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Daily U.S. Market Update

Eric Criscuolo
Market Strategist

May 20, 2026 at 12:30 p.m. EST

Futures were modestly lower overnight but started to reverse right around 10:30pm along with the NY Knicks Win Probability as they began a historic comeback in their Game 1 Eastern Conference Finals matchup against the Cavs. The S&P 500 opened up modesty as yields and oil both pulled back. Positive developments on the Iran front contributed to the moves. A tame CPI report out of the UK further helped tamp down on global yields.

News of a Pakistani-Iran meeting and potential peace agreement kickstarted gains around 10:15am. Small caps are seeing the biggest bounces after coming under the most pressure the past few days. High beta/risk baskets are seeing solid gains: Space, Quantum, Genomics, Neoclouds/Data Centers and Crypto all trading broadly higher with many names within each up 5% or more.

Consumer Discretionary is an unsurprising leader today as oil and yields both fall, and there's a bunch of high-profile earnings across the sector (see below). Tech is also near the top as the semis and broader AI equipment plays are seeing a sharp bounce after several days of weakness. We'll see what type of opener this action is when tonight's main event takes the stage- NVDA earnings. Materials and Industrials make up the rest of the leaderboard. Energy is the laggard on oil’s move. Staples, Comm Services and Healthcare are the only other sectors lower.

Oil prices slid lower throughout the morning and took a larger leg down on the Pakistani/Iran news. Metals are up modestly, about 1% across precious metals and copper. The crypto complex is stabilizing with Bitcoin and ETH up just under 1%.

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