Stocks closed higher again yesterday with all of the major indexes in the green. And, once again, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 made another new all-time high in the process.

Big tech soared again yesterday. Cisco rallied 13.4% and made a new all-time high, following Wednesday afternoon's better-than-expected earnings where they posted positive top and bottom line surprises, double-digit sales and earnings growth, and upward rev and EPS guidance.

They were joined by a slew of other big tech and AI-related names yesterday, including AI juggernaut NVIDIA, which added another 4.39%, and making a new all-time high of their own.

After the close yesterday, we heard from Applied Materials. They posted a positive EPS surprise of 6.72%, and a positive sales surprise of 2.82%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 19.7% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 11.4%. CEO Gary Dickerson cited "the rapid global build-out of AI computing infrastructure" for the quarter's strength. And he said it's providing a "strong foundation for sustained, multi-year revenue and profit growth." They were up 0.90% in the regular session before earnings, and 0.75% in after-hours trade following earnings. YTD, they are up 71.4%.

We'll get another 76 companies on deck to report earnings today.

Earnings season starts winding down next week with 'only' 504 companies on deck to report (vs. 1,554 this week). But there will be some marquee names in queue to report, including Baidu on Monday; Home Depot on Tuesday; Walmart and Deer & Company on Thursday; and BJ's Wholesale Club of Friday. But the one everybody is waiting for is NVIDIA, which reports on Wednesday after the close. We'll also hear from Analog Devices on Wednesday as well.

In other news yesterday, Weekly Jobless Claims rose 12,000 to 211K vs. the consensus for 208K. The 4-week moving average came in at 203.75K vs. last week's 203K.

Retail Sales rose 0.5% vs. last month's 1.6% and views for 0.5%. Ex-Vehicles it was up 0.7% vs. last month's 1.9% and estimates for 0.7%. Ex-Vehicles & Gas it was up 0.5% vs. last month's 0.7% and forecast for 0.4%.

And Business Inventories rose 0.9% m/m vs. last month's 0.4% pace and the consensus for 0.3%. Manufacturing Inventories were up 0.6% vs. last month's 0.1%. Retail Inventories were up 0.6% vs. last month's 0.2%. And Wholesale Inventories were up 1.4% vs. last month's 0.8%.

Today we'll get the Empire State Manufacturing Index, Industrial Production, and the Baker Hughes Rig Count Report.

President Trump, while in Beijing for talks with President Xi, announced that China "agreed to order 200 jets" from Boeing.

President Xi, in talking with President Trump and a delegation of U.S. tech CEOs, said that "China's door to opening up will only open wider."

Back in the states, it was reported that the U.S. government approved NVIDIA's H200 AI chip exports to major Chinese tech companies.

The talks are expected to last thru today (5/15). The market will be listening for any more announcements or agreements before the summit ends.

Most of the major indexes are up for the week with one more day to go. If all goes well, that'll make it 3 up weeks in a row for the Dow, 7 up weeks in a row for the Nasdaq and S&P 500, and 8 up weeks in a row for the small-cap Russell 2000.

Best,