough to pull money, attention, and optimism away from almost everything else. JPMorgan raised its year-end target for the S&P 500, arguing that AI and tech-led earnings growth still have room to push stocks higher. Goldman, too, pointed to rising earnings estimates as the more durable story underneath the market's resilience. In addition, Amazon said it could invest as much as $25 billion in Anthropic. Big Tech is still writing enormous checks in the hope that AI will eventually justify them. That helps explain why stocks tied to the AI buildout continue to attract money even when the world looks unstable. Futures on the main three Wall Street indices were up by about 0.5% this morning.
The newer market darlings are the companies making the essential hardware of the AI age, especially semiconductors. That is a notable change. Chip stocks used to rise and fall mainly with the business cycle. Now they are being treated more like toll collectors on the digital highway: impossible to bypass. The PHLX Semiconductor Index has now risen for 14 straight sessions, something not seen since 2002.
The market also had real earnings to work with. UnitedHealth beat expectations and raised its annual profit forecast, lifting peers like CVS and Humana. GE Aerospace also posted strong results. Alaska Air, by contrast, fell after pulling its full-year outlook. Apple slipped after naming John Ternus to succeed Tim Cook, a handoff that looked orderly but not exactly electrifying.
All of this unfolded as U.S.-Iran talks remain uncertain Trump said he would likely restart military action against Iran if diplomacy fails. "I expect to be bombing because I think that's a better attitude to go in with," he said in a CNBC interview, adding that the military was prepared to move. A second round of negotiations is expected in Islamabad, where Vice President JD Vance is set to travel alongside Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran, however, has yet to confirm that it will take part.
Today's economic highlights:
On today's agenda: in the United Kingdom, employment change, average earnings including bonuses, and the unemployment rate will be released; the balance of trade will be announced in Switzerland and Spain; the ZEW Economic Sentiment Index will be available for the Euro Area and Germany; in China, foreign direct investment will be examined. In the United States, retail sales, business inventories, and pending home sales will be in focus, followed by the Fed Waller's speech and the API crude oil stock change. See the full calendar here.
- Dollar index: 98.045
- Gold: $4,793
- Crude Oil (BRENT): $95.26 (WTI) $87.61
- United States 10 years: 4.26%
- BITCOIN: $76,325
In corporate news:
- Estée Lauder has asked JPMorgan to arrange about $5.9 billion in financing for its potential acquisition of Puig.
- Onto Innovation partnered with Rigaku on semiconductor process-control tools and plans a $710 million investment to buy a 27% stake in the company.
- Amazon will invest up to $25 billion more in Anthropic, while Anthropic commits to spending over $100 billion on Amazon cloud infrastructure over the next decade.
- JPMorgan is seeking Chinese regulatory approval to launch actively managed ETFs in China.
- Global space-sector funding hit a record in Q1 2026, helped by stronger late-stage rounds and investor excitement around a possible SpaceX IPO.
- Applied Materials added Advantest as a partner in its chip-manufacturing innovation platform to better connect production and final-device testing.
- Boeing received a firm order from Ethiopian Airlines for six 787-9 Dreamliner jets.
- Broadridge Financial Solutions took a minority stake in digital collateral platform HQLAX.
- Tesla settled a Florida wrongful-death lawsuit tied to a 2018 crash just before trial.
- SpaceX is hosting Wall Street analysts this week as it prepares for a potential record-breaking IPO.
- Apple named hardware chief John Ternus as its next CEO, with Tim Cook becoming executive chairman on September 1.
- JPMorgan is expanding its $1.5 trillion national security financing initiative into Europe.
- General Motors urges its shareholders to reject the proposal to separate the roles of chairman and CEO.
- ServiceNow completes the acquisition of Armis.
- Uber Technologies declares an 11.52% passive stake in Lucid Group.
- Today's key earnings: GE Aerospace,ASM International, Beiersdorf, Associated British Foods, BAWAG, SKF…
See more news from UK listed companies here
Analyst Recommendations:
- Lloyds Banking Group Plc: Mediobanca maintains its outperform rating and reduces the target price from GBX 131 to GBX 125.
- Barclays Plc: Mediobanca maintains its neutral recommendation and reduces the target price from GBX 520 to GBX 500.
- Standard Life Plc: RBC Capital maintains its outperform recommendation and raises the target price from GBX 800 to GBX 870.
- Unilever Plc: RBC Capital upgrades to sector perform from underperform with a target price of GBX 4200.
- Relx Plc: Barclays maintains its overweight recommendation and raises the target price from GBP 30.75 to GBP 30.95.
- Informa Plc: Barclays maintains its overweight recommendation and reduces the target price from GBP 10.40 to GBP 10.20.
- Baltic Classifieds Group Plc: JP Morgan maintains its underweight recommendation and reduces the target price from GBP 1.82 to GBP 1.78.
- Quilter Plc: JP Morgan maintains its overweight recommendation and reduces the target price from GBP 2.12 to GBP 2.06.
- St. James's Place Plc: JP Morgan maintains its overweight recommendation and reduces the target price from GBP 17.11 to GBP 16.86.
- Easyjet Plc: AlphaValue/Baader Europe downgrades to add from buy and reduces the target price from GBX 610 to GBX 470.
