A morning in New York: in search of new landmarks

Daily review and forecast of events on the U.S. stock market from Mikhail Denislamov, Deputy Director of Capital Markets Research, Freedom Broker.

The situation around Iran remains the main source of uncertainty for the markets. Negotiations between the US and Iran have been put on pause. Over the weekend, the White House canceled a trip by Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkoff to Islamabad to meet with a delegation from the Islamic republic. US President Donald Trump said Tehran had improved its settlement offer but it was still "not good enough".

Control of transportation through the Strait of Hormuz and conditions for lifting the naval blockade remain key points of conflict, so there is no visible progress on the nuclear agenda. Pressure on Iranian exports also remains. The day before, only one tanker with oil products entered the Persian Gulf, which supports fears of energy shortages. Against this background, Brent appreciates by more than 2%, WTI adds about 2%. Goldman Sachs raised its oil forecasts for the fourth quarter to $90 per barrel for the North Sea variety and to $83 for WTI. For markets, the main risk is that the prolongation of negotiations and restrictions on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will lead to a prolonged period of high prices for hydrocarbons, which will increase inflationary pressures and limit demand for risky assets.

Macroeconomic statistics will have a limited impact on the upcoming trading. The focus of attention will be the index of industrial activity from FRB Dallas for April (consensus: +0.5 points, March: -0.2).

Domino's Pizza (DPZ) presented its results for the last quarter. Also, Verizon (VZ), Fulcrum Therapeutics (FULC), Business First Bancshares (BFST), ACM Research (ACMR), Bank of Marin (BMRC) and HBT Financial (HBT) will publish quarterly reports before the opening of trading. Following the main session , Nucor (NUE), Celestica (CLS), Cadence Design Systems (CDNS), Public Storage (PSA), Ventas (VTR), Brown & Brown (BRO) and Rambus (RMBS) will release results.

Futures on US indices show near-zero dynamics after the S&P 500 updated its historical maximum. We assess the balance of risks for the upcoming session as neutral with moderate volatility.

- Oracle (ORCL) shares may get support on news that Related Digital has raised $16 billion for a data center in Michigan being built for the company. This confirms the ability of Oracle's large-scale cloud services and artificial intelligence infrastructure projects to access significant debt and private financing, despite market concerns about the high capital intensity of such investments.

- Noble Corporation (NE) will be in the center of investors' attention after its earnings released over the weekend. The company's revenue for the quarter rose from $764 mln to $786 mln, adjusted EBITDA increased from $232 mln to $277 mln. Free cash flow reached $169 mln. The volume of confirmed orders amounted to $7.5 bln, the total value of contracts signed since the beginning of the year is estimated at about $565 mln.

- Frontier Group Holdings (ULCC) shares may react positively to reports of government support plans for low-cost carriers. The group of companies, including Frontier, is discussing a $2.5 billion aid package with the U.S. government in exchange for warrants. This will short-term support liquidity in the industry, which continues to be under severe pressure due to rising jet fuel prices. At the same time, the implementation of the proposed scheme will lead to a noticeable dilution of shareholder stakes.

-Sirius XM (SIRI) and iHeartMedia (IHRT) are in early-stage merger talks. On this news on the evening of April 24, SIRI shares were up about 2%, while IHRT was losing about 3%, reflecting skepticism about the deal among iHeartMedia's debt-laden investors.

- The head of Alphabet's (GOOGL) cloud business said that implementing a strategy of having its own chips, data centers, and basic AI models has already resulted in closing the gap with Microsoft (MSFT ) and Amazon (AMZN) in the cloud services sector.

April 24 trading on U.S. stock exchanges ended mostly in positive territory. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose by 0.8% and 1.95%, respectively, setting new historical records, although by the end of the day their quotations had moved away from intraday peaks. The Russell 2000 added 0.43%, only the Dow Jones declined 0.16%.

News about the US-Iran conflict faded into the background against the backdrop of the ongoing ceasefire and expectations of renewed negotiations. In these conditions, the strong reporting season, especially in the technology segment, becomes the main driving force for the market. In the "Magnificent Seven", Nvidia (NVDA: +4.32% at the close of trading on April 24) and Amazon (AMZN: +3.49% ) were the most sought-after stocks. Quotes of semiconductor manufacturers for AI infrastructure and memory chips, as well as software developers were actively moving upward. The semiconductor segment has been up for 18 consecutive sessions. In the broad market, the IT industry (XLK: +2.81%) led the growth, while telecoms (XLC: -1.58%) were among the outsiders.

Macroeconomic statistics were moderately positive. The final estimate of the consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan for April was revised upward; it exceeded the consensus, but remains near historical lows. Inflation expectations at the one-year and 5-10 year horizons were down slightly from preliminary values. Against this backdrop, US Treasuries mostly rose, with yields at the short end of the curve declining by 4-5 bps.

Quotes WTI corrected by 1.5% amid news about the de-escalation of the Iranian-American conflict. Nevertheless, over the past week, Texas crude oil rose by 14.3%. The market had been moving upward over the previous five trading days, supported by strong corporate reporting results and sustained demand for AI-related stocks, despite persistent external risks.

- Sun Pharma is preparing abinding offer to buy Organon & Co. (OGN: +30.9% at the close of trading on April 24) for about $13 billion. This deal could be one of the largest in the sector, which markedly increases the probability of positive revaluation of OGN securities.

-AppFolio (APPF: +11.2%) reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings for the first quarter. The company noted an influx of new customers, growth in the number of properties under management and an increase in the share of premium rate users, and slightly raised its full-year revenue and operating margin guidance.

- Edwards Lifesciences (EW: +5.6%) revenue and earnings for the last reported quarter beat average forecasts. Haydens' revenue growth and EPS guidance for 2026 was improved. Management announced the completion of a $400 million accelerated share repurchase. Another $1.5 billion remains under the existing buyback program.

-Meta Platforms (META: +2.41%) intends to utilize tens of millions of AWS Graviton chips for agent-based AI systems. This makes the corporation one of the largest Graviton customers in the world and strengthens Amazon.com's (AMZN: +3.5%) position in the AI computing infrastructure segment.

-Procter & Gamble (PG: +2.5%) beat expectations on revenue and underlying earnings for its fiscal third quarter. Organic growth was above consensus, helped by higher sales in the Beauty, Fabric & Home Care, and Baby & Feminine segments. The company reiterated full-year guidance, although it indicated the lower end of its EPS guidance due to commodity cost pressures.

-Alphabet (GOOGL: +1.63%) is stepping up its bet on generative AI and plans to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic. The deal confirms that major tech companies are continuing to ramp up investments in AI models and computing infrastructure, despite uncertainty over the return on capital expenditure in these areas.

-Charter Communications (CHTR: -25.5%) reported revenue slightly above expectations and EBITDA in line with consensus, but investors were concerned about higher capex with reduced free cash flow due to pressure from the internet and video services segments.

-HCA Healthcare (HCA: -8.8%) released first-quarter results in which the number of equivalent hospitalizations and adjusted EBITDA fell short of average market expectations. The company attributed the deterioration to weather factors and a milder respiratory illness season, leaving its full-year outlook unchanged.

-Eli Lilly (LLY: -3.7%) reacted negatively to the release of IQVIA data for the first full week of Founday sales. The number of prescriptions written was noticeably lower than at the comparable launch stage of the oral version of Novo Nordisk's (NVO) Wegovy. Analysts note that it is too early to draw conclusions about Eli Lilly lagging behind its competitor, as the launch remains at an early stage, and Wegovy's brand recognition at the start could have been higher.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor