Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rise as Trump nears decision on Iran truce

Palantir (PLTR) stock jumped as much as 10% on Friday. It has Dell (DELL) to thank.

Earlier this month, Dell and Palantir announced a partnership to bring Palantir’s software platforms directly on-premise at Dell’s AI factory with Nvidia (NVDA). The companies said this will enable companies to deploy new AI agents and applications on a single, governed data backbone, reducing integration costs.

Palantir’s stock didn’t move much on that announcement — until now. On Thursday, Dell significantly raised its fiscal 2027 revenue forecast to $167 billion from $140 billion and said $60 billion of that revenue will come from AI server sales alone.

Dell stock soared 30% on that upbeat outlook, lifting several AI stocks with it. Palantir’s stock benefited from this lift more than others as Dell’s earnings validated its partnership and a new AI-driven channel for its software platforms.

Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian reports:

Space stocks like AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) and Rocket Lab (RKLB) tumbled on Friday after Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral late Thursday night, hitting a sector that had been riding a big rally ahead of SpaceX’s (SPAX.PVT) planned IPO.

AST SpaceMobile, the satellite-to-cellphone operator that has become a favorite of retail traders this year, was the hardest hit. The stock fell as much as 18% in early trading. Rocket Lab slid more than 6%, Planet Labs (PL) and Intuitive Machines (LUNR) each fell more than 5%, as did Voyager Technologies (VOYG). The Procure Space ETF (UFO), which tracks the broader industry, was on pace for its worst session of the year.

The losses came after Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn rocket erupted in a massive explosion at its launchpad at Cape Canaveral. The explosion that followed was described as a routine hot-fire test of its seven BE-4 first-stage engines.

Read more here.

Oil prices fell sharply late Friday morning after President Trump said he would soon make a “final determination” about a temporary memorandum of understanding agreed to by US and Iranian negotiators.

Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international benchmark, fell by 1.6% to trade below $92 per barrel, on track for a monthly loss of 22%. Those on US WTI crude (CL=F) fell 1.4% to trade below $88 and lose 18% on the month.

Prices have turned sharply lower over the past day after a collection of major news outlets reported that US and Iranian negotiators had reached a 60-day, temporary deal.

While Washington and Tehran haven’t publicly confirmed the contents of the memorandum, it is understood to extend the ceasefire currently in place and open the Strait of Hormuz for commercial shipping — with conditions set for negotiations on the fate of Iran’s nuclear program and other key issues.

Trump on Friday said Iran must agree that the regime must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, that the Strait of Hormuz must be fully reopened, that any stores in Iran of enriched uranium must be destroyed, and that no money will be exchanged between the two parties. He said that “other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to.”

Crude oil prices are tracking for significant monthly declines — falling to around $90 per barrel — as investors become habituated to the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and perhaps even price in President Trump backing off from the war.

Over the past month, futures for Brent crude (BZ=F), the international benchmark, have fallen approximately 18%, while those for West Texas Intermediate (CL=F), the US benchmark, have subsided 12%.

However, we’re still a long way from recovering the lower pre-war oil prices in the $60s and $70s. In fact, oil executives warned on Thursday that inventory pressures are likely to push prices higher going into the summer.

“We’re approaching unheard of inventory levels,” Exxon senior vice president Neil Chapman said at an investor conference. “I mean, really, really low levels. You can debate whether that’s going to hit those really low levels in two weeks or three weeks. But once you get to that point, then you’ll see price shoot up.”

Chevron CEO Michael Wirth echoed that sentiment in his own presentation.

“The buffers and the shock absorbers are being steadily drawn down and the ability for the market to absorb this imbalance is drastically diminished today versus where we started,” Wirth said at Bernstein’s Strategic Decisions Conference. “Over the next few weeks, we are likely to see those pressures flow through more directly to physical prices, and there’s more upward pressure that I would expect as we get into June and certainly into July.”

The US stock market turned modestly higher at the opening bell on Friday as a strong earnings report from Dell (DELL) boosted investor sentiment in the face of Middle East uncertainty.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC), and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) all rose roughly 0.2%.

Markets have been buoyed throughout the week by news that US and Iranian negotiators have agreed on a 60-day memorandum of understanding that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened, pending President Trump’s signature.

Dell’s earnings have added wind in the sails of the tech trade, but with oil prices holding near $100, investors will be looking for relief from what has proven to be high and sticky inflation, just as Kevin Warsh prepares to lead the Federal Reserve.

Three months into the war in Iran, oil stores are getting dangerously close to operational minimums, below which the global system can’t operate. While it’s unclear when those thresholds might be met, experts say it could come within weeks.

Since Iran began disrupting transit through the Strait of Hormuz shortly after the US and Israel began an airstrike campaign in late February, the global oil market has lost roughly 1 billion barrels of oil, per IEA data.

Even with pipelines running through Saudi Arabia and the UAE to reroute oil around the waterway, the market continues to lose an additional 14 million barrels a day while the strait is closed, according to data from JPMorgan. Yet prices have remained contained around $100 per barrel as investors look for a quick resolution.

“The market is taking very seriously that the diplomatic process is going to be the eventual outcome, and that flows are going to resume,” Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth, told Yahoo Finance.

“We’re pricing flows that we hope will be coming in a month, but we haven’t really seen that uptick yet,” she said.

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Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports:

Republican lawmakers’ brokerage accounts have undergone a significant shift as GOP members of Congress load up on investments into areas touted by President Trump — in particular Intel (INTC) and bitcoin (BTC-USD).

Lawmaker trading on both sides of the aisle remains controversial, but a longstanding portfolio divide along party lines is clearly evolving.

Democrats’ investments have traditionally been tech-heavy in recent years, while GOP holdings often focused on more traditional sectors. But an exchange-traded fund that allows investors to mirror the aggregate portfolio of Republican lawmakers is perhaps the starkest example of a change on the GOP side.

It was long dominated by blue-chip companies like Shell (SHEL), Philip Morris (PM), and ConocoPhillips (COP). The makeup is dramatically different today, with the fund now reporting top five holdings that include Intel, Nvidia (NVDA), and the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).

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Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:

Gap (GAP) had a good quarter — except for those dresses over at the Old Navy division.

Shares of the retail icon tanked 15% in premarket trading on Friday as the company slashed its full-year sales outlook amid style challenges in dresses at its Old Navy division in the first quarter. Those challenges have persisted into the second quarter.

“We just got off to a weak start in dresses,” Gap CEO Richard Dickson acknowledged on a late Thursday earnings call. “We just did not have the right fashion and value equation [for dresses].”

The miss on dresses overshadowed another standout performance for the namesake Gap division, which posted a 10% same-store sales increase on the back of interest in denim and fleece. Banana Republic also continued its turnaround, with a 2% same-store sales gain compared with an unchanged result a year earlier.

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Bloomberg reports:

Oil fell as the US and Iran tentatively agreed to extend a ceasefire by 60 days, with Brent set for the biggest monthly drop since 2020 on optimism that flows through the Strait of Hormuz may resume.

Brent (BZ=F) dropped below $93 a barrel, down 18% this month, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) was near $88. President Donald Trump has yet to agree to the terms of the agreement, according to a person familiar with the matter, after Axios reported that shipping through the strait would be “unrestricted.”

Still, Vice President JD Vance told reporters that it was too early to know “when or if” a deal with Iran would be reached. Earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said only that “the teams have been going back and forth” when pressed if an interim agreement had been clinched.

Crude has weakened in May on speculation some form of accord would be reached, although the warring parties have hailed progress before, only for the stalemate to drag on. During the conflict, the effective closure of Hormuz — which is subject to blockades by Washington and Tehran — has triggered a global energy shock, with millions of barrels of daily oil supply shut off.

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Bloomberg reports:

Dell Technologies Inc. (DELL) shares gained about 40% in extended trading after the hardware maker gave an outlook for annual sales that far surpassed analysts’ estimates, fueled by demand for servers that power artificial intelligence work.

Revenue in the fiscal year ending in January 2027 will be about $167 billion, including $60 billion from the sale of AI servers, the Texas-based company said Thursday in a statement. That’s up from a prior revenue outlook of about $140 billion and topped analysts’ average estimate of $142.1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Dell’s servers designed to run AI workloads are attracting customers from companies that rent computing power like CoreWeave Inc. and Nscale Global Holdings Ltd., as well as corporate clients and major AI providers. The company booked $24.4 billion in AI orders and generated $16.1 billion in AI server sales in the quarter ended May 1, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said in the statement. “The AI opportunity shows no signs of slowing.”

The shares rose to a high of $420 in late trading after closing at $317.05. Dell’s server business has been viewed as an AI winner this year, sparking the stock more than 150% higher through Thursday’s close.

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