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Thursday's rally puts Snowflake shares back into positive territory for the year.
Credit: Ina Fassbender / AFP / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Snowflake shares popped Thursday after the cloud software maker beat estimates on strong AI demand and announced a pair of new AI-related deals.
• Wall Street analysts said they believe the AI boom will be an "accelerant" for the company.

Snowflake's stock is making a comeback.

Shares of Snowflake (SNOW) were up over 34% in recent trading, bringing the stock back into positive territory for the year, after a flurry of AI-related developments. The cloud software firm late yesterday announced a $6 billion deal with Amazon (AMZN) and plans to acquire to acquire a platform for AI agents, along with an upbeat outlook and better-than-expected earnings driven by growing AI demand.

William Blair analysts said the results showed a "clear inflection for AI adoption" among Snowflake's customers, and that it "reinforces the view that AI is not only an incremental revenue stream but also an accelerant for the broader Snowflake platform."

Why This Matters to Investors

Thursday's rally could be taken as a sign of improving sentiment around the impact of AI on Snowflake's business, and potentially other software makers.

Wedbush analysts lifted their price target to $280 from $270 following the results, and said they believe Snowflake's "deep infrastructure capabilities represent a strong moat" that could position the company to "capitalize on the AI Revolution."

Thursday's rally leaves Snowflake's stock up close to 7% for 2026, after entering the session down 20% year-to-date.

News of the day for May 28, 2026

The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite each closed at record highs on Wednesday.
Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Stocks futures are pointing lower this morning after major indexes closed at record highs yesterday, as investors await economic data and earnings reports; a key inflation indicator is due to be released this morning; Snowflake shares are soaring after the cloud software company reported earnings and announced a paid of deals; Costco and Dell are scheduled to release their quarterly results after the closing bell; and FedEx Freight will start trading on Monday after completing a spinoff from its parent company. Here's what you need to know today.

Stock Futures Slip After Indexes Closed at Records

Stock futures are slightly lower this morning after all three major indexes hit record highs on Wednesday. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.2% recently, while Nasdaq futures slipped 0.3%. Crude oil prices are back on the rise—WTI crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, were up 3% at $91.20 per barrel—after the U.S. military said late last night that it shot down four drones around the Strait of Hormuz and attacked a site in Iran that was about to launch a fifth, poking holes in investor hopes for an imminent peace deal. Gold futures were down 1.4% at $4,420 an ounce, while bitcoin was at $73,200, down from a high near $76,000 yesterday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects interest rates on loans, rose to 4.51% from 4.49% at Wednesday's close.

PCE Report Leads Busy Day of Economic Data

Investors will get updates on a range of economic indicators this morning, headlined by the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, a key inflation metric. The index is expected to show that inflation in the 12 months through April stood at 3.8%, up from 3.5% in March, as the economy absorbs the impact of rising prices for fuel and other products as a result of the Iran war. "Core" inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is expected to come in at 3.3%, according to economists. Other noteworthy data points due out today include the second revision to first-quarter gross domestic product, a report on durable goods orders and new home sales figures for April.

Snowflake Stock Jumps After Earnings, New Deals

Shares of Snowflake (SNOW) are skyrocketing after the cloud software company reported better-than-expected first quarter results and announced a pair of deals. The company said after the bell Wednesday that it earned an adjusted 39 cents per share on $1.39 billion in revenue, up 34% year-over-year, each better than analysts had forecast. Snowflake also raised its outlook, citing strong AI demand. Meanwhile, Snowflake announced a commitment to spend $6 billion with Amazon's (AMZN) AWS cloud unit, as well as the acquisition of startup Natoma to bolster its ability to help customers use AI agents. Snowflake shares, which through yesterday's close had lost 20% of their value since the start of the year, were up 38% in recent premarket trading.

Reports From Dell, Costco Coming After The Bell Today

More big-name earnings reports are coming today, with results from Costco Wholesale (COST) and Dell Technologies (DELL) due after the closing bell. Analysts expect another solid quarter of growing sales and profits from Costco. Shares of the retail giant have been under pressure in the past week after a mixed report from rival Walmart (WMT) suggested consumers are struggling to keep up with inflation. Dell's revenue and earnings are expected to grow substantially year-over-year, as demand for the equipment needed to run AI data centers has boosted sales for a number of hardware makers. Costco shares were little changed ahead of the opening bell, while Dell stock rose more than 4%, boosted by news from last night that it won a $9.7 billion contract from the Pentagon.

FedEx Freight to Join S&P 500 Next Week After Spinoff

FedEx Freight is set to start trading on New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'FDXF' on Monday following a separation from its parent company. FedEx (FDX) announced the plans to spin off the freight business in Dec. 2024 following a restructuring process designed to help FedEx cut costs. FedEx Freight will join the S&P 500 a day after its market debut, S&P Global announced late Wednesday. FedEx Freight will replace EPAM Systems (EPAM), which will move to the S&P SmallCap 600.

CEO Marc Benioff Says Agentic AI Offers Huge Growth Opportunity

Salesforce shares have lost one-third of their value since the start of 2026.
Credit: Sheldon Cooper / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Salesforce reported record sales that topped Wall Street analysts' estimates thanks to strong demand for its AI offerings.
• The software giant issued a second-quarter revenue outlook that was largely below estimates.
• Salesforce shares have been hit hard by investor concerns that AI could eat into the company's business, but CEO Marc Benioff said AI offers "the biggest growth opportunity for our customers, and for Salesforce."

Salesforce shares lost ground Wednesday after the software giant released quarterly results that exceeded Wall Street expectations but issued guidance that disappointed investors.

The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $3.88 for its fiscal first quarter as revenue increased 13% from a year earlier to $11.13 billion. Salesforce projected second-quarter revenue of between $11.27 billion and $11.35 billion, on the low end of what analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were expecting and representing a slowdown in the pace of growth.

Salesforce shares were down more than 1% in recent after-hours trading. Through the close of Wednesday's regular session, the stock had lost 33% of its value since the start of the year amid concerns that software businesses could be severely disrupted by AI advancements. Salesforce is the worst-performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2026.

Marc Benioff speaks with Britain's King Charles III last month in Washington, D.C.
Credit: Ken Cedeno /Pool / Getty Images

CEO Marc Benioff sees a big growth opportunity ahead from AI.

“Agentic AI is the biggest growth opportunity for our customers, and for Salesforce," Benioff said in the earnings press release.

The company's shares were recently up 35% in after-hours trading

Snowflake shares were down 20% for 2026 through Wednesday's close
Credit: Joan Cros / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Snowflake shares soared in extended trading Wednesday after the company announced a partnership with Amazon and posted better-than-expected earnings and a stronger full-year outlook.
• The company's stock at recent prices looked set to climb back into the green for 2026 and, perhaps, approach year-to-date highs.

Snowflake's AI push looks poised to drive a comeback for its stock.

Shares of the cloud-based data platform provider were up over 35% in extended trading Wednesday, setting them well on their way to erasing their losses for the year. The stock, recently trading around $240, finished 2025 near $219 before slipping below $120 in April.

What happened: Snowflake (SNOW) late Wednesday said it struck a $6 billion AI deal with Amazon's (AMZN) AWS to support its AI goals, and announced plans to acquire a platform for AI agents. The company also posted quarterly results that topped Wall Street's estimates and raised its outlook, citing booming AI demand. (Amazon shares were little changed after gaining close to 3% in Wednesday's regular session.)

Why This Matters to Investors

A flurry of deals and better-than-expected results could help Snowflake win back investors' support after a rough start to the year.

Snowflake reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.39 on revenue that jumped 34% year-over-year to $1.39 billion, beating analysts' estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy in a press released called it a "milestone quarter" that "marks a clear inflection point."

CFO Brian Robins said the company now expects full-year revenue of $5.84 billion, up from its previous guidance of $5.66 billion. "We are seeing strong momentum from both AI-driven acceleration of our core platform and growing adoption of our first-party AI products, positioning Snowflake to lead in this new era," Ramaswamy said.

Analysts at Wedbush led by Dan Ives told clients the results showed "AI acting as a powerful tailwind for new and existing customers" and said its success could inspire more investor confidence in the broader software sector.

Shares of Snowflake, which lost about 1% in Wednesday's regular session, were down about 20% for 2026 through Wednesday's close.

An open at recent prices would leave Snowflake above Wall Street's consensus expectation for the stock, which was around $222 according to Visible Alpha data.

UPDATE: This article has been updated after initial publication to include more-recent stock price information.

Homebuyers may continue to struggle for the better part of a decade if economists forecasts are true.
Credit: Matthew Busch / Bloomberg via Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Households with median incomes are far short of being able to afford the payments on median houses, according to an index of home affordability.
• Forecasters at Oxford Economics expect home affordability to continue to decline over the next decade.
• Several unlikely events could turn the tide, including a freeze in home prices and an unexpected drop in mortgage rates.

An economist has calculated what it would take to make the U.S. housing market affordable. The bad news is that the answer is years, and several small miracles.

That’s the upshot of an analysis published Tuesday by Nancy Vanden Houten, Oxford Economics' U.S. lead economist. Her Housing Affordability Index tracks whether people with typical incomes can afford typical homes. Currently, the answer is a resounding “no.”

What This Means For The Economy

Home affordability remains a weak spot in consumer finances despite rising incomes and a soaring stock market.

In order for the market to become “affordable” by 2033, home prices would have to stay flat and mortgage rates would have to be about half a percentage point lower than expected over the intervening years—events that Oxford described as “unusually favorable conditions.”

The new analysis sheds light on the daunting financial obstacles homebuyers face today, given current prices, incomes, and mortgage rates, especially if they don’t already own a home. Oxford’s index uses different data than the widely cited index published by the National Association of Realtors, and paints a far gloomier picture.

As of the first quarter of 2026, a household earning the median income was only 78.3% of the way towards being able to afford a house. That assumes they made a 20% down payment and that no more than 28% of their income went to housing. Oxford projects affordability to continue to decline over the next decade as the costs of home ownership outpace incomes.

Oxford’s index was over 100 between 2016 and 2022, meaning that homes were mostly affordable. That changed in the post-pandemic era, when soaring prices and rising mortgage rates combined to push monthly payments for newly bought homes out of reach for typical incomes.

By contrast, the NAR’s affordability measure dipped during the pandemic but has been above 100 since August 2025. 

There are several reasons the two measures paint different pictures of affordability. For one thing, the NAR uses the Census Bureau’s median family income, whereas Oxford uses median household income as its benchmark.

The Census Bureau defines a family as a household of at least two people, so the median family income is typically higher than that of households since they include single people.

Oxford’s measure also includes several unavoidable costs that the NAR’s does not, including insurance, property taxes, and HOA fees.

The discouraging math of buying a house could help explain why the public has become increasingly pessimistic about the economy, despite the fact that incomes have largely kept pace with inflation until very recently.

The fintech shop launched new tools, joining the likes of Amazon, Google, and startups in a race to put AI at the center of financial transactions.

Robinhood's latest embrace of agentic AI tools offers a glimpse of the future of finance.
Credit: Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Robinhood's rollout means investors can direct their own AI agents to buy the dip, sell overcrowded stocks, and analyze portfolios for risk.
• The fintech firm's "agentic credit card" takes a stab at AI-assisted shopping, which other companies including Amazon and Google are tackling.

AI is crawling out from the confines of the chat box—and it's reaching for your wallet.

Robinhood (HOOD) is "now open to agents," the company said Wednesday, meaning that its customers can now deploy their AI agents on the fintech platform to trade on their behalf. Per the firm's examples, long-term investors can have their agents analyze their portfolios for concentration risk, determine areas they are underweight, and rebalance accordingly; thematic and active investors can set criteria for buying and selling certain stocks after events such as an analyst upgrade or when they hit price thresholds. For now, the launch pertains only to stocks, but crypto, futures, and options will likely follow.

"We're putting the financial intelligence coupled with our market data in your pocket," said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev of the company's AI efforts in its first-quarter earnings call last month, per transcripts provided by AlphaSense.

WHY THIS MATTERS TO YOU

AI agents are starting to transform the way people transact, whether it's buying and selling stocks or shoes.

Agentic AI—in short, AI in which users set the technology to investigate and even accomplish tasks for them— appears poised to deliver a full-service brokerage experience to the masses, a glimpse of which can be seen in Robinhood's latest rollout; in Coinbase's (COIN) tools for using AI to trade or lend crypto; and in offerings from startups like Public.com, which promises to "bring AI into every part of your investing experience." (Public promises, for example, that investors can turn an idea into an investable index with a thesis backtested against the S&P 500, or to trade via prompts like "buy the close and sell the open for up to $5,000" of a Nasdaq 100 ETF.) Some ChatGPT users can now connect the chatbot to their financial accounts and get insights in return.

A similar race to deliver a shopping experience minus the guesswork is underway. Robinhood now has an "agentic credit card," that can automatically buy things like limited-edition sneakers or make a reservation at the new hot spot in town when a choice table becomes available. Alphabet's Google (GOOGL) last week launched its "universal cart," which will crawl the web for deals and price drops when an item is placed in it. Amazon (AMZN) recently dropped "Alexa for Shopping," a souped-up shopping assistant; it also has AI tools for retailers to help them better sell things.

Big bank chiefs also see agentic AI figuring into the future. In response to a question about what the future looks like for Bank of America during the company's earnings call last month, CEO Brian Moynihan said to expect "more technology, more intimacy with the customers, more agentic versus prompt, more built into the process rather than have it be delivered by teammates doing something."

As you might expect, the combination of AI and investing comes with risk disclosures. Among Robinhood's is that "AI agents can make errors, misinterpret instructions, act on incomplete or outdated information and may behave in unexpected ways." But because Robinhood merely enables customers' AI agents, their customers are responsible for how those AI agents behave.

The AI memory shortage pushed chipmaker Micron's market value above $1 trillion on Tuesday.
Credit: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Shares of Micron soared nearly 20% on Tuesday, lifting its market value above $1 trillion and bringing the Roundhill Memory ETF's (DRAM) return to nearly 120% in less than two months.
• The memory shortage driven by booming demand for AI data centers has caused the industry's profits and stocks to skyrocket over the past year.

SpaceX hasn’t hit markets yet, but some investors are already getting a view of Wall Street from the stratosphere. 

The blistering memory stock rally this week minted two $1 trillion companies in the span of 24 hours. Micron’s (MU) shares soared nearly 20% on Tuesday, lifting its market capitalization above $1 trillion. South Korea’s SK Hynix shares jumped Wednesday, making it only the second company from that country to join the $1 trillion club after competitor Samsung, riding the same wave of memory momentum, achieved the feat earlier this month. 

The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) is up 118% since debuting at the beginning of April, making it the best-performing non-leveraged U.S. equity ETF this year. Its gargantuan returns have also helped make it the fastest-growing fund in history: The ETF hit $10 billion in assets under management in 43 days, a full week earlier than the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the previous record holder.

Why This Is Important

In the past year, memory stocks have become a critical bottleneck in the AI data center buildout, and thus a key driver of the AI-fueled bull market. The momentum behind stocks like Sandisk and Micron has inspired an explosion of funds seeking to identify the next hot niche within the AI trade.

The fund, with total assets of $11.6 billion as of Tuesday, pulled in nearly $7.5 billion from investors in the past month, making it America’s third-most popular equity fund. Only two S&P 500 funds from Vanguard and State Street, which boast total assets of about $930 billion and $775 billion, respectively, saw larger inflows over that period.

Booming AI data center demand has precipitated an acute shortage of memory devices, driving up prices for Micron's high-bandwidth memory chips and the hard drives made by the likes of Sandisk (SNDK) and Western Digital (WDC). Shares of Sandisk have risen nearly 4,000% in the past year. Western Digital and Micron are up a respective 920% and 840%.

Despite their massive gains, plenty of investors see more room for the stocks to run, mainly because their profits have mostly kept up with their stocks. Micron's earnings increased 770% year-over-year in the most recent quarter, while Sandisk's rose 350% quarter-over-quarter.

Micron "is still likely trading at under 10 times forward earnings," said David Miller, chief investment officer at Catalyst Funds. "It’s interesting that even after such a strong move, it could still potentially be viewed as a value opportunity."

DRAM’s torrid rally has spawned an ecosystem of copycat and derivative funds. Since early April, five ETF providers have filed to launch a variety of leveraged and inverse funds indexed to DRAM. Some are not for the faint of heart. One, the Direxion Daily DRAM Bear 2X ETF, would have fallen about 30% on Tuesday, when DRAM rose nearly 15%. ETF providers like Krane Shares, Defiance, and Tidal have all filed to list direct competitors to DRAM.

The fund’s success has also inspired Roundhill to tap other niches within the AI trade. The firm last week proposed three AI-adjacent funds: a “compute” ETF that would invest in futures contracts linked to the price of computing power; a neocloud fund composed of cloud-computing providers who specialize in hosting AI workloads; and a photonics and optics fund invested in companies whose optical networking technology facilitates the rapid data transmission AI requires. 

Lululemon shares have lost more than a third of their value since the start of the year.
Credit: Costfoto / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Lululemon shares rose Wednesday after the apparel company announced a deal with its founder and former CEO, who has been critical of the company and pushing for change.
• Lululemon has agreed to appoint two of ex-CEO Chip Wilson's board nominees, just weeks after saying they were unqualified.

Lululemon has agreed to put an end to its public dispute with the company's founder, and investors are cheering the news.

Shares of Lululemon Athletica (LULU) were up more than 3% in recent trading after the athletic apparel maker announced an agreement with Chip Wilson, Lululemon's founder who has pushed for changes at the company in recent months. Lululemon said Wednesday it will appoint two new members to its board for election at its annual shareholder meeting and make a charitable donation, while Wilson agreed to an 18-month non-disparagement period.

The two new board nominees are former ESPN chief marketing officer Laura Gentile and former On Holdings (ONON) co-CEO Marc Maurer. Lululemon said it has also agreed to add another new board member "with product and brand expertise in apparel" by the start of October.

Wilson, who owns about 8.7% of Lululemon stock, said in a statement that the board picks and other strategic changes Lululemon has made recently "reflect meaningful progress toward restoring the company’s product-first vision and unlocking tremendous value for shareholders."

Why This Matters to Investors

Settling its dispute with founder and former CEO Wilson could help improve sentiment around Lululemon, which had seen its stock suffer amid worries about the company's sales and the impact of tariffs.

The agreement comes just a week after Lululemon said in a letter to its shareholders that Wilson had "outdated perspectives." The company also criticized his nominations of Gentile and Maurer, saying that their respective work experience in sports media and in a smaller apparel company didn't qualify them for Lululemon's board, and that their election to the board would "deprive the company of critical skills and expertise."

Investors could hear more about the company's deal with Wilson during Lululemon's first-quarter earnings call next week. Since its last report in March, when the company outlined plans to boost sales by selling more of its clothes at full price, Lululemon also named a new CEO. Former Nike (NKE) executive Heidi O’Neill will take over on Sept. 8, after previous CEO Calvin McDonald left in January.

Even with Wednesday's gains, Lululemon shares are still down more than 35% this year and nearly 60% in the last 12 months amid concerns about tariffs and sales weakness.

The semiconductor company recently joined the $1 trillion club

The South Korea-based chipmaker recently joined the $1 trillion club.
Credit: Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP

Key Takeaways

• Korea- and chip-themed funds with big helpings of SK Hynix are shooting the lights out so far this year.
• Shares of the memory chip giant have risen more than 230% so far this year amid frenzied buying of AI-related memory stocks.

Call it a K-pop.

South Korea-based memory chipmaker SK Hynix has risen more than 230% so far this year, helping the company into the $1 trillion market-capitalization club amid a frenzy over semiconductor stocks. Shares of SK Hynix aren't traded on a major U.S. exchange, but you can get them through exchange-traded funds—and several that hold big slugs of the shares have put up big numbers this year. (The stock rose more than 9% in South Korean trading today; read Investopedia's coverage of Wednesday's action here.)

WHY THIS MATTERS TO YOU

Investors seeking access to international stocks often tap ETFs that tend to be easier to buy and trade.

ETFs whose holdings are at least 20% in shares of SK Hynix tend to be South Korea-themed, international, or actively managed with a mandate to invest in chip companies. Some have rallied so hard that they've doubled—or nearly doubled—this year. At least nine U.S.-listed ETFs hold SK Hynix and are up 60% or more year-to-date, according to recent TradingView data.

BlackRock's iShares MSCI South Korea's (EWY) top holding is SK Hynix, accounting for almost 30% of the fund's $23.9 billion in assets. It's up more than 103% so far this year, and just hit its all-time high today. The fund holds smaller helpings of 80-odd other stocks and a 20%-plus position in Samsung Electronics.

There's also Franklin FTSE South Korea (FLKR), a relatively small fund that has almost doubled this year and has a similarly big helping of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics—which can be expected of South Korean-themed funds that are market-cap weighted, meaning companies' influence in a fund is affected by their relative market values.

Roundhill Memory (DRAM), unlike the other two, is an actively-managed fund that aims to hold a basket of memory chip companies from the U.S. and elsewhere. SK Hynix makes up 27% of the fund's $11.6 billion in assets under management. It's a bit more concentrated than the other two funds, holding just over a dozen stocks; its other big holdings include Micron Technology (MU) and Samsung Electronics. It's up 118% so far this year.

Wednesday's tumble leaves Zscaler shares down roughly 40% since the start of the year.
Credit: Thomas Fuller / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Zscaler shares plunged Wednesday after the cybersecurity firm gave a disappointing revenue outlook.
• The company beat estimates in the third quarter, but said the departure of key sales leaders is forcing Zscaler to be "prudent" with its forecasts.

Zscaler's stock could be set to lose more than one-quarter of its value in a single session.

Shares of Zscaler (ZS) were down more than 25% in recent trading, a day after the cybersecurity software maker forecast current-quarter sales of $875 million to $878 million, below the $878.6 million analysts were looking for, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

Executives said in a letter to shareholders that Zscaler is being "prudent" in its outlook in part because the company lost two key sales leaders in the quarter. One has already been replaced and the other role is in the process of being filled. Rising memory costs are also forcing the company to pull some of its spending plans forward to secure current prices on equipment before they potentially climb, the company said.

Why This Matters to Investors

Slower-than-expected revenue growth could add to worries about AI and competition in the cybersecurity space impacting Zscaler's business.

UBS analysts cut their price target for the stock to $225 from $260 following the results, pointing to the cautious outlook. Wedbush analysts also trimmed their target to $220 from $300, and said investors will need to see better execution from Zscaler going forward.

The weak forecast outweighed otherwise solid results, as Zscaler's adjusted earnings of $1.08 per share on $850.5 million in sales for the fiscal third quarter each came in above analysts' forecasts compiled by Visible Alpha.

Zscaler shares have struggled this year along with the broader software sector, amid worries that developments in AI products could allow companies to build their own software and cut spending on services from companies like Zscaler.

With Wednesday's slump, Zscaler shares are down roughly 40% since the start of the year.