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News of the day for June 2, 2026
The S&P 500 is riding an eight-session winning streak and has gained 11% since the start of the year.Stock futures are slightly lower Tuesday after major indexes hit their latest record highs to start the week; HP Enterprise shares are surging after the server maker reported strong quarterly results and lifted its full-year outlook; Marvell Technology shares are soaring after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the hardware maker could be the next trillion-dollar company; Google parent Alphabet unveiled a massive fundraising plan to support its data center buildout; and Dollar General shares are up following a solid earnings report. Here's what you need to know today.
Stock Futures Point Lower After Latest RecordsStock futures are pointing to modest declines at Tuesday's open after a tech sector rally sent major indexes to fresh highs yesterday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.4% recently, while futures linked to the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. The major indexes closed higher on Monday after announcements from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave the AI chipmaker a boost and sent other tech stocks sharply higher. WTI crude oil futures were down 1% at $91 per barrel after surging yesterday following reports that Iranian officials are set on keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed amid a lack of progress in negotiations with the U.S. Gold futures were up 1% to about $4,555 an ounce, while bitcoin fell below $70,000 for the first time since early April. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects interest rates on loans, ticked lower to 4.43%, a three-week low.
HP Enterprise Stock Soars After Strong ResultsShares of HP Enterprise (HPE) are soaring Tuesday after the server maker posted results that blew past Wall Street estimates. After the bell last night, HP Enterprise said it earned an adjusted 79 cents per share on a record-high $10.68 billion in revenue in its fiscal second quarter. The company also lifted its outlook for fiscal 2026, and offered up preliminary forecasts for next year of 8% to 12% sales growth and 12% to 16% in adjusted EPS growth. HP Enterprise stock, which jumped 9% to close at a record on Monday, was up 27% in recent premarket trading.
Marvell Stock Pops as Jensen Huang Says It Could Be Next $1T CompanyAnother tech stock surging to all-time highs Tuesday is Marvell Technology (MRVL), thanks to a new vote of confidence and a bold prediction from Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang. The head of the AI chipmaking giant said Marvell's connectivity equipment is "essential" for the way AI data centers are evolving. Speaking at an event in Taiwan, Huang told Marvell CEO Matt Murphy: "That's why you're going to be the next trillion-dollar company." Nvidia invested $2 billion in Marvell back in March, expanding its partnership with the company. Shares of Marvell, which currently has a market capitalization of just under $200 billion, were up 20% before Tuesday's opening bell. Nvidia shares were up 1% after climbing 6% yesterday. Nvidia is the world's most valuable company with a market cap of $5.4 trillion.
Google Raising $80 Billion for AI BuildoutGoogle parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) is raising $80 billion to help fund its massive AI investments, with $10 billion of that coming from Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B), which started building a stake in Alphabet in the back half of last year. For the other $70 billion, Alphabet said it is undergoing a $30 billion underwritten public offering made up of $15 billion each depositary shares and its stock listed in the U.S., while the other $40 billion will be an at-the-market offering program of its Class A and Class C shares that will start in the third quarter. Alphabet shares were down 3% in premarket trading, while Berkshire shares were little-changed.
Dollar General Earnings Top ExpectationsShares of Dollar General (DG) are moving higher this morning after the discount retailer said it earned $2 per share in the first quarter, 12 cents ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus, on $10.8 billion in sales, which matched analysts' expectations. Dollar General's 2% same-store sales growth also met estimates, and the company lifted its full-year profit forecast. Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is due to release its quarterly numbers after the closing bell, as is retailer Ulta Beauty (ULTA). Dollar General shares were up 4% in recent trading.
CrowdStrike is slated to report earnings after the closing bell today, with the cybersecurity stock seen potentially extending its record rally following the results.
Based on current options pricing, traders expect CrowdStrike (CRWD) shares could swing up to about 9% in either direction by the end of the week. A move of that size from Tuesday's close could see shares rise above $837, topping Monday's record, or slip back to $700.
CrowdStrike shares have gained over 60% in 2026 so far, as a broad tech rally over the last month helped the cybersecurity firm and rival Palo Alto Networks (PANW) recover from a hit earlier in the year amid worries about AI disruption.
Wednesday's results will provide the latest test for CrowdStrike shares following their record rally that has come amid improving sentiment around the cybersecurity sector.
In a note to clients last week, analysts at Wedbush said the company remains one of their favorite names in the cybersecurity sector, anticipating that advancements in AI will increase the need for companies to spend on cybersecurity.
CrowdStrike is projected to report a close to 24% year-over-year jump in revenue to $1.36 billion for the first quarter. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to come in at $1.07, up from 73 cents a year ago, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.
Analysts are largely bullish on CrowdStrike. Twenty of the 23 analysts with current ratings tracked by Visible Alpha have called it a "buy," compared to three neutral ratings, though the stock has already overtaken their mean target of $521 with its torrid rally.
This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect more recent prices.
Anthropic is one step closer to making its debut on public markets later this year, in what could be one of the biggest initial public offerings in history.
The AI startup behind the Claude chatbot said it filed confidentially for an IPO Monday, according to a company blog post. And while the number of shares to be offered and their price have not yet been set yet, Anthropic's growing valuation approaching $1 trillion has investors expecting a massive launch.
The move comes just weeks after Elon Musk's SpaceX, which was valued at $1.25 trillion when it absorbed Musk’s xAI start-up earlier this year, filed for its own debut. SpaceX could be poised to list as soon as next week in what’s likely to be the largest IPO in history. Meanwhile, Anthropic's main rival, OpenAI, which was valued at $852 billion in March, is reportedly preparing to file in the coming weeks and could list as soon as September.
"We believe this represents an opening of the floodgates for the IPO market, which has been relatively dormant for a few years, with these three major conglomerates set to go public later this year," analysts at Wedbush wrote in a note to clients Monday.
Even if you're not one of Anthropic's early investors or hoping to snap up the shares after the IPO, it's already had a sizable influence on other stocks this year, and could land in broader market indexes sooner than you might think due to its size.
Founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei and a couple of other former employees of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Anthropic has quickly become a key competitor known for its stated focus on AI safety and business clients.
Growing demand for Anthropic's flagship AI model, Claude, has helped the company's annualized revenue jump from $9 billion at the end of last year to nearly $47 billion as of last month, with the startup reportedly looking to achieve its first operating profit in the quarter ending this month. OpenAI, meanwhile, isn't seen turning a profit for several years—until 2029 or 2030.
Though Anthropic isn't publicly traded yet, its already sent shockwaves through markets in recent months. Back in April, software stocks tumbled after Anthropic announced its most advanced model Mythos, raising worries about industry disruption. That model, which has only been rolled out to a limited number of companies so far, is expected to be made available to a broader customer base in the weeks to come.
CORRECTION: This article has been corrected to reflect SpaceX is expected to list as soon as next week.
Another mega-IPO is officially in the works: AI lab Anthropic filed confidential IPO paperwork on Monday, setting it up to go public in one of the largest market debuts in history. That'll mean close eyes on the company's business—though those eyes are lately more focused on SpaceX, another high-profile listing due soon.
Anthropic last week announced a funding round that valued it at $965 billion, more than double its valuation in February and more than the most recent valuation of its closest competitor, OpenAI. The company is one of three mega-IPOs investors expect this year, with rival OpenAI reportedly preparing to file its paperwork in the coming weeks. They will both follow in the footsteps of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is aiming to raise up to $75 billion in a debut expected later this month. All three could be worth more than $1 trillion by the end of their first day of trading, a feat only achieved by Saudi state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco in 2019.
With a public listing comes public scrutiny of a company’s business, and Wall Street is divided on what they’ve seen so far from SpaceX—even as index providers are working to create space for them as quickly as they can. Wedbush’s Dan Ives on Sunday called SpaceX’s impending debut “a watershed moment” for Musk and the technology sector as a whole. Ives argued SpaceX sits “at the center” of two industries—AI and space exploration—with a combined total addressable market of $28.5 trillion.
Investor interest in SpaceX's IPO, expected later is month, is likely to be unusually strong considering its high profile, the scarcity of its stock, and Wall Street's hunger for new AI listings. The market's response to SpaceX's listing could set the tone for this year's other mega-IPOs: OpenAI and Anthropic.
Morningstar analysts issued a more cautious endorsement on Monday. They value SpaceX at $780 billion, about half its private valuation, and they outlined several reasons investors might be better off sitting out the IPO. A relatively small share of the company’s stock will become available to trade when it debuts, and Morningstar expects “buoyant investor appetite for AI infrastructure bids” and the stock’s expedited entry to major market indexes will create exceptionally strong demand around the IPO.
“We expect SpaceX’s share price will likely survive separation and may even ascend, at least for a time,” the analysts wrote. But shares are likely to experience “max Q, the moment of greatest atmospheric pressure on a launch vehicle,” in the succeeding months as private investors and employees are given the opportunity to sell their stock in public markets. For that reason, they argue long-term investors will have opportunities to invest in SpaceX “with more margin of safety” down the line.
Morningstar isn’t a SpaceX bear. “SpaceX has established a demonstrable, durable, and widening competitive advantage” in its space and connectivity businesses, the analysts wrote. They also argued it’s “the only company that can launch enough satellites cheaply enough to make space-based data centers economically viable.”
Risks, especially around the AI business, are substantial, according to Morningstar. Musk’s plan to launch a fleet of orbital data centers faces economic and technological hurdles that will be costly to overcome, if they can be at all. For Morningstar, SpaceX’s AI business—its largest area of investment but also its most precarious business—diminishes the stock’s appeal.
Morningstar also recommended investors scrutinize SpaceX’s “capital-allocation history and corporate governance.” The merger earlier this year of SpaceX and Musk’s AI start-up, xAI, “offers potential synergies that remain unproven,” and exemplifies the risks of investing in a company controlled by one man. Considering Musk is expected to own 85% of SpaceX’s voting rights post-IPO, “minority shareholders will have severely limited ability to influence governance outcomes or challenge future transactions.”
Episode 297 of the Investopedia Express Podcast with Caleb Silver (June 1, 2026)
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The stock market keeps making record highs on the wings of high-flying semiconductor stocks and hopes of a ceasefire in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the smartest trade in the market is to own the stocks most favored by the White House as this administration reaches back to the Reagan-era for inspiration about transforming the U.S. economy. The Express goes inside the Reagan Economic Forum to hear from leaders including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on what economic power means in 2026. Plus, Mike Rowe, America's favorite "Dirty Jobs" host, drops in with his perspective on the future of the American workforce.
Credit: Javier Ghersi / Getty ImagesShares of Homebuilder Taylor Morrison Soar on News of the Deal
Berkshire Hathaway on Sunday agreed to acquire homebuilder Taylor Morrison for $6.8 billion.Berkshire Hathaway is putting its nearly $400 billion of cash to use.
Berkshire on Sunday agreed to buy homebuilder Taylor Morrison (TMHC) for $6.8 billion, or $72.50 per share, a 24% premium to the stock’s closing price Friday. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. Taylor Morrison shares rose 22% Monday.
The Taylor Morrison deal is Berkshire Hathaway’s first acquisition since legendary CEO Warren Buffett stepped down at the end of last year. Buffett was succeeded by Greg Abel, a veteran of Berkshire’s energy business and former head of all non-insurance business operations.
Berkshire Hathaway's former CEO, Warren Buffett, has repeatedly assured investors his successor Greg Abel would sustain the value-focused, long-term approach credited with making Berkshire one of America's largest companies. Still, investors wary of the transition have been waiting for evidence that a focus on value and discipline remain key tenets of Berkshire's philosophy under Abel.
Berkshire (BRK.B) shares slid about 1% Monday and have declined more than 6% this year, due in part to uncertainty about the leadership transition. Historically, investors paid a so-called “Buffett premium” for Berkshire stock, a sign of their confidence in Buffett’s ability to manage their money. While Buffett is still involved in the firm’s investments, shares have nonetheless lost some of their appeal.
Buffett praised the Taylor Morrison deal and reiterated his confidence in Abel. “Greg did that faster than I could [have] done it, smoother than I could have done it, and I never talked to the CEO. He has launched,” Buffett reportedly told CNBC’s Becky Quick.
Taylor Morrison will join Berkshire’s housing and building products portfolio, which includes homebuilder Clayton Homes, flooring company Shaw, and paints and coatings maker Benjamin Moore. “Over time, we expect to unify our site-built homebuilding operations into a combined platform enabling us to deliver the dream of homeownership to more Americans,” said Abel on Sunday.
The acquisition could reassure any shareholders spooked by the slew of changes Berkshire made to its vaunted equity portfolio last quarter. The firm exited 15 positions entirely, including multi-billion dollar stakes in longtime holdings Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA). Berkshire took a $2.6 billion stake in Delta Airlines (DAL), returning to a stock that Buffett dumped in 2020.
It also more than tripled its stake in Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG), a relatively new addition to the portfolio that to some onlookers seemed incongruous with the value-focused investment philosophy that defined Berkshire under Buffett. (Berkshire upped that stake by about 50% on Monday when Alphabet announced an agreement to sell the firm $10 billion of stock in a private placement.)
The Taylor Morrison addition could encourage investors looking for confirmation that Buffett’s thrift and discipline live on under Abel. UBS analysts on Sunday called Berkshire’s deal “a vote of confidence in the value proposition of homebuilder stocks,” which they estimate trade at an “undemanding” valuation of about 10x forward earnings on average. Low valuations are just one reason UBS is bullish on homebuilders, which they expect to benefit long-term from moderating input cost inflation, declining mortgage rates, and a chronically undersupplied housing market.
The acquisition is not Berkshire’s first bet on the housing market this year. Homebuilder Lennar (LEN) was one of the few equity stakes Berkshire added to during the first quarter. Lennar shares declined about 15% in the first quarter when the war in Iran caused fuel prices, bond yields, and economic uncertainty to skyrocket. Homebuilder stocks as a group have traded sideways for the past two years, hamstrung by elevated interest rates, rising building costs and historically low housing affordability.
UPDATE: This article was updated after initial publication to include Berkshire's $10 billion Alphabet investment and more recent stock price information.
Strategy's latest move was telegraphed clearly enough—but investors seem a little surprised nonetheless.
The company is now arguably more a bitcoin holder than a HODLer: Strategy (MSTR), the software company and bitcoin treasury formerly known as MicroStrategy, on Monday said in a regulatory filing that it sold some of its bitcoin, marking its first sale in several years. The news is weighing on the shares, which were recently off about 4%. (Read Investopedia's full coverage of today's trading here; stocks were falling broadly amid fresh uncertainty about the state of affairs in the Strait of Hormuz.) Bitcoin was also in the red over the past 24 hours, trading near $71,500.
For years it seemed like Strategy might never sell bitcoin, which was a selling point for the company's shares, as well as the coin itself. While the company had told investors that might happen, its decision to do so in recent days may have surprised, or at least disappointed, a few.
Strategy in its filing said it sold 32 bitcoin between May 26 and Sunday for an average price of $77,135, raising $2.5 million net of expenses and fees. Its holdings, the company said, remain near 844,000, with an average purchase price of $75,699. That the company sold for more than the average price at which it has acquired its hoard likely reassured investors a bit, especially with bitcoin itself having seen its value drop by roughly a third over the past 12 months.
And Strategy Executive Chair Michael Saylor had already this year said the company "would probably sell" some bitcoin; a May 30 post on X illustrated him swallowing an orange pill, with the caption "Vitamin ₿."
His past statements along those lines didn't lead to panic, though they did stand in contrast to comments that were more along the lines of buy-and-hold-forever. More recently, Strategy executives have said investors should see the firm as a "bitcoin development company" that seeks to buy and sell it at advantageous prices to raise money for various purposes, including paying dividends on its preferred shares. (The company said Monday that the "management designated portion" of its reserve of U.S. dollars, intended to fund those dividends and interest payments on its debt, was at $900 billion.)
Still, Strategy shares are flat so far this year—and, over the past 12 months, off by more than 50%, outstripping bitcoin's decline.
IBM is the latest tech stock to set fresh records as investors pile into the AI trade.
Shares of International Business Machines (IBM) were up over 9% near $325 in recent trading, leaving them on track for a closing record after reaching a fresh intraday high at $327.89. It was one of the top gainers in the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average after receiving a new vote of confidence from Wall Street analysts, and amid a broader tech rally following a flurry of announcements from IBM partner Nvidia (NVDA), including an AI chip designed for PCs.
The move marks a stunning turnaround for IBM's stock, which returned to positive territory for the year on Friday after rebounding nearly 40% from its lows in early May.
IBM's recent surge to new highs comes amid improving sentiment around the AI trade after a string of strong earnings reports from Nvidia and other hardware makers, along with a show of support from the U.S. government for IBM's quantum computing business.
Analysts at Barclays, who launched coverage of IBM stock today with an "overweight" rating and Street-high target of $350, said they believe it could be "following the Nvidia playbook" in quantum computing as an early leader in the industry with an "ecosystem approach" to building the market for its offerings.
The analysts also said they believe IBM has "created a stable growth engine around its very defensible software portfolio," that will lead to continued growth and better profit margins. "While software has a negative investor connotation at the moment, IBM is offering infrastructure software (the good part) to large, often heavily regulated customers, which creates a very sticky set-up that should not see negative AI implications," they wrote.
Wall Street analysts are broadly bullish on IBM. All but one of the six analysts with current ratings tracked by Visible Alpha have recommended buying the stock, compared to one neutral rating, though it's already blown past their mean target around $299 with its recent gains.
The Iran war’s disruptions to crude oil supplies are about to cause major problems—or maybe the U.S. economy can pretty much shrug it off. With the global energy market entering uncharted territory, the answer depends on whom you ask.
A pair of analyses released on Friday reached opposite conclusions about the risk the U.S. economy faces from the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The crucial waterway between Iran and Oman is the route through which 20% of the world’s oil supply usually flows to global markets from the Persian Gulf.
This question became even more salient on Monday after Iranian officials said they had withdrawn from peace negotiations and vowed to “completely block” the strait, according to Iranian state media and reported by CNBC. The news jolted oil prices up 7% on Monday morning.
Forecasters at Goldman Sachs said the U.S. economy would be relatively unscathed even if the strait never reopens. Meanwhile, HFI Research, a self-described “contrarian” investment research firm, said energy markets were about to hit a wall and risked gasoline shortages in the coming months.
The contrasting forecasts represented the extremes of possible outcomes as the Iran conflict entered its fourth month, prolonging what the International Energy Agency called the “largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.”
The trajectory of the U.S. economy could depend on whether oil resumes flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, and how well it can adapt if that never happens.
The effects so far have been significant, but not catastrophic for the U.S.
Crude oil was trading at $97 a barrel on Monday, according to the Brent international benchmark. That was below its recent high of $118 at the height of hostilities in March, but well above its prewar level of around $70.
Soaring oil prices have pushed the average price of gasoline in the U.S. to $4.32 a gallon, up from $2.98 before the shooting began, according to AAA. Gas prices, in turn, are stretching household budgets and pushing up inflation across the economy.
So far, prices have been kept in check by periodic infusions of optimism in financial markets that the two sides will reach an agreement to reopen the strait and resume commercial traffic.
In the pessimistic scenario, that optimism could lead to shortages or steeper price hikes down the road because people haven’t cut back much on energy use.
In HFI’s analysis, oil stockpiles have been so depleted that energy markets are essentially operating without the buffer they usually rely on to smooth over routine disruptions. That means something like a refinery outage or a hurricane could have a much more serious impact than usual.
The firm compared the situation to a household living “paycheck to paycheck” and unable to cope with an unexpected expense.
“Now that we are a month and a half past the oil market breaking point, we are just going to hit the wall,” the company wrote in an unsigned Substack post. “There’s no other way around it.”
In the optimistic scenario, the U.S. will be able to muddle through even if the strait never reopens.
Megan Peters, an economist at Goldman Sachs, calculated the economic impact on the U.S. and global economies in the event of a prolonged closure of the strait. The U.S. GDP growth would be dragged down by less than 0.5 percentage points a year from the oil shock, while the disruption of non-oil commodities, including fertilizer and aluminum, would be about half of that.
By comparison, the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.6% in the first quarter, so the hit would not be enough to send the GDP into negative territory. Other countries more dependent on oil from the Middle East would be harder hit.
“The U.S. will remain relatively insulated from supply disruptions due to its limited dependence on Middle East exports and its ability to outbid poorer economies,” Peters wrote.
Peters is counting on companies and individuals to find workarounds to make up for the reduced oil supply, such as using substitutes for petroleum-based plastics.
“Basic plastics such as polyethylene can be replaced by paper, glass or aluminum packaging,” she wrote. “Some more innovative solutions include supermarkets in Asia wrapping produce with banana leaves, and cosmetics brands switching from traditional liquid shampoos to solid versions packaged in cardboard. The loss of plastics could accelerate the rollout of such measures while leaving GDP little changed.”
The AI trade is off to a busy start in June.
Shares of AI chip leader Nvidia (NVDA) and several of its partners climbed, while rivals' stocks sank Monday after CEO Jensen Huang unveiled an AI chip designed for personal computers and provided updates around the company's offerings around physical AI and AI agents during a keynote address at the Computex conference in Taiwan.
Nvidia's stock was about 4% in recent trading, while shares of design partner Arm (ARM) surged 12%. Other partners, including Micron Technology (MU), Dell Technologies (DELL), HP (HPQ), Microsoft (MSFT), also saw their shares climb. Meanwhile, shares of PC chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) dropped about 4%, Intel (INTC) slid 5%, and Qualcomm (QCOM) slumped 8%.
Monday's moves underscore Nvidia's ability to move a wide range of stocks with new product announcements and comments from Huang.
Huang said Nvidia is developing a new line of Windows laptops alongside Dell, HP, Asus, and others that are designed to run AI agents more efficiently, and will be powered by new Nvidia processors. Huang called the project "the first across‑the‑lineup PC reinvention in forty years."
Renewed enthusiasm around the AI trade has sent a number of stocks in the tech sector to record highs in recent weeks, as strong earnings reports from hardware makers have shown that big tech companies are still spending heavily on AI equipment to build out data centers.
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