President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House on May 27, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
Hello, my name is Dylan Butts from Singapore. Welcome to today’s Daily Open Newsletter.
After weeks of standstill in the U.S.-Iranian conflict, the two countries are once again exchanging airstrikes, complicating hopes for a durable solution to the war that is hurting global oil supplies.
But Wall Street was undeterred. Yesterday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both closed at record highs, buoyed by a steady surge in artificial intelligence names that have overshadowed recent geopolitical unrest.
What you need to know today
The AI industry shows little sign of cooling down this earnings season.
Snowflake’s stock soared 36% on Thursday, pushing software stocks more broadly, after the cloud data specialist announced blockbuster results and highlighted exploding demand for its AI-powered platform.
Meanwhile, Dell Technologies was close behind, reporting its strongest revenue growth since 2018, jumping 31%. The company also won a major contract with the Department of Defense on Wednesday, further increasing investor excitement about Dell’s growing AI server business.
In the private market, as more LLM companies aim to go public this year, Anthropic has leapfrogged OpenAI to become Silicon Valley’s most valuable AI startup, approaching a $1 trillion valuation with its latest funding round.
All three major stock averages set new closing records on Thursday, helped by gains in the technology sector. This was despite retailers such as Gap and American Eagle reporting disappointing results in the face of rising inflation concerns.
Stocks rose to an intraday high after Axios reported that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had agreed to a 60-day memorandum of understanding extending the ceasefire, after which a White House official confirmed to CNBC that the U.S. and Iran had “mostly agreed” to terms.
But just hours later, Iranian state media Fars reported that the country’s military fired a missile at an unidentified target late Thursday local time.
Last night’s news headlines from the Middle East came as traders’ optimism about this year’s full US-Iran nuclear deal waned despite reports of progress so far. US officials said President Donald Trump would put economic or military options on the table if Iran fails to meet its nuclear demands during negotiations.
Conflicts and uncertainty over it continue to spill over into energy markets, with Exxon warning Thursday that oil inventories will reach dangerously low levels in coming weeks, forcing prices to soar and demand to be curbed.
This comes as broad-based inflation continues to hit consumers’ wallets, with recent data showing the US Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index rose 3.8% in the 12 months to April.
The statistic was in line with expectations, but could influence the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates on hold until prices settle.
— Dylan Butts
And finally…
Wealthiest investors are pulling money out of the US in ‘de-dollarization’ trade
Family offices are planning their biggest portfolio changes in years, with more money moving outside the United States, a new study reveals.
According to the UBS Global Family Office Report, 60% of family offices plan to make strategic changes to their investment allocations next year, nearly double the level of the past five years. Many of the companies making the change are reducing their U.S. holdings and investing more in emerging markets.
Globally, North America is the only region where family offices plan to reduce their allocations in the next 12 months. It also plans to add Latin America and Africa.
— Robert Frank
