President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on May 27, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Hello, this is Dylan Butts writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to today’s edition of the Daily Open newsletter.
After weeks of paused action in the U.S.-Iran conflict, the two countries are once again trading airstrikes, complicating hopes for a permanent resolution to a war that has stained global oil supplies.
However, Wall Street hasn’t flinched. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both closed at record highs yesterday, lifted by an unrelenting surge in artificial-intelligence names that has overshadowed the latest geopolitical jitters.
What you need to know today
The AI trade has shown few signs of cooling this earnings season.
Shares of Snowflake surged 36% on Thursday after the cloud-data specialist delivered blockbuster results and highlighted explosive demand for its AI-powered platforms, lifting software stocks more broadly.
Meanwhile, Dell Technologies was right behind, jumping 31% after reporting its strongest sales growth since 2018. The company also secured a massive Pentagon contract on Wednesday, adding to investor excitement for Dell’s growing AI server business.
In private markets, Anthropic leapfrogged OpenAI to become the most valuable AI startup in Silicon Valley, closing in on a $1 trillion valuation in its latest funding round as more LLM companies look to go public this year.
Boosted by the rally in the technology sector, all three major averages finished at new closing records on Thursday. That was despite retailers like Gap and American Eagle posting disappointing results in the face of growing inflation concerns.
Stocks had risen to their session highs after Axios reported that U.S. and Iranian negotiators agreed on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire, with a White House official later confirming to CNBC that the U.S. and Iran had “mostly agreed” to the terms.
But just a few hours later, Iranian state media outlet Fars reported that the country’s armed forces had fired missiles at unidentified targets late Thursday local time.
The overnight headlines from the Middle East come amid traders’ fading optimism for a full U.S.-Iran nuclear deal this year despite earlier reports of progress. U.S. officials have said that if Iran fails to meet nuclear demands during negotiations, President Donald Trump will have economic or military options on the table.
The conflict and uncertainty surrounding it have continued to ripple through energy markets, with Exxon delivering a warning Thursday that oil inventories are on track to reach dangerously low levels in the coming weeks, forcing prices to spike and curbing demand.
That comes as broader inflation continues to hit consumer wallets, with recent data showing that the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index jumped 3.8% in the 12 months through April.
While that data came in-line with expectations, it could influence the Federal Reserve to hold rates steady until prices subside.
— Dylan Butts
And finally…
The wealthiest investors are pulling money out of the U.S. in the ‘de-dollarization’ trade
Family offices are planning the biggest changes to their portfolios in years, with many moving money out of the U.S., according to a new survey.
Fully 60% of family offices plan to make strategic changes to their investment allocation in the next year – about twice the level of the past five years, according to the UBS Global Family Office Report. Among those making changes, many are trimming their U.S. holdings and adding to emerging markets.
Globally, North America is the only region where family offices plan to reduce their allocation in the next 12 months. They plan to add in Latin America and Africa, they said.
— Robert Frank
