Slight declines on Wall Street; The Israelis that soar, and the one that falls

16:45

Four Israeli companies on Wall Street gather interest with the publication of the reports.

nature jumps sharply after announcing the acquisition of Emalex Bioscienceswhich she says is developing a groundbreaking and first-of-its-kind treatment for Tourette syndrome, with the sellers receiving an immediate payment of $700 million in cash, with the option of additional payments of up to $200 million depending on meeting future commercial milestones, subject to FDA approval. At the same time, the company published its first quarter reports in which it surpassed analysts’ forecasts. The company presented revenues of nearly $4 billion, a 2.3% increase from the corresponding quarter and higher than the forecasts of $3.79 billion, and Non-GAAP net profit per share amounted to 53 cents, 7 cents above market forecasts.

Other companies that published reports are the cyber security company and Ronis the software company Faber and the digital insurance company Lemonade .

Faber jumps over 15%. The first quarter reports exceeded analysts’ forecasts both in the revenue line and in the profit line. The company, under the management of founder Micah Kaufman, recorded revenues of approximately $105 million in the first quarter, a decrease of 1.6% compared to the corresponding quarter last year, while analysts expected revenues of approximately $101 million.

Veronis increases by about 6%. The company, under the management of the founder Yaki Feitelson, reported a 26.9% growth in revenues compared to the corresponding quarter last year to a level of approximately 173 million dollars, it Expects in the second quarter a growth of 15%-17% in revenues to 175-178 million dollars, with a non-GAAP net profit of 0-1 cent per share.

Lemonade shares are down about 4% despite this which exceeded analysts’ forecasts. Lemonade grew 71% and posted revenue of $258 million in the first quarter, about $5.5 million higher than analysts’ forecasts, and its net (non-GAAP) loss per share was 47 cents, while analysts expected a deeper loss of 57 cents. In total, Lemonade posted a net loss of $35.8 million in the first quarter, a reduction of 42.6% compared to the loss in the corresponding quarter. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings excluding interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) was negative at $17.1 million, an improvement over $47 million in the corresponding quarter, and the company reiterates its forecast that it will reach positive adjusted EBITDA.

16:30

Wall Street contracts opened with slight declines, while oil prices continued to rise against the backdrop of the American blockade of Iranian ports. Traders are also awaiting the conclusion of the policy meeting, which may be Jerome Powell’s last as chairman of the Federal Reserve, as well as the quarterly reports of four of the “Magnificent Seven” – Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Investors expect the companies to present revenues that will justify the large investments they have made in the field of artificial intelligence.

Oil prices are on the rise after the Wall Street Journal reported, citing American officials, that President Trump ordered his aides to prepare for a prolonged blockade of Iran. American WTI oil contracts rose by about 3% and traded above $103 per barrel. Brent oil also rises by about 3% and trades above $114 per barrel.

Investors will be watching for any comments from the Federal Reserve on inflation amid the conflict in the Middle East, with Wednesday marking the end of the April policy meeting – which is likely to be Powell’s last before his term ends in May. Kevin Warsh, Powell’s replacement, seems to be on his way to taking the helm at the central bank. The market does not expect the Fed to make a change in the current interest rate.

stock Starbucks Up 4% after raising its annual forecast. In addition, Sigato and NXP shares are jumping more than 18% and 19% respectively, after posting strong results and positive revenue forecasts.

On the other hand, a share Robin Hood Markets Down 10% after its first quarter results disappointed compared to expectations.

The trade comes after a day of declines, following a report that OpenAI recently missed its revenue and user growth targets. The report clouded technology stocks, which led the entire market to declines.

The report season for the first quarter of 2026 continues, and companies from Israel that are traded on Wall Street are also publishing their financial reports these days.

11:55

European stock markets are trading with rates falling. The DAX index is down by about 0.4%, while the Putsy and the KAC both weaken by about 0.6%.

The deterioration in sentiment comes after a little while ago, President Trump published a post on his social network in which he wrote: “Iran can’t come to its senses. They don’t know how to sign a non-nuclear agreement. They should reset soon!”. To the post he attached a photo of himself prepared in AI, with the caption “No more Mr. Nice Guy!”.

At the same time, oil prices continue to rise gradually. Brent crude is trading around $114 per barrel, while US crude is trading around $103 per barrel.

10:20

European stock markets open the day with a mixed trend. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange advances by approximately 0.1%, while the London and Paris stock exchanges decrease by approximately 0.4% and approximately 0.2%, respectively. At the same time, futures on Wall Street are now registering gains of up to 0.3%.

9:50

CNBC reports that the Swiss investment giant UBS Reported a net profit of 3 billion dollars in the first quarter – a dizzying jump of about 80% compared to the corresponding period last year and significantly above analysts’ expectations, which was 2.8 billion dollars.

The bank stated that it remains on the planned course of repurchasing shares in the amount of $3 billion, in preparation for the publication of the next financial report of the second quarter, this after purchasing shares worth $900 million during the last three-month period. In addition, the bank stated that it intends to carry out additional repurchases of shares by the end of the year.

As part of the report on its financial results, the bank stated that the markets remained “immune”, against the background of hopes for a lasting solution to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. However, alongside acknowledging that the risks remain “high” due to the rapidly changing situation, the bank warned that net interest income in the second quarter – both in the global wealth management division and in the personal and business banking division – is expected to be “without substantial change”.

9:30

Asia

In Asia, trading is going on this morning with rising rates. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange rises by about 1.5%, the Shanghai Stock Exchange advances by about 0.8% and the Seoul Stock Exchange gains by about 0.7%. There is no trading in Tokyo today, due to a public holiday.

At the same time, the futures contracts on Wall Street register increases of up to 0.5%.

Oil prices are stable this morning, but continue to be high. Brent crude is trading around $111 per barrel, while US crude is trading around $100 per barrel.

Wall Street

Wall Street closed lower yesterday, led by the chips sector. The Nasdaq fell by about 0.9%, the S&P 500 weakened by about 0.5% and the Dow Jones retreated by about 0.1%. Thus, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 retreated from the new highs they broke the day before.

The drop in tech stocks followed, among other things, a report in the Wall Street Journal that OpenAI missed its goals for new users and revenue — leading to concerns among some of the company’s leaders about its ability to finance its massive capital expenditures on data centers if it doesn’t scale fast enough. The report also covered the broad technology sector, where as mentioned the focus was on the field of chips.

This evening, two key events will take place one after the other in the USA. At 21:00 Israel time, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision will be published, with the consensus among economists being that the central bank will leave it unchanged (see the expansion under Section 4). And after the close of trading, a rare phenomenon will be recorded on Wall Street, when four of the “Magnificent Seven” – Alphabetical , Amazon , Meta andMicrosoft – will simultaneously publish their financial results.

Investors have high expectations from the technology giants, as the question still hovers over the markets to what extent the huge capital expenditures in the field of AI are justified, and how much they translate into revenues and profits. Stephen Whiting, chief investment strategist at CIO Group, told CNBC that “the last time these companies reported, they increased their full-year cost of capital — just these four companies — by $94 billion.” In fact, these four companies could together spend over $600 billion this year. These are the analysts’ estimates regarding the financial results of the companies, according to the economic website Investing:

Microsoft – The analysts expect earnings per share of $4.05 (up 17% compared to last year) and revenues of $81.37 billion (up 16%). Investors will be closely watching Microsoft’s plans to monetize its artificial intelligence investments. The stock is down 12% since the start of the year, but is up 17% since its low point in late March.

Alphabetical (Google) – The analysts expect a decrease of about 5% in earnings per share compared to last year, this is due to heavy depreciation expenses on AI data centers that weigh on profitability, while revenues are expected to grow by about 18%. The revenues from search advertising are expected to increase by about 16%, and the cloud revenues by almost 50%. Investors will look at cloud performance and updates on Gemini’s user metrics (which stood at over 750 million monthly active users at the end of 2025).

Amazon – Wall Street is expected to focus on the cloud division AWS, following the recent deals to supply additional computing power to OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta. Analysts expect AWS revenue to rise 25.8% (compared to 23.6% growth in the previous quarter). Overall, FactSet expects adjusted earnings per share of $1.63 (an increase of 2.5%) and revenue of $177.3 billion (an increase of 14%). Investors will be watching the pressure on profit margins due to high oil prices, and whether Amazon’s operating profit forecast for the second quarter will meet the market target of $22.65 billion.

Meta – Consensus revenue expectations stand at $55.36 billion for the first quarter of 2026. According to the report, this figure implies even faster growth than Meta’s own forecast of nearly 31% year-over-year growth – an ambitious goal for a company that does not take sales forecasts lightly. Meta hasn’t missed sales expectations since the second quarter of 2022, marking a streak of 14 quarters in which it beat forecasts. In the adjusted earnings per share (EPS) segment, analysts expect $6.67, a figure that reflects an increase of less than 4% compared to last year. Meta’s performance track record in adjusted earnings per share is slightly less strong, but still impressive; The company has not recorded a miss in this figure since the fourth quarter of 2022.

The commodity and currency markets

Oil prices continued to climb yesterday, amid ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed to vessel passage. Thus, the price of a Brent barrel yesterday reached $112 per barrel – a level last recorded in March, in the midst of the war with Iran, and before that only in 2022, with the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The increase in oil prices also comes against the background of the withdrawal of the United Arab Emirates from the OPEC (and OPEC+) oil cartel of the Gulf countries, which was defined by Reuters as “a severe blow to Saudi Arabia”. Reuters added that this is “a big victory for US President Donald Trump, who accused the organization of ‘stealing from the rest of the world’ by inflating oil prices.” The United Arab Emirates recently came out against OPEC members who “did not do enough” to protect it from Iranian attacks in the war.

Dr. Nahum Shila, an expert on the Gulf countries and Yemen at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University and CEO of the business intelligence company Global Osint, told Globes yesterday that not only geopolitical interests are behind the move, but also economic interests: “The United Arab Emirates has suffered heavy economic damage, and it would like to increase oil exports, and it would not want OPEC’s quotas to limit it. They are not interested in being the ‘little guy’ whose opinion is not asked, but is still required to obey the quotas. And if they want to produce and export more, they don’t want to be told no.”

Yaniv Bar, head of economics at Bank Leumi, told Globes that in the short term, “the move weakens the relative discipline of oil-producing countries that are members of the OPEC cartel and reduces its ability to manage supply and prices, which increases volatility in the oil market and raises the global geopolitical risk premium, which is also higher than usual at the present time. Which could pose a risk of price increases.”

In the longer term, Bar estimated that “there is a possible risk of a renewed oversupply in the global oil market and downward pressure on prices, if large producers such as the United Arab Emirates expand production significantly and without coordination. The move reduces stability in the market and increases the risk of volatility and therefore may challenge the environment of inflation, growth and global monetary policy in the short term, but at the same time it is an incentive to speed up the process Diversifying energy sources and reducing dependence on cartel structures over time.”