New York, May 15, 2026, 07:00 EDT
- U.S. stock futures slipped early Friday, putting the brakes on an AI-driven surge that just sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new records and nudged the Dow over 50,000 again.
- Cisco, Nvidia, and Cerebras led Thursday’s AI surge, though renewed concerns about inflation took hold as oil and Treasury yields climbed.
- Next week brings earnings from Nvidia and several big retailers, a key check on whether the rally can stretch past just a handful of tech standouts.
Stock futures in the U.S. slipped early Friday, putting Wall Street’s AI-fueled rally on notice just hours after the Dow Jones Industrial Average punched through 50,000 and both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq set fresh records. By 05:38 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis had dropped 0.66%, with S&P 500 E-minis off 1.07% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis sliding 1.56%.
This latest dip stands out: AI-heavy stocks have been doing the heavy lifting in the market’s recent rally, all while traders recalculate the risks around inflation. The 10-year Treasury yield popped to 4.54%—a level not seen since early June 2025. Brent crude surged nearly 3%, touching $109 a barrel as the Strait of Hormuz stayed shut, according to Reuters.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, flagged that an extended conflict in the Middle East would drive up energy prices, push inflation expectations higher, and increase borrowing costs—a “red flag” for tech investors who’ve zeroed in on earnings. Futures pricing suggested traders now see a greater risk the Federal Reserve bumps rates by another quarter point in December, according to Reuters, which pointed to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Reuters
Stocks finished Thursday with solid gains. The S&P 500 closed up 56.99 points, or 0.8%, at 7,501.24. The Dow advanced 370.26 points, or 0.7%, landing at 50,063.46. The Nasdaq tacked on 232.88 points, or 0.9%, to end at 26,635.22, numbers from the Associated Press show.
Cisco stood out with the sharpest single-stock move. Shares jumped 13.4% to hit a record, after the networking giant bumped up its full-year revenue outlook and detailed plans to cut nearly 4,000 jobs in a restructuring push.
Cisco posted $15.8 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue, marking a 12% jump from a year ago, with non-GAAP earnings landing at $1.06 per share. So far this year, AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers have reached $5.3 billion, the company said. Cisco also bumped up its fiscal 2026 AI order forecast to $9 billion, up from the previous $5 billion. “Connecting and securing AI,” is how Chief Executive Chuck Robbins described the company’s positioning on demand. Cisco Investor Relations
Nvidia tacked on another 4.4%, notching fresh gains after Reuters said the U.S. signed off on H200 chip sales to about 10 Chinese companies—though shipments haven’t started yet. Approved buyers: Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, JD.com. Lenovo and Foxconn, according to Reuters, got distributor status. The H200 is Nvidia’s No. 2 AI chip by power.
China remains both a risk and a potential driver. The Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing touched on trade, Taiwan, and the Strait of Hormuz, but Reuters said Friday that the summit ended with no big progress. Michael Monaghan, portfolio manager at Founder ETFs, described the discussions as “great power competition.” Reuters
Cerebras Systems jumped into its Nasdaq debut, opening at $350—a sharp 89% leap over its $185 IPO price—after pulling in $5.55 billion from the offering. The opening trade put the chip firm’s fully diluted valuation at $106.75 billion. CEO Andrew Feldman, speaking with Reuters, predicted AI usage would “explode” as the technology advances. Reuters
The chip sector showed mixed action. According to Reuters, shares of Qualcomm, Intel, and Micron—three AI-focused semiconductor stocks—dropped anywhere from 3.4% to 6.1% on Thursday. Nvidia, on the other hand, helped push the broader semiconductor space higher.
The rally’s still uncomfortably narrow, especially with rates and oil both elevated. The S&P 500 has climbed roughly 18% from its late-March trough, but as of Thursday morning, only about 20% of the index’s members had actually outperformed since March 30, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. “Not necessarily a healthy market,” said Patrick Ryan, chief investment strategist at Madison Investments. Reuters
Nvidia steps up with earnings on Wednesday, and big retail names—Walmart, Home Depot, Target, TJX—follow. The thing to watch, says Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at PNC Financial Services Group: Are consumers still holding up? “How resilient is the consumer?” he puts it. Reuters
