4:20pm: Stocks close higher
US stocks finished the session mostly higher on Tuesday, with major indexes extending their recent run of record highs as investors continued to lean into the artificial intelligence trade.
The Dow Jones 229 points, or 0.5%, to close at 51,308, holding comfortably above the 51,000 mark after earlier strength in the week. The S&P 500 edged up 10 points, or 0.1%, finishing at 7,610, while the Nasdaq added just 7 points, essentially flat, at 27,094.
Overall, it was a quiet but steady finish after a strong stretch that’s seen the S&P 500 climb about 2% this week alone. The tone on Wall Street remains supported by solid corporate earnings and ongoing enthusiasm around AI-linked names, which continue to do much of the heavy lifting for broader market sentiment.
At the same time, geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran remained on traders’ radar, but didn’t meaningfully derail risk appetite during the session.
Coming up post-market close tonight: Palo Alto, Ulta Beauty and GitLab.
3:45pm: Proactive news headlines
- Varon Corp (OTCID:OZSC) subsidiary Varon Wellness secured a commitment of more than C$500,000 from a national warehouse retailer in Canada for its Bucked Up energy drink, focused on introducing a new mini-can format designed for high-volume club retail channels.
- Snail Inc (NASDAQ:SNAL) marked the 11th anniversary of its ARK franchise by highlighting recent sales performance and engagement metrics, including about 573,000 units of ARK: Survival Evolved and roughly 1.4 million units of ARK: Survival Ascended sold in Q1 2026, alongside a multi-year content roadmap.
- 374Water Inc (NASDAQ:SCWO, FRA:8LL) completed a key factory acceptance test for its AirSCWO system, advancing toward deployment at a major California wastewater treatment facility serving Orange County.
- VivoPower PLC (NASDAQ:VIVO, FRA:51J) appointed former SpaceX battery engineer Porter Harris to its Advisory Council to strengthen its strategy in AI data center power systems, battery storage, and thermal management technologies.
- Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd (TSX-V:GMG, OTCQX:GMGMF) submitted an additional application to the U.S. EPA seeking authorization to manufacture and sell graphene-based products in the United States under a pre-manufacture notification process.
- Standard Uranium Ltd (TSX-V:STND, OTCQB:STTDF, FRA:9SU0) began drilling at its Davidson River project in Saskatchewan, launching its largest-ever exploration program with over 8,000 metres of planned drilling across multiple conductor trends.
- Pinnacle Silver & Gold Corp (TSX-V:PINN, OTCQB:PSGCF, FRA:P9J) reported positive results from phase two metallurgical testing at its El Potrero project in Mexico, showing consistently high gold recoveries and improved silver recoveries across multiple vein systems.
- HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd (TSX:HIVE, NASDAQ:HIVE, FRA:YO0, BVC:HIVECO) reported a 158% revenue increase driven by strong growth in digital currency and high-performance computing segments as it advances toward a $660 million annual recurring revenue target.
- U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) announced it will restate previously reported earnings per share after identifying an error in the calculation of weighted average shares outstanding that overstated EPS for certain reporting periods.
2:45pm: Market movers
- Voyager Technologies is acquiring Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology in a deal worth up to about $300 million to expand its capabilities in lunar delivery, surface power systems, and broader Moon infrastructure development.
- Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD) and Akamai Technologies Inc are expanding their partnership to embed security into AI infrastructure by integrating Akamai’s Guardicore Segmentation with Nvidia’s BlueField-based architecture to protect distributed “AI factory” workloads at the edge.
- Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG) reported better-than-expected first-quarter results with strong earnings growth and steady comparable sales, and raised its full-year outlook, sending shares higher.
- Victoria's Secret & Co. (NYSE:VSCO) posted significantly stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings and revenue and lifted its full-year guidance, driving a sharp surge in its share price.
- Gorilla Technology Group Inc. announced a roughly $2 billion AI infrastructure supply deal with Super Micro Computer to support large-scale GPU deployments in India tied to hyperscale and sovereign AI projects.
- Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) rallied after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang suggested it could become a $1 trillion company, following strong earnings and optimism around its role in AI-driven chip demand.
- Dollar General Corp (NYSE:DG) reported mixed first-quarter results with earnings beating expectations but revenue slightly missing estimates, alongside in-line same-store sales growth, leading to a modest stock decline.
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE, XETRA:2HP) surged after delivering strong fiscal second-quarter results and raising full-year guidance, driven by robust demand for AI infrastructure, servers, and networking products.
- 374Water Inc (NASDAQ:SCWO, FRA:8LL) completed a key factory acceptance test for its AirSCWO system, advancing toward deployment at a major California wastewater treatment facility serving millions of residents.
1:20pm: Friday's jobs data critical
US stocks are still sitting near record highs even with tensions rising again in the Middle East after Iran stepped back from talks with the US and Israel stepped up its ground offensive in Lebanon, says IG’s Axel Rudolph.
Oil has pulled back after Monday’s spike, trading mostly flat, while gold and other precious metals have edged higher as the US dollar softens a bit.
But investors are now mainly focused on Friday’s US jobs report, according to Rudolph.
"Apart from monitoring the situation in the Middle East, investors will closely watch Friday’s US non-farm payrolls report for fresh clues on the health of the labour market and broader economy, with the results likely to influence expectations for the Federal Reserve’s next policy moves," the analyst commented
12:10pm: Job openings reach two year highs
US job openings jumped by nearly 730,000 in April to 7.618 million—the highest level since May 2024—beating expectations and pushing the openings rate to its strongest reading since November 2024.
Bill Adams, Chief US Economist, Fifth Third Commercial Bank called the April figures "welcome news for this year’s college grads, since it was concentrated in professional and business service jobs that typically go to workers with degrees."
"Some of April’s strong job openings is likely noise rather than signal," Adams commented.
"On balance, April’s jump in openings is an encouraging sign for jobseekers finishing school this year, but shouldn’t carry disproportionate weight to other job market indicators.
"The collective message from recent job market data is that U.S. employment is growing modestly, but nevertheless at a faster pace than that of jobseekers."
11:00am: Alphabet's $80B stock sale
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, announced after hours on Monday it plans to raise $80 billion through a stock sale to fund its artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout.
The proceeds will be directed towards capital expenditure to scale AI infrastructure and global compute capacity, with Alphabet citing demand for its AI products from enterprises and consumers that is currently exceeding available supply.
As part of the raise, $10 billion in stock will be sold directly to Berkshire Hathaway, the global holding company previously led by Warren Buffett.
The fundraising follows Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai's announcement at Google I/O last month that the company expects to spend between $180 billion and $190 billion on capital expenditure this year alone.
Shares fell nearly 5% at the open on Tuesday before clawing back, still down 1.4% by midmorning.
10am: Dow opens lower, Nasdaq flat
US stocks have opened with wheels spinning but the big three indexes going slightly backwards if anywhere.
The Dow is down 0.4%, while the broader S&P 500 is down less than 10 points or 0.1%, with the Nasdaq very slightly above flat.
Biggest fallers on the S&P are Intuit, Carvana and The Trade Desk, all down over 7%, while top riser is HP Enterprise, up 26%.
On the Nasdaq 100, Marvell has shot up 21%, while Microship Technology and Broadcom are next, up 6.6% and 4.3%.
Intuit, Atlassian, Zscaler and Strategy are down 8.8-6.3%.
8.15am: Lower start expected for Wall Street
Wall Street's main stocks are expected to open generally lower on Tuesday, despite oil prices and bond market pressure easing after President Trump said Hezbollah and Israel had agreed to "stop shooting" at each other.
Dow Jones futures were down 214 points or 0.4%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures slipped 0.2% and 0.1%.
The three indexes finished the previous session at fresh record highs, with the Nasdaq adding 0.4% to close at 27,086, the S&P 0.3% to 7,599, and the Dow up 0.1% to 51,078.
While Nvidia and Micron both gained over 6%, with a 15% flex from ARM and 30% jump from Hewlett Packard, only two of the 11 S&P sectors closed higher: tech and energy.
This morning, shares in Marvell Technology jumped over 18% in premarket trading after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said it would be "the next trillion-dollar company".
Sentiment was also boosted by renewed hopes a peace deal would be struck between the US and Iran, as President Trump insisted talks were ongoing.
He countered the news that Iran was walking away from talks, claiming that they were continuing “at a rapid pace” and telling ABC News that he thinks an agreement will be completed "over the next week".
Oil prices, which have become the market’s main barometer of Middle East geopolitical risk, eased back this morning after a volatile 24 hours, with WTI crude down 1.3% to $90.90 a barrel, down from a brief surge to almost $95 the day before.
"Yesterday's gains across the major US indices were relatively tame," said market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation, also noting that the small cap Russell 2000 slipped 0.5%.
"While there’s still plenty of energy across tech, every positive session brings out more bubble-speak. Yet as things stand, it is the ‘fear of missing out’ that continues to drive US equities."
With the Nasdaq up over 25% since the end of March, moving averages suggest that the US majors are "in overbought territory", Morrison noted, while stock analysts "argue that the first quarter results season demonstrates not just the resilience of US equities, but their ability to produce earnings growth".
"As far as investors are concerned, FOMO trumps war."
Today's data includes JOLTS job openings, the Redbook survey and RCM/TIPP economic optimism index. Earnings are incoming from Palo Alto Networks, Dollar General, Ulta Beauty and Donaldson Co.