Stock Market Tumbles On Oil Prices, Surging Yields; Nvidia, Micron Upbeat: Weekly Review

The stock market tumbled, with all the major indexes below their 200-day moving averages and recent lows. U.S. crude oil prices held just below $100 while Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose well above that level and Mideast crude prices topped $150. Treasury yields also jumped amid a global surge in yields. The Federal Reserve still sees one rate cut in 2026, but Fed chief Jerome Powell stressed that policymakers need to see inflation progress. Nvidia (NVDA) doubled its AI chip sales outlook and says it’s received orders from China, but shares fell. Micron Technology (MU) delivered blowout earnings and guidance, but the memory chip giant slashed weekly gains. Airlines gave upbeat guidance while Alibaba (BABA) tumbled on an earnings miss.

Stock Market Breaking Support

The stock market started with some gains, but headed south once again amid high oil prices and surging yields. The major indexes all undercut recent lows and their 200-day lines, with the Nasdaq hitting six-month lows. U.S. oil prices were volatile and held high levels while Brent and Mideast crude kept running higher. The 10-year Treasury yield shot up to a seven-month high. Nvidia (NVDA) fell despite bullish guidance while Micron Technology (MU) pared gains despite blowout results.

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Powell Rate Cut Conditional As Markets Eye Hike

Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting maintained the status-quo outlook for one rate cut this year. However, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell flatly stated that there will be no rate cut unless inflation improves, saying that core goods inflation needs to come down after a tariff boost. Powell also said that the private sector is adding zero net new jobs, but that may be the right number, given stagnant labor force growth. After five years of above-target inflation, he made clear that there’s a high bar to further cuts. Powell, whose term as chairman ends in May but has a seat on the board through early 2028, made news by saying he’s not going anywhere until the Justice Department’s investigation of him is 100% done. With global yields soaring, markets are starting to price in a decent chance of a rate hike.

Overseas Oil Prices Keep Running

Overseas energy prices exploded higher midweek after Israel’s attack on Iran’s main natural gas infrastructure provoked Iranian strikes on a liquefied natural gas facility in Qatar and oil refineries in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Europe’s Brent crude benchmark, which reflects prices for the oil extracted from the North Sea, spiked as high as $119, even as U.S. crude oil futures prices held below $100 a barrel. So far, the escalation looks like an exception. Both the U.S. and Iran prefer a porous Strait of Hormuz that lets through Iranian tankers en route mainly to China and whichever other ships Tehran will allow. President Donald Trump doesn’t want the war to kill the economy, while Iran doesn’t want to spark a global backlash that makes its position untenable. As of Friday afternoon, U.S. crude traded above $98, little changed for the week. Brent crude futures traded near $110, up solidly, with potential to spike much higher if the conflict goes back off the rails. Mideast crude cash prices were above $150.

Nvidia Doubles AI Chip Outlook

Artificial intelligence kingpin Nvidia (NVDA) doubled its forecast for cumulative AI processor sales from 2025 through 2027 to “at least $1 trillion.” Analysts said the sales forecast is conservative because it only includes Blackwell and Rubin graphics processing unit (GPU) sales. The outlook does not include its new Groq inferencing chips, stand-alone Vera central processing unit (CPU) racks and other products, such as older model Hopper chips and next year’s Rubin Ultra GPUs. Nvidia announced the new forecast at its GTC conference in San Jose, Calif. In a keynote presentation, CEO Jensen Huang outlined Nvidia’s product roadmap, hyped AI’s inferencing era and touted a host of partnerships. Later, Huang said Nvidia has received purchase orders from China for H200 processors and is resuming production plans for the once off-limits market. Nvidia stock continued to move sideways, despite the positive news.

Micron Crushes Estimates

Memory-chip maker Micron Technology (MU) smashed Wall Street’s targets for its fiscal second quarter and with its outlook on continued strong AI data center business. Micron’s earnings rocketed 682% year over year. Revenue soared 196% to $23.86 billion, with growth accelerating for the third straight quarter. It was the company’s fifth consecutive quarter of triple-digit percentage gains in earnings. Analysts see such profit gains continuing for three more quarters. For the current quarter, its fiscal Q3, Micron forecast adjusted earnings up 903% with sales spiking 260% to $33.5 billion. Shares broke out to a new high ahead of results, but fell amid high expectations.

China Tech Titans Fall

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba (BABA) tumbled following fiscal Q3 results for the e-commerce and cloud-computing giant. Earnings fell 67% to 7.09 yuan per American depositary receipt while revenue grew 2% to 284.8 billion yuan ($41.4 billion). Both missed analyst estimates. CEO Eddie Wu expects Alibaba to surpass $100 billion in cloud and AI related revenue over the next five years. But that was overshadowed by tumbling earnings as Alibaba fights to be a leading food-delivery player in China. Meanwhile, messaging and gaming giant Tencent (TCEHY) beat Q4 views but said it will curb stock buybacks to focus on AI investment. Tencent’s U.S. shares slid.

Airlines Rally On Guidance

Delta Air Lines (DAL) and American Airlines (AAL) surged this week after lifting their outlooks, noting accelerating demand trends despite a spike in fuel prices amid ongoing upheaval in the Middle East. Delta said it is well-positioned to navigate the current environment and lifted its Q1 revenue guidance, expecting high-single digit sales growth. American Airlines expects record year-over-year revenue growth for Q1 and said the “strong” sales trends should continue into Q2. JetBlue (JBLU) also said Q4 demand momentum has continued into the new year, which strengthened more than expected to offset higher fuel costs. However, those fuel costs are weighing on airline capacity. Delta said it will try to remain flexible, while JetBlue expects a 1% to 2% decline in available seat miles. DAL stock jumped more than 10% on the week, while AAL shares surged more than 4%. JBLU stock ticked lower.

Space Stocks Take Off

Space stocks popped this week, with Intuitive Machines (LUNR) clearing a key technical line and Planet Labs (PL) breaking out on results. Lunar vehicle and exploration technology provider Intuitive Machines missed Q4 estimates Thursday but provided a better-than-expected revenue and EBITDA outlook for 2026. LUNR stock rebounded above its 50-day line on the report and surged more than 7% on the week. Planet Labs vaulted out of a cup-with-handle entry as adjusted earnings topped forecasts while revenue jumped 41%. The satellite imagery and data company guided significantly higher on full-year revenue.

Busy Week For Tesla, China Rivals

Chinese EV makers Xiaomi (XIACY) and XPeng (XPEV) offered major updates this week. Amid a slew of China EV makers launching new and updated EVs, Xiaomi (XIACY) released the latest version of its SU7 sedan, which much-higher range and a lower price than the Tesla Model 3, its direct rival. But investors fear slimmer margins, XPeng touted its latest vision-only driver-assist system and reported its first-ever quarterly profit, but shares tumbled on weak guidance. BYD (BYD) rallied amid optimism for its flash-charging EVs and network as well booming demand for its affordable EV across Asia amid surging gas prices. TeslaTSLA says Europe is poised to approve Full Self-Driving (Supervised) while Elon Musk says his company is about to start its Terafab semiconductor plant project. But shares fell, close to retracing a late 2025 rally, with China EV competition likely a factor.

Specialty Discounters Diverge

Discount retailers diverged this week in the stock market. Five Below (FIVE) surged out of a short consolidation to record highs. The tween-and-tween discount retailer reported a 24% increase in adjusted earnings on 24.5% revenue growth. Comparable sales growth accelerated to 14%. Five Below’s Q1 outlook matched FactSet estimates, while its full-year forecast was slightly below expectations. Dollar Tree (DLTR) on Monday topped Q4 earnings views with a 21% increase, but a 9% sales gain slightly missed. The dollar store’s 2026 earnings and revenue forecasts were below consensus at the midpoint. DLTR stock slid about 2% on the week to fall below its 200-day line.

Stock Market News In Brief

NVent Electric (NVT) jumped to record highs after giving updated financial targets and touting demand from data center operators. The electric infrastructure company projects adjusted earnings per share to grow 17%-20% annually through 2028. NVent stock jumped to a new high, more than doubling from a year earlier.

Eli Lilly (LLY) reported late-stage study results that confirmed the “superior weight loss profile” of its next-generation obesity treatment, retatrutide. On average, diabetic patients taking a high dose of the weekly shot lost 16.8% of body weight over 40 weeks — 36.6 pounds.

Elbit Systems (ESLT) jumped to record highs after the Israel-based defense contractor cleared Q4 estimates, driven by a “material” increase in demand amid ongoing wars in the Middle East. Earnings increased 76% on more than 11% revenue growth.

FedEx (FDX) earnings rose 16%, defying fiscal Q3 views for a small decline. Revenue of $24 billion also beat, with growth accelerating slowly for a third straight quarter to 8%. The shipping giant also raised full-year guidance, largely on the Q3 beat. FedEx said it’s on track to spin off FedEx Freight into a separate publicly traded company on June 1. FedEx stock rose Friday, but closed well off highs.

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