Optimism persists

Briefing.com Summary: 

*More fresh records in overseas markets.

*Optimism about eventual deal with Iran keeping oil below $90/bbl.

*Strong response to upbeat quarterly results and guidance from Dell (DELL).

The stock market maintained its resilient tone on Thursday, resulting in fresh record closing highs for the major averages. The market will look to continue its record push at the start of today’s session with futures on the S&P 500 trading ten points above fair value.

Record highs have been a common theme as of late with Japan’s Nikkei (+2.5%) and South Korea’s Kospi (+3.6%) also reaching their best levels of all time in overnight trade.

That overnight session was calm otherwise, as the market did not have to contend with confusing Iran-related headlines. Instead, a sense of optimism about a peace deal has been maintained, keeping the price of WTI crude below $90/bbl.

With the end of the month just around the corner, investors received a big batch of economic data from Asia and Europe, and somewhat surprisingly, both Japan and Germany saw decelerating inflation in May, as Tokyo CPI for April decelerated to 1.4% from 1.5% while Germany’s flash CPI for May decelerated to 2.6% from 2.9%. These developments have contributed to a continuation of this week’s advance in Treasuries and other sovereign debt. The 10-yr yield is down one basis point at 4.45% and down 11 basis points from last week’s settlement, putting the 10-yr note on track for its fifth consecutive day of gains.

The market received a barrage of data yesterday, but things are much calmer today with the data flow limited to reports that don’t have much market-moving potential. The Census Bureau reported this morning that the advance goods trade deficit narrowed to $82.4 bln in April from $85.3 bln in March while advance April Retail Inventories and advance Wholesale Inventories were up 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively. Today’s data slate will be capped with the 9:45 ET release of the Chicago PMI for May (Briefing.com consensus 49.5; prior 49.2).

There are a few earnings movers this morning with Dell (DELL) soaring to fresh record territory after its strong results and guidance while Gap (GAP) has fallen toward its May low after its slight EPS beat was masked by cautious revenue guidance.

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Originally Posted May 29, 2026 – Optimism persists