👀 Dow hits record 50,579, Kevin Warsh sworn in at the White House, crude at $103, and WDAY insiders were buying the whole way down.

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Good afternoon and happy Sunday! Here is a quick market rundown and an 'inside' peek behind the curtains of what C-Level Execs, Wall St. Hedge Fund Gurus, and politicians are trading right now…!

📊 MARKET PERFORMANCE

The S&P 500 rose 0.37% on Friday to settle at 7,473.47, the Nasdaq Composite added 0.19% to close at 26,343.97, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.58% to end at 50,579.70, with the Dow posting another record close.

The S&P 500 extended its winning streak to eight consecutive weeks — the longest since December 2023 — while the Dow notched its third positive week in four. The Nasdaq secured its seventh weekly advance in eight weeks. The Russell 2000 led on the day, rising to 2,869.23 as Treasurys stabilized after a week-long rise, now much closer to re-testing its all-time high.

Over the past 12 months the S&P is up 28.99% compared to this time last year. The cap-weighted index continues to do the heavy lifting — but the Russell's Friday surge is worth noting. Small caps don't lead unless the rates picture is shifting. The 10-year Treasury fell 2.6 basis points to 4.558%, while the 30-year fell 4.7 basis points to 5.064%. VIX closed the week at 16.70 — meaningfully off the highs of the past two months. The fear premium is fading, at least for now.

🔑 KEY DRIVERS

🏦 Kevin Warsh Is Now Fed Chair — Sworn in at the White House

This was the week's most structurally significant event and it barely got the attention it deserved. President Trump led a ceremony swearing in Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday — making him the first Fed chair to be sworn in at the White House since Alan Greenspan in 1987. Trump's remarks were predictably on-brand: he told Warsh to "just do your own thing and do a great job" and added "I want Kevin to be totally independent" — at a ceremony that was itself a demonstration of the opposite. The markets shrugged, but the institutional significance is real. The prior FOMC meeting ended with four dissents — the most since October 1992 — as inflation remains elevated and the Fed's easing bias from late 2025 is being tested hard by energy prices and persistent above-target PCE. Warsh steps into a central bank that is fractured internally and facing a fiscal picture that constrains its ability to cut. Watch his first press conference closely.

🛢️ Oil, Iran, and the Hormuz Overhang

The Middle East conflict remains the dominant macro risk variable and this week it swung in both directions. WTI crude fell below $100 per barrel mid-week after President Trump said Iran talks are in the "final stages" — WTI fell more than 5% to close at $98.26 and Brent lost more than 5% to settle at $105.02 on that session alone. By Friday's close, Brent was trading around $103.82 and WTI at $97, with oil on pace for a weekly loss as both sides signaled progress but remained at loggerheads over Tehran's enriched uranium stockpile and tolls on the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser warned that if the Strait of Hormuz stays blocked beyond mid-June, the oil market will take until 2027 to normalize. A deal reopens a supply flood. No deal keeps the inflation premium baked into everything. This binary outcome is the most important unresolved variable in markets right now.

🤖 Nvidia Posts $81.6B Quarter — Market Yawns

The most anticipated earnings report of the season landed Wednesday night and the reaction told you everything about where expectations have moved. Nvidia reported earnings of $1.87 per share on revenue of $81.62 billion versus a Wall Street forecast for EPS of $1.78 on revenue of $79.2 billion. Net income came in at $58.3 billion, compared to analysts' estimate of $42.9 billion. Nvidia also announced an $80 billion stock buyback and a dividend increase, yet shares were down 0.9% in Thursday's session. When a company posts net income of $58 billion in a single quarter and the stock barely moves, the market is telling you something about positioning and expectation levels. The AI buildout is real and accelerating — the four largest hyperscalers collectively plan $725 billion in capex for 2026, up 77% from last year's $410 billion. Nvidia owns that trade. The stock's reaction is a sentiment story, not a business one.

🛒 Walmart Guides Cautiously — Fuel Costs Bite

Walmart fell 2% despite solid quarterly results. Focus shifted to guidance of $0.72 to $0.74 for second-quarter earnings, below the $0.75 FactSet consensus, with higher fuel costs appearing to hurt operating income. Walmart's CFO John David Rainey said on the earnings call: "We absorbed approximately $175 million, or about 250 basis points of operating income growth, from higher-than-planned fuel costs in our global distribution and fulfillment operations. If the current elevated cost environment persists, we'd expect somewhat higher retail price inflation in Q2 and the second half of the year." That's the embedded inflation story in a single earnings comment. Full-year guidance was maintained, which is why the stock didn't collapse — but the warning on fuel and second-half price pressure is worth filing away for the next CPI print.

📋 FOMC Minutes Released — Cuts Pushed to Q3-Q4 at Earliest

The April 28-29 FOMC minutes showed rate cuts expected in the third or fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027 at the median, with the Middle East conflict cited as a key factor driving asset price movements throughout the intermeeting period. The committee noted that inflation remained elevated and had moved higher, in part reflecting global energy prices. The Fed is caught in a genuine bind: the consumer is softening, small business confidence is fragile, but CPI is not moving in the right direction with oil where it is. Warsh's first move will define whether the market gets the rate relief it's been pricing in or a rude awakening that the new chair is in no hurry.

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✅ KEY TAKEAWAYS

• 🏦 Kevin Warsh as Fed chair sworn in at the White House is a historic institutional moment — how independent he actually operates will become clear by the June meeting.

• 🛢️ Oil is the fulcrum for everything right now. A Hormuz deal sends crude toward $80, eases inflation, opens the door for Fed cuts, and re-rates rate-sensitive sectors overnight. No deal keeps the pressure on.

• 🤖 Nvidia's $58B net income quarter barely moved the stock. That's what happens when you're priced for perfection — the beats are already in the price. The AI capex buildout is real; the stock's upside from here requires something the market hasn't seen yet.

• 📉 Eight consecutive winning weeks for the S&P is the longest streak since December 2023. Those streaks end. Not saying this is the week — but complacency has a price.

• 🛒 Walmart's fuel-cost warning is a leading indicator. If higher distribution costs hit Q2 operating margins at the world's largest retailer, it's happening everywhere. Watch the July earnings season for margin deterioration across consumer names.

• 🔍 WDAY insiders were buying $1.6 billion of their own stock while the price was falling 33%. The earnings confirmed what the filings were already telegraphing. The data was there — the question was whether you were watching it.

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👀 WHAT WE'RE WATCHING NEXT WEEK

📅 Memorial Day Monday — Holiday Close, Thin Tuesday Tape

U.S. markets are closed Monday. Tuesday's open will be the first reaction to any weekend developments in U.S.-Iran negotiations — which have become the most important weekend variable in markets. Any meaningful progress on a Hormuz deal over the long weekend will move crude significantly on the open. It remains unclear whether the U.S. and Iran are inching toward a deal — a Qatari team flew into Tehran on Friday in a diplomatic push. Check Sunday night futures.

🏛️ Kevin Warsh's First Public Remarks as Fed Chair

Every word Warsh says this coming week will be parsed for signals on the rate path, his relationship with the White House, and whether he views the inflation picture through the same lens as his predecessors. Markets have priced in cuts by Q3. If he pushes back on that timeline, bond yields re-accelerate and equity multiples compress. This is the single most important thing to listen to next week.

📊 PCE Inflation Data — Friday, May 29

The Fed's preferred inflation gauge drops the Friday before the long weekend. With the FOMC minutes already signaling elevated inflation driven in part by energy, a hot PCE print here further closes the door on 2026 cuts under the new chair. Inflation has been stuck at 3% or above since the end of 2023 — the market needs to see a downward move to sustain the current equity multiple. This number matters.

💻 Dell and HP Earnings — Tuesday After Close

Dell Technologies and HP jumped by double-digit percentages on Friday on upbeat expectations ahead of earnings next week. These two names are the bellwether for enterprise IT spending beyond the hyperscaler layer. If corporate customers are cutting PC refresh cycles and server orders amid economic uncertainty, it will show up here first. The contrast with Nvidia's AI demand will be instructive.

🔍 Insider Spotlight: Workday (WDAY) — The Buyback That Knew

This week's must-read insider signal is Workday. While the stock spent the better part of 2026 drifting lower — declining roughly 33% during the first quarter of 2026 amid investor concerns — the company was systematically buying its own shares at a pace that was impossible to miss for anyone watching Form 4 filings and SEC disclosures.

During the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Workday repurchased approximately 12.0 million shares of Class A common stock for $1.6 billion as part of its share repurchase programs. That's not a token buyback — that is $1.6 billion of corporate capital deployed at prices the company's own leadership clearly viewed as disconnected from business reality.

Wednesday night, the market found out why they were so confident. Workday reported fiscal Q1 FY2027 total revenues of $2.542 billion, up 13.5% year-over-year, with subscription revenues of $2.354 billion, up 14.3%. Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.66 compared to $2.23 in the prior year, and operating cash flows of $696 million compared to $457 million in the same period last year. The 12-month subscription revenue backlog came in at $8.806 billion, up 15.5% year-over-year, with total subscription backlog of $27.294 billion, up 10.9%.

Shares surged roughly 10.8% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Co-founder Aneel Bhusri, who returned as CEO replacing Carl Eschenbach, said on the call: "Our core business is strong, our AI strategy is working, and we're moving with the speed and focus required to lead." Annualized revenue from agentic AI solutions is approaching $500 million, with the number of clients using Workday-built agents more than doubling from the previous quarter to over 4,000.

The insiders buying $1.6 billion of stock in a single quarter at depressed prices while the forward backlog was growing 15.5% were not guessing. They were reading their own dashboard. That is precisely the signal the Corporate Insider Dashboards are built to surface — not after the 10% gap, but while the accumulation is happening, when the price is still low and the filing is still fresh.

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The data was there. The question was always whether you were watching it.

Markets closed Monday. Back Tuesday. Trade well.

— Silas P. Insider Authority | insiderauthority.com

Insider spotlight of the week…#WDAY

^{Here is a snapshot of last week’s recent insider activity…}

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