Good Afternoon. Another great week for the market, especially for tech stocks. As expected, earnings are extremely strong, and you can see that from all the greens in my table earnings update. Next week is quiet for earnings, with no major companies scheduled to report. The CPI data to be released on Tuesday is the major event for the next week.

Below are the key things to note this week:

Memory stocks to the moon:
Memory stocks such as Micron and SanDisk had a stellar week, with gains of up to 30%. Historically, this is considered a cyclical business, but with AI, a lot has changed, and the market is rerating all memory stocks. Microsoft mentioned a week ago in its conference call about memory costs, which I covered last week. Even after massive runs this year, both these stocks are trading at not-so-high PEs of 30 and 47, respectively, hence I wont be surprised if the rally in these stocks continues for a while.

Strong jobs report:
U.S. payrolls rose by 115,000 in April, well above expectations for 65,000, while the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3%. Hiring broadened beyond healthcare into transportation, warehousing, and retail, signaling a more resilient labor market backdrop despite continued weakness in manufacturing and ongoing federal government job cuts.

Recent payroll data continues to show sharp month-to-month volatility. March job growth was revised higher to 185,000, reversing part of February’s revised 156,000 decline and moving closer to January’s stronger 160,000 gain.

For the week:

CNN's Fear & Greed Index now stands at 67 (Greed) out of 100, flat from last week. Details here

The top five trending stocks on Reddit are Micron, AMD, Rocket Lab, SPY, and Sandisk. Read More

Liquidity:

Here is a summary of this week’s key economic releases:

Target Rate Probabilities for June 17th FOMC Meeting:

US-Iran Near 14-Point Memo to End War, Reopen Hormuz: Axios reported Wednesday that Washington and Tehran were closing in on a one-page, 14-point MoU to end the war and frame nuclear talks: Iran commits to a moratorium on uranium enrichment (five years per Tehran's offer, twenty per the US demand), the US lifts sanctions and releases frozen funds, both sides reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Brent fell ~7% intraday before settling near $100; WTI closed at $94.81. Iran's Expediency Council pushed back Friday, demanding US reparations. Trump warned bombing would resume "at a much higher level" if no deal lands. Read

Jane Street Books Record $16.1B Q1 Trading Revenue: Jane Street pulled in $16.1B in Q1 trading revenue and $10.3B in profit — revenue up 40%+ YoY, profit more than doubled — extending its lead over Citadel Securities and Hudson River Trading. Drivers were medium-frequency strategies into the AI-anxiety/Iran-war volatility, plus markups on AI stakes, including Anthropic and CoreWeave. For context: Jane Street's full-year 2025 trading revenue was $39.6B, so Q1 alone is ~40% of last year's total. JPM, Citi, and Wells Fargo also booked big trading-desk gains for the quarter. Read

Bullish to Buy Equiniti for $4.2B in Tokenization Play: Crypto exchange Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) agreed Tuesday to acquire transfer agent Equiniti from Siris Capital for $4.2B — $2.35B stock plus $1.85B assumed debt — pitching the combo as the "global transfer agent for tokenized securities." Equiniti supports 2,500+ issuers, 20M shareholders, and ~$500B in annual payments. Pro forma 2026E: $1.3B revenue, $500M+ EBITDA-Capex. Closes January 2027. Surpasses Coinbase-Deribit ($2.9B) and Kraken-Bitnomial ($550M) as the largest crypto-linked deal to date. Read

Warsh Cleared for Senate Floor; Confirmation Vote May 11: Warsh advanced from Senate Banking on a 13-11 party-line vote — the first fully partisan committee vote on a Fed Chair nominee in panel history. Floor vote tees up week of May 11; Powell's chair term ends May 15. Sen. John Fetterman has signaled a yes, the only Democrat to do so. Warsh is replacing Stephen Miran's seat (the FOMC's most dovish voice), not Powell's, since Powell stays on the Board — meaning the rate-cut coalition shrinks rather than grows on Day 1. Read

Q1 Biopharma M&A Hits $84B, Strongest Start Since 2019: Dealogic data showed Q1 biopharma M&A value reached $84B vs $44.4B a year ago — strongest Q1 since 2019's $147.7B. Patent-cliff urgency, deep cash reserves, and biotech valuation resets are driving the wave. Eli Lilly has spent $35B+ YTD through April 29 alone; Sun Pharma–Organon ($11.75B), Bayer–Perfuse Therapeutics ($2.45B, May 6), and Roche–PathAI (up to $1.05B, May 7) added to the pile this week. If pace holds, 2026 biopharma M&A clears $250B. Read

Palantir's Beat: Revenue $1.63B, up 85% YoY — its fastest growth since 2020 — vs. $1.54B consensus; adjusted EPS $0.33 vs. $0.28. U.S. revenue jumped 104% to $1.28B, with U.S. commercial up 133% to $595M and U.S. government up 84% to $687M. Adjusted operating margin hit 60%, FCF margin 57%. New deals with Airbus, Bain, GE Aerospace, and Stellantis took remaining performance obligations to $4.45B from $1.9B a year ago. Q2 guided to $1.80B vs. $1.68B Street; FY26 raised to $7.65–$7.66B (71% growth, +$390M vs. prior). FY26 U.S. commercial guided above $3.224B (>120% growth).

AMD's Beat: Revenue $10.25B, up 38% YoY, beating the $9.9B Street and the high end of AMD's own guide; non-GAAP EPS $1.37 vs. $1.29. Data Center revenue $5.8B, up 57% YoY, now the primary growth driver. Client and Gaming $3.6B (+23%), Embedded $868M (+6%, returning to growth). Non-GAAP gross margin 55%, up 170bps YoY on Data Center mix. Record FCF of $2.6B, three times the prior year. Q2 guide $11.2B ±$300M — roughly $700M above the $10.5B consensus and implying 46% YoY growth at the midpoint, with gross margin expected to step up to ~56%.

Arista's Beat: Revenue $2.71B, up 35.1% YoY, vs. management's $2.6B guide and $2.62B Street; non-GAAP EPS $0.87 vs. $0.81. Operating cash flow $1.69B, the highest in company history. Non-GAAP gross margin of 62.4%, within the 62–63% guided range — the YoY compression is due to hyperscaler customer mix. FY26 revenue raised to ~$11.5B (27.7% growth), and the 2026 AI fabrics target raised from $3.25B to $3.5B; campus held at $1.25B. Purchase commitments now $8.9B — supply, not demand, is the constraint. Q2 guided to ~$2.8B with EPS $0.88.

Eaton's Beat: Revenue $7.45B, up 17% YoY (organic +10%), vs. $7.14B Street; adjusted EPS $2.81 vs. $2.73, $0.06 above guidance midpoint. Electrical Americas $3.6B (+20%, organic +14%) with backlog up 44% and rolling 12-month orders +42%. Data center orders alone were up 240%; the total data center backlog is now 228 GW — described by management as roughly 12 years at 2025 build rates. Aerospace margin a record 26.7%. FY26 organic growth raised to 9–11% (+200bps at the midpoint); adjusted EPS lifted to $13.05–$13.50, absorbing the Boyd Thermal acquisition. FCF up 245% YoY.

Pfizer's Beat: Revenue $14.45B, up 5% YoY (operational +2%, +7% ex-COVID); adjusted EPS $0.75 vs. $0.72. Padcev +39%, Eliquis $2.17B (+8% operational, beating the $1.96B Street), oncology biosimilars +52%, Nurtec +41%, Lorbrena +32%, Abrysvo +31%. Comirnaty (-59%) and Paxlovid (-63%) continue their post-pandemic retreat. Launched and acquired products grew 22% operationally to $3.1B. Adjusted operating margin 38%, above pre-pandemic levels. FY26 reaffirmed: revenue $59.5–$62.5B, adjusted EPS $2.80–$3.00. $1.65B ViiV stake proceeds in Q2 lift BD capacity to ~$7B. Vyndamax patent extended to 2031 via generic settlements.

Shopify's Beat: Revenue $3.17B, up 34% YoY, vs. $3.06B Street; adjusted EPS $0.36 vs. $0.33. GMV $101B, up 35% — the second consecutive $100B+ quarter. Merchant Solutions revenue +39%, Shopify Payments GMV $67B (+41%, now 67% of total GMV, up 3 percentage points). Shop Pay GMV $35B (+59%); B2B GMV +80%; offline GMV +33%; international GMV +45%. GAAP operating income $382M, up 88% YoY. FCF $476M at a 15% margin — the fourth straight quarter in the mid-to-high teens. Q2 guidance implies high-twenties percentage growth, a clear deceleration from Q1's 34% pace.

AppLovin's Beat: Revenue $1.84B vs. $1.77B Street (~25% YoY); adjusted EPS $3.56 vs. $3.44, with adjusted EBITDA margin holding above 84%. The consumer (e-commerce) vertical is the story: March advertiser spend was 25% higher than January, and April hit a record advertiser-spend month, surpassing every previous Q4 peak. Gaming remained the largest revenue contributor and reaccelerated. Management telegraphed the public Axon launch in June — opening the platform to all advertisers worldwide via self-serve onboarding — and quantified the addressable opportunity at ~100,000 new customers and ~$7B of initial-year ad spend. $1B in repurchases in the quarter.

Arm's Beat: Revenue $1.49B, up 20% YoY — a quarterly record — vs. $1.47B Street; non-GAAP EPS $0.60 vs. $0.58, also a record. Licensing revenue $819M, up 29%. Royalty revenue $671M, up 11%, with data center royalties more than doubling YoY. FY26 closed at $4.92B (+23%), the third straight year above 20% growth. Q1 FY27 guided to $1.26B ±$50M (~20% YoY) with EPS $0.40 ±$0.04. Management put a long-range marker on the AGI CPU roadmap: $15B chip revenue and $10B IP revenue by FY31, supporting EPS above $9 — a step beyond the licensing-only model.

Disney's Beat: Revenue $25.17B, up 7% YoY, vs. $24.87B Street; adjusted EPS $1.57 vs. $1.49. Entertainment +10% to $11.72B; Experiences +7% to $9.49B (a Q2 record); Sports +2%. Direct-to-consumer streaming revenue accelerated to +13% (from +11% in Q1) and operating income jumped 88% to $582M, taking SVOD margin to 10.6% — the first double-digit print and on track to hold above 10% for the year. Domestic park attendance was down 1% on softer international visitation, offset by per-cap spend. FY26 adjusted EPS guidance lifted to ~12% growth; buyback authorization raised to $8B from $7B. Q3 segment OI guided to ~$5.3B. First print under new CEO Josh D'Amaro.

Uber's Mixed: Revenue $13.20B, up 14% (constant-currency +10%) — light vs. $13.28B Street, the only revenue miss this week — but every other line cleared. Gross bookings $53.7B, up 25% (+21% CC), above the high end of the $52–$53.5B guide. Mobility GB $26.4B (+25%); Delivery GB $26.0B (+28%). Trips +20%. Adjusted EBITDA $2.5B (+33%); non-GAAP operating income $1.9B (+42%); non-GAAP EPS $0.72 vs. $0.69. Uber One crossed 50M members and now drives roughly half of Mobility and Delivery bookings. FCF $2.28B. Q2 guidance: gross bookings $56.25–$57.75B, implying 18–22% CC growth. GAAP EPS of $0.13 was depressed by a $1.5B equity revaluation hit, not operations.

Gilead's Beat: Revenue $7.0B, up 4% YoY, vs. $6.91B Street; non-GAAP EPS $2.03 vs. $1.91. Product sales ex-Veklury grew 8% to $6.8B. HIV products $5.0B (+10%), with Biktarvy $3.4B (+7%). Trodelvy $402M (+37%) on category-1 status in triple-negative breast cancer. Yeztugo (long-acting PrEP) full-year guidance lifted to ~$1B as U.S. patient access reached ~95%. Cell therapy -12% to $407M due to competitive pressure, with anti-cel launching post-Arcellx close. Non-GAAP product gross margin expanded 200bps to 87.5% on royalty roll-off and mix. FY26 revenue guidance raised. BIC/LEN single-tablet PDUFA date in August 2026.

McDonald's Beat: Revenue $6.52B, up 9% YoY, vs. $6.47B Street; adjusted EPS $2.83 vs. $2.74 (includes a $0.13 FX benefit; +1% on a constant-currency basis). Global comparable sales +3.8%, with all three segments contributing — the strongest revenue growth in eight quarters. U.S. comp +3.9% on positive guest counts and higher per-check; International Operated Markets +3.9% (UK, Germany, Australia mid-to-high single digits, France lagging); IDL +3.4% (Japan strong, China stable). The new U.S. beverage platform launched in May, simultaneously in Germany and Canada. FY26 reaffirmed with a $0.20–$0.30 FX EPS tailwind. The caveat: April comps turned slightly negative on the Minecraft promo lap, and management guided Q2 to a "meaningful deceleration" from Q1's 3.9%. CFO Borden called U.S. company-operated margins "unacceptable."