Stocks closed higher yesterday with all of the indexes in the green.

Two things initially helped lift stocks yesterday: 1) the U.S. Court of International Trade ruling on Wednesday night that blocked Trump's tariffs (both reciprocal and baseline tariffs), and 2) NVIDIA's earnings which showed the AI trade is alive and well.

NVIDIA on Wednesday afternoon, while posting a positive sales surprise, but a negative EPS surprise, impressed with a quarterly EPS growth rate of 39.7% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 69.2%. They were up 3.25% yesterday.

As for the court ruling blocking the tariffs, the White House appealed, and late in the afternoon a federal appeals court allowed the tariffs to remain in effect, at least until June 9^th. At that time, the court could issue an order of enforcement.

But stocks stayed in the green. The positive news regarding NVIDIA's earnings and what it says about AI demand appeared to carry more weight than the off-again-on-again tariff back and forth with the courts.

The optimism around AI was underscored again when Dell reported earnings after the close. They posted a negative EPS surprise of -9.88%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.04%, which translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 22.0% vs. this time last month, and a sales growth of 5.13%. Moreover, they raised their guidance for the current quarter and the full-year, citing "unprecedented demand" for AI related products. They were down -0.12% in the regular session before earnings, and were up 1.50% in after-hours trade following earnings.

In other news, yesterday's Weekly Jobless Claims rose by 14,000 to 240,000 vs. the consensus for 230K. The smoother 4-week moving average, however, was down slightly at 230,750.

Pending Home Sales were down -6.3% vs. last month's 5.5% and views for -1.1%. The index itself came in at 71.3 vs. last month's 76.1.

Corporate Profits came in at a healthy clip of 8.4% y/y. With Inventory & Acquisition Adjustments, it was up 5.1%.

And the second estimate for Q1 GDP improved to -0.2% vs. the first estimate of -0.3%. And the Personal Consumption Expenditures rate eased to 1.2% vs. last month's estimate of 1.8%.

Today we'll get another look at the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, but this time for last month rather than all of last quarter. The PCE index is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. The headline rate is expected to be up 0.1% m/m vs. last month's 0.0%. The y/y rate is expected to ease to 2.1% vs. last month's 2.3%. The core rate (ex-food & energy) is forecast at 0.1% m/m vs. last month's 0.0%, with the y/y rate ticking down to 2.5% vs. last month's 2.6%.

The Fed in Wednesday's FOMC Minutes continued to express worries over the possibility of higher inflation due to tariffs. But so far we have not seen that manifest yet. In fact, inflation has largely come down. We'll see if today's PCE report reflects the same.

We'll also get the International Trade in Goods report, Retail and Wholesale Inventories, the Chicago PMI, the Baker Hughes Rig Count Report, and Consumer Sentiment.

And, maybe some new headline regarding tariffs?

Either way, with one more day to go, the indexes are all on pace to close up for the week.

A little bit of good news today could help keep it that way.

Best,