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

And the Dow, after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq made a series of new all-time highs over the last several weeks, finally made their own new all-time high close yesterday in the process.

While Wednesday's spectacular sales and earnings from NVIDIA didn't help their stock much, (same goes for Analog Devices), it once again underscored that the AI trade is alive and well. And it looks like there's a lot more upside to go given the insatiable AI demand and accelerating buildouts.

Nonetheless, plenty of AI-linked names went up yesterday: Sandisk +10.75%; Micron +4.11%; and ARM Holdings +16.16% to name a few.

Optimism that a peace deal with Iran could still be a possibility is helping to lift stocks as well. We have heard this quite a bit. So we shall see. But reports the other day that the U.S. is "in the final stages" of negotiations was good news.

Getting back to earnings ? we heard from a few retail companies yesterday, the biggest one being Walmart. Before the open they posted a positive EPS surprise of 1.54%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.83%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 8.20% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 7.33%. But guidance was softer-than-expected with current-quarter EPS guidance coming in at a midpoint of 73 cents vs. the consensus for 75 cents. They cited higher fuel and logistics costs. They were down -7.27% yesterday.

Ralph Lauren also reported before the open and posted a positive EPS surprise of 11.11%, and a positive sales surprise of 7.23%. That equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 23.3%, and a sales growth of 16.5%. They were up 13.87% yesterday. (The Textile-Apparel industry is in the top 39% of Zacks Ranked Industries.)

After the close we heard from Ross Stores. They posted a positive EPS surprise of 18.82%, and a positive sales surprise of 6.93%, for a quarterly EPS growth rate of 37.4%, and a sales growth of 20.7%. They raised their second quarter EPS outlook to a midpoint of $1.89. That would give them a 21% q/q growth rate. They also raised their full-year fiscal 2026 EPS outlook to a midpoint of $7.62. That would give them a 15.3% y/y growth rate. They were off -0.28% in the regular session before earnings. But jumped by roughly 6% in after-hours trade following earnings.

Today we'll only get another 38 companies on deck to report.

In other news, Weekly Jobless Claims fell -3,000 to 209K vs. the consensus for 213K.

Yesterday's Housing Starts and Permits Report showed Starts slipping to 1.465 million units (annualized) vs. last month's 1.507M, but beating views for 1.410M. Permits, however, increased to 1.442M vs. last month's 1.363M and estimates for 1.380M.

The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index was at 8 vs. last month's 10.

And the PMI Composite Report showed the Composite Index at 51.7, in line with last month's 51.7. The Manufacturing Index was at 55.3 vs. last month's 54.5 and views for 53.5. The Services Index was at 50.9 vs. last month's 51.0 and outlook for 51.2.

Today we'll get Consumer Sentiment, and the Leading Indicators Report.

With one more day to go, the markets are all in the plus column for the week.

If all goes well, they'll stay that way, and maybe add even more to the tally.

Note: markets are closed on Monday for Memorial Day. Enjoy the 3-day long weekend.

Best,