Wall Street was locked in declines, the price of oil jumped to $100 per barrel

23:00

Wall Street closed lower today, for the second day in a row, amid the tensions surrounding the talks between the US and Iran.

Nasdaq fell 0.6%, Dow Jones and S&P 500 fell by similar rates.

A recovery in oil prices led to declines in stocks, as traders await confirmation that Iran will join peace talks with the US before the ceasefire expires, while the two sides remain divided on key issues.

Stocks erased early gains that were on the way to a new record in the S&P 500 index. According to a report by the New York Times, the trip of Vice President J.D. Rape to Islamabad was suspended after Tehran did not respond to US negotiating positions. At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote in X that blocking Iranian ports is an act of war.

The price of Brent oil rose above $100 per barrel. Bond yields and the dollar strengthened.

Today:

Amazon rose after announcing an investment of up to $25 billion in Anthropic as part of an expanded agreement to establish artificial intelligence infrastructure.

After a shock at the top of the smartphone giant dark the stock went down. Yesterday it was announced that for the first time since 2011, a new CEO will take office. John Tarnos, who in recent years headed the hardware engineering division, will lead one of the most influential technology companies in the world.

The Israeli Liveperson is ending its journey as a public company and will be sold to the Sound Ond company according to a market value of approximately 43 million dollars.

stock Avis It jumped again today after a sharp jump of 23% yesterday. Over the past month, the stock has already risen more than 550%. Avis seems to be in a “Short Squeeze”.

21:56

The Senate confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee for the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has ended.

During the debate, which lasted more than two hours, senators pressed Warsh regarding the extent of his financial assets and how he intends to sell them, as well as regarding maintaining the independence of the central bank.

“Fed independence is everything to me,” Warsh said. He declined to comment on Trump’s attempt to impeach Gov. Lisa Cook or on the criminal investigation surrounding the Fed’s construction project, due to ongoing legal proceedings. According to him, Trump did not require him to commit to lowering interest rates.

Senator Tom Tills returned and stated that he would block the appointment until the investigation of the Ministry of Justice regarding the project and the outgoing chairman Jerome Powell is resolved. Earlier today, Trump showed no willingness to compromise in the conflict.

Warsh promoted his candidacy based on, among other things, a claim that AI would increase productivity and allow interest rates to be lowered, but this narrative was undermined by the war in Iran and the spike in energy prices. He noted that “the growth potential of the American economy is increasing”, but emphasized the importance of controlling inflation.

At the same time, the US stock markets retreated slightly, while oil prices rose, amid conflicting messages from Iran that increase the uncertainty surrounding the peace talks.

21:14

A renewed increase in oil prices led to the cancellation of the opening gains, as traders await confirmation that Iran will join peace talks with the US before the expiration of the cease-fire, when the two countries are divided on various issues, including access to the Strait of Hormuz. According to Iran’s foreign minister, the decision has not yet been made.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down 0.4%. Dow Jones by 0.3%.

In the meantime, oil prices changed direction after sharp declines in recent days amid expectations for a deal. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil contracts rose by 5% to a level above 94 dollars per barrel. Brent oil contracts rise by 4% to over $98 per barrel.

However, it is important to note that during the weekend there was a brief increase in the traffic of commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, but then the traffic slowed down again due to several attacks on vessels.

In the macro data, retail sales in the US increased at the highest rate in the last year, with a monthly increase of 1.7%, according to Commerce Ministry data published today. The stronger-than-expected figure is a positive sign that Americans continue to spend money, even as gas prices hurt household budgets.

20:30

The Israeli Liveperson is ending its journey as a public company and will be sold to the Sound Ond company according to a market value of approximately 43 million dollars.

Liveperson, which traded at its peak (during the Corona period) at a value of approximately 5 billion dollars (over NIS 16 billion), went through an accelerated process of loss of investor confidence, from an activist struggle to a failed recovery attempt, which ended in an almost complete erosion of value, it fell by 99% from the peak, to a value of only about 40 million dollars, today.

It was founded in 1995 in the USA by Rob Luxio, who served as CEO of the company until August 2023, and left due to pressure from activist investors. A few years after its establishment, it acquired a start-up in Israel, established the development center on its basis, and later was also issued on the Israeli stock exchange, where it is now traded.

19:33

Wall Street is headed for a Monday of declines with geopolitical concerns in the background.

But the investment bank seems to think that the rally in the stock market since the wartime depression is only just beginning. Goldman strategist Ben Snyder estimates that the S&P 500 index will rise by 7% from current levels and end the year at a level of 7,600 points. “The American stock market is expected to continue breaking records in the coming months, against the background of continued growth in corporate profits,” Snyder said.

Until the end of the week, the markets ignored fears of a slowdown in growth in the US, despite gas prices of about $4 per gallon and an increase in oil prices, and reached new highs about a week ago.
The S&P 500 is up 12% since March 30, the sharpest increase since April 2020, and before that since March 2009.

Snyder noted that “the events of 2009, 2020 and 2025 remind us that stocks, looking ahead, tend to recover even before there is ‘official confirmation’ that the situation has improved.”

According to Snyder, investors can return to growth stocks that are currently trading at a lower value than before the war. “Within the stock market, we think that investors should tilt the portfolio towards structural growth companies with unique profit engines and a low risk of disruption from AI, for example companies related to investments in electricity infrastructure, and not to stocks that depend on general economic growth,” he said.

Among the stocks that Goldman recommends – Meta, Amazon, AMD, Nvidia, Broadcom and Micron.

18:33

After a shock at the top of the smartphone giant dark the stock is now falling.

Yesterday it was announced that for the first time since 2011, a new CEO will take office. John Tarnos, who in recent years headed the hardware engineering division, will lead one of the most influential technology companies in the world.

Yesterday (Monday), Apple announced that Ternos will be appointed CEO of the company and will replace Tim Cook as of September 1. Cook, who held the position for about 15 years, is expected to move to the position of active chairman and continue to be involved in the company’s activities, among others in the areas of policy and government relations.

The new appointment sharpens a certain change in the administrative emphasis. Ternos does not come from the worlds of operations or finance, but from engineering. Throughout his career at Apple, he was involved in the development of the company’s core products, and in recent years he led the hardware field for the flagship devices, primarily the iPhone. His work focused on the engineering details, design and performance, as part of the teams responsible for the devices that accompany the daily lives of hundreds of millions of users.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Tim Cook earned approximately $2.5 billion during his tenure at Apple, with almost the entire amount, except for approximately $120 million, coming during the nearly 15 years he headed the company, according to the salary analysis company Equilar.

Like most CEOs of large companies, most of Cook’s salary came in the form of shares. A large part of the amount calculated by Equilar consists of the earnings on those shares – from their grant until the time they matured (and became a full asset that could be sold or held).

Apple reported that it paid Cook $74.3 million in the fiscal year that ended in September, including $15 million in salary and bonuses and $57.5 million in shares, which have since increased in value to nearly $69 million within a year, according to company reports.

At the beginning of January, Cook owned about 3.3 million shares of Apple, according to the company’s reports. Schwein was about $896 million at Monday’s closing price. During Cook’s tenure, Apple’s market value jumped from about $350 billion to about $4 trillion, and the company’s revenue quadrupled, according to Equilar.

The company’s market value grew during Cook’s time from $350 billion to over $4 trillion as of the end of the trading day on Monday, an incredible increase of about 1,000%.

18:21

The increases that characterized the opening of trading on Wall Street have now been erased in the background of the various statements, in part contradictory, related to the negotiations between the US and Iran.

The indices are trading in a slight decline.

“We’re going to get a great deal,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC. “They have no choice. We destroyed their navy, we destroyed their air force, we eliminated their leadership.’ However, the president added that the US military is “ready” to bomb Iran if a deal is not signed by the end of the ceasefire – and he is not interested in extending it.

17:47

stock Avis Jumping again today after a sharp jump of 23% yesterday. Over the past month, the stock has already risen more than 550%.

Avis seems to be in a “Short Squeeze”. The short interest in the stock is about 25% of the total shares, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. This figure represents the proportion of shares that were short sold and not yet covered: a ratio above 10% is considered high, and above 20% is considered extreme with a significant risk of a short squeeze.

According to Deutsche Bank research analyst Chris Woronka, the pressure began at the beginning of the month following reports showing that two investors, SRS and Pentwater, control 71% of the shares. When synthetic exposure is added through swap transactions, it appears that the two actually control about 108% of Avis shares, according to an analysis by Deutsche Bank.

This is not the first time Avis shares have experienced a sharp jump. In November 2021, the stock more than doubled in one day, from $163 to $357, following a strong earnings report and disclosure that the company had bought back 16% of its shares, Woronka wrote.

“The historical context of similar short squeeze situations, along with certain limitations on the ability of SRS and Pentwater to sell shares in the near term, suggest in our view that the stock could still continue to be squeezed upwards, and possibly significantly,” Woronka wrote. “These factors, of course, are separate from the further improvement in sentiment about the fundamentals of the car rental business,” he added.

17:11

New records are now being broken on Wall Street following the optimism that the US President instilled in the markets. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are up about 0.5%. The Dow Jones is up 0.7%.

“We’re going to get a great deal,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC. “They have no choice. We destroyed their navy, we destroyed their air force, we eliminated their leadership.’ However, the president added that the US military is “ready” to bomb Iran if a deal is not signed by the end of the ceasefire – and he is not interested in extending it.

Investors took the good part of his words and after yesterday’s respite and after the Nasdaq snapped a 13-day winning streak yesterday, now the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are at record highs.

16:45

Amazon Olay after announcing an investment of up to 25 billion dollars in the company Anthropic as part of an expanded agreement to establish artificial intelligence infrastructures.

This is in addition to the 8 billion dollars that Amazon has already invested in the artificial intelligence startup in recent years. In return, Anthropic announced Monday that it is committing to spending more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services technologies over the next decade.

16:30

Wall Street opened higher this afternoon after the Nasdaq snapped a 13-day rally yesterday as traders monitor the war with Iran, with a ceasefire set to expire tomorrow.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are up about 0.2%. Dow Jones by 0.5%.

“We’re going to get a great deal,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC. “They have no choice. We destroyed their navy, we destroyed their air force, we eliminated their leadership.’

However, the president added that the US military is “ready” to bomb Iran if a deal is not signed by the end of the ceasefire – and he is not interested in extending it.

stock United-Health Group Soaring after the medical insurance giant’s first quarter results exceeded Wall Street forecasts, and the company even raised its earnings forecast.

stock G.I. Aerospace It is also rising after better than expected first quarter results.

A drop in oil prices also contributes to increases. WTI crude futures fell 0.4% to above $89 a barrel, while Brent futures fell 0.5% to above $95 a barrel. However, the situation in the Middle East remains volatile, with President Donald Trump writing in a post on the Truth Social network that Iran has “violated the ceasefire many times”.

The major indexes fell yesterday after tensions rose again over the weekend, with the Nasdaq ending its longest winning streak since 1992. Even so, investors remain optimistic about the stock market’s overall picture.

“We still think the market will continue to rise beyond expectations. Our upside target is 7,300 points by July, which is actually our year-end target,” Ohsung Kwon, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo, told CNBC in an interview. “I think the economy will be in good shape for the next three months.”

A target of 7,300 points for the S&P 500 reflects an increase of about 3% from Monday’s close.

15:58

Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s nominee to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, will face a confirmation hearing in Washington today.

At the center of the discussion will be the independence of the central bank. In his prepared remarks, Warsh stated that the independent determination of the interest rate by the bank is “vital”, and added that in his opinion “the operational independence of the monetary policy is not particularly threatened when elected officials, presidents, senators or members of the House of Representatives – express their positions regarding the interest rate.”

President Trump was asked in an interview today with CNBC if he would be disappointed if Kevin Warsh did not lower interest rates quickly, Trump replied: “Yes, I would be disappointed.”

Senate Democrats plan to press Warsh over alleged discrepancies in his financial disclosures. They claim that he did not meet the level of transparency that other candidates for the Fed did, and that the public cannot know whether his investments include banks that the Fed supervises.

In an early confirmation filing last week, Warsh reported assets worth more than $100 million, but declined to detail the underlying holdings of his largest personal investments, citing confidentiality agreements. The Office of Government Ethics conditionally approved the submission, noting that it meets the requirements of the federal ethics law – with the exception of a few dozen holdings. The ministry emphasized that Warsh will meet all the requirements only after he sells those holdings, which he agreed to do if he is approved for the position.

This lack of transparency is the crux of the criticism in an internal memo circulated by the Democratic staff of the Senate Banking Committee and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. “Without the ability to examine Mr. Warsh’s holdings in a public and detailed manner, it is impossible to determine whether he has an interest in the institutions that he will be responsible for overseeing as Fed Chairman,” the memorandum states.

15:10

Wall Street futures are now rising after the Nasdaq snapped a 13-day winning streak yesterday as traders monitor the war with Iran, with a ceasefire set to expire tomorrow.

Contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rise by about 0.5%. The contracts on the Dow Jones by 0.7%.