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Anna's Markets Recap
Just facts, you think for yourself
Saturday, 5:15 AM
May 9, 2026
Good morning news friend! Here is a quick recap of what happened in the markets this week. 📰🌟
The Gmail app usually clips the bottom quarter of our emails, we recommend you reading our full article online here.
🔒A Top-Secret cleared Senator just quietly unloaded up to $5,000,000 in a private defense contractor.
You are playing a rigged game.
While you were busy reading the front page of the Wall Street Journal, the people who actually write the defense budget and set the tax codes were busy reallocating millions. We just intercepted 62 congressional trades filed this week. Most of it is noise. A few dividend reinvestments. A couple of 401(k) rebalances.
But hiding in the footnotes is a glitch in the matrix.
The Gatekeepers are taking bunker positions. When members of the Intelligence and Armed Services committees suddenly liquidate millions in defense and municipal assets, they aren't guessing. They know something you don't. Period.
Here are the high-conviction signals we caught on the radar this week:
The $5M Black-Ops Exit: A Senator sitting on both the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees just dumped between $1M and $5M of non-public stock in a highly secretive aerospace and defense company.
The Liquidity Lifeboat: A prominent House Financial Services member is fleeing to cash, liquidating hundreds of thousands of dollars in stable government bonds and hedge fund positions in a single afternoon.
The Shadow Tech Dump: A sudden, coordinated feeding frenzy of sales in private autonomous maritime and space-energy infrastructure startups.
You can either be the patsy at the poker table, or you can look at their cards. Click below to unlock the full list of names, tickers, and exact trade sizes.
Economic & Market Overview
The week began in fear and ended at records. The S&P 500 fell 0.41% Monday, May 4, to 7,200.75 after the UAE intercepted Iranian missiles. Oil surged. The Dow lost 557 points to 48,941.90. The 30-year Treasury yield crossed 5% for the first time since last summer.
Tuesday flipped. The S&P jumped 0.81% to a record 7,259.22 as Brent crude tumbled 4% and earnings rolled in. AMD's blowout report after the close set the chip complex on fire.
Wednesday delivered fireworks. Axios reported the White House was nearing a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the Iran war. Brent crashed below $102. The S&P rose 1.46% to 7,365.12. The Nasdaq jumped 2.02% to 25,838.94. The Dow added 612 points to 49,910.59 — within 90 points of 50,000
ISM Services PMI for April hit 53.6, slipping from 54.0. The Prices Index held at 70.7 — a four-year high. All 18 services industries reported higher input prices. ADP private payrolls beat. Hawks gained ammunition. Fed funds futures briefly priced 9.1% odds of a 2026 hike, up from zero a day earlier.
Thursday cooled the rally. The S&P slipped 0.38% to 7,337.11 as oil rebounded from session lows after fresh U.S.-Iran exchanges near the Strait of Hormuz. Initial jobless claims rose 10,000 to 200,000 for the week ended May 2. Continuing claims fell to 1,766,000, the lowest in over two years.
Friday closed at fresh records. April nonfarm payrolls hit 115,000, smashing the 62,000 consensus. Unemployment held at 4.3%. Wages rose 0.2%, missing 0.3% expectations. February was revised down 23,000 to -156,000; March was revised up 7,000 to +185,000. The University of Michigan preliminary May consumer sentiment hit 48.2 — an all-time low since the survey began in 1952. Year-ahead inflation expectations sat at 4.5%.
The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,398.93 (+2.3% for the week). The Nasdaq finished at 26,247.08 (+4.5%). The Dow ended at 49,609.16 (+0.2%). Both the S&P and Nasdaq logged a sixth straight weekly gain — the longest streak since 2024. The 10-year yield ended near 4.41%. The VIX closed at 17.26.
Gold ran higher. Spot opened near $4,565 Monday, climbed to $4,694 Wednesday on peace-deal hopes, broke above $4,740 Thursday, then consolidated above $4,720 Friday — up roughly 2% on the week. Silver surged 6.6% Wednesday to $81.55, hitting its highest level since April 17.
The Fed sat out. Chair Jerome Powell's tenure ends May 15. Kevin Warsh is expected to be confirmed the week of May 11. Powell will stay on as governor.
Technology & Growth
Apple (AAPL) closed Friday at a record $293.32, topping its prior $288.62 December 2025 high. The catalyst broke Friday: the Wall Street Journal reported Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary deal for Intel to manufacture some Apple chips. President Trump personally lobbied Tim Cook. Apple rose 2% Friday; Intel surged 14% to $130.57 — above its 2000 dot-com peak of $74.88 for the first time. Wedbush's Dan Ives lifted his Apple price target to a Street-high $400. The whisper trade entering the week was that Apple lacked a clean AI catalyst. The Intel deal handed bulls one.
AMD blew the doors off. Q1 revenue hit $10.25 billion (+38% YoY), beating $9.89 billion consensus. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.37, topping $1.29. Data center revenue jumped 57% to $5.78 billion. Options priced an 8% post-earnings move. AMD ripped 16% Wednesday. By Friday morning, market cap crossed $700 billion — up roughly 20% for the week and nearly 90% over the past month. CEO Lisa Su credited "agentic AI" demand. Super Micro surged 18% in sympathy Wednesday. Arista Networks dropped 12% on a slim margin miss.
NVIDIA struggled until Wednesday. The chipmaker announced a multiyear Corning partnership for three new U.S. optical-connectivity factories. NVIDIA committed up to $3.2 billion to Corning, including $500 million for share rights and warrants struck at $180. Corning rose 12-14% Wednesday to $185. NVIDIA gained nearly 6% to $206 — but lagged the chip complex broadly. Intel and Micron each popped over 30% since April 27 versus NVIDIA flat in that span.
Palantir delivered the textbook beat-and-drop. Q1 revenue of $1.633 billion grew 85% YoY. Adjusted EPS of $0.33 beat $0.28-0.29 consensus. U.S. commercial revenue jumped 133% to $595 million. Management raised 2026 guidance to $7.65-7.66 billion. Yet shares fell 7% Tuesday. Heading in, the stock traded at 85x forward earnings. Polymarket had assigned 96% beat odds. Once the print landed, there was no surprise to monetize. Michael Burry held his short.
Tesla weathered a recall. The NHTSA confirmed Tesla would recall 218,868 U.S. vehicles for a delayed rearview camera image. Tesla's fix is over-the-air. Shares rose 2.86% to $400.50 Wednesday as investors looked through to the Terafab chip-fab story.
The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA) was signed in July.
Most people read the headlines about the $15M estate exemption and moved on.
Big mistake.
While everyone is distracted by the estate tax number, they are missing the immediate, tactical windows that just opened up for 2026.
We call this the "Goldilocks Zone"—a specific 4-year period (2025–2029) where permanent structural changes overlap with temporary incentives.
If you have a net worth over $5M or own a pass-through business, you have 5 levers to pull. Right now.
The 5 Levers of the 2026 Wealth Ladder:
The QBI Lock-In: It’s permanent now. Here is how to restructure your entity to force yourself into the 20% deduction bucket.
SALT Arbitrage: The cap is up to $40k (temporarily). We explain the "Stacking" strategy to maximize this.
Charitable Acceleration: The new 0.5% AGI floor changes everything about when you donate.
The $15M Exemption: It's not just for dying. It’s for "Wealth Freezing" today.
Precision Income Management: RMDs and AGI smoothing tactics that actually work.
We read the legislation so you don't have to. This is your playbook for the next 4 years.
Financial Institutions
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) anchored the weekend before the window. Saturday, May 2, brought Greg Abel's first annual meeting and Q1 earnings as CEO. Net earnings hit $10.1 billion, more than double the year-ago $4.6 billion. Operating earnings of $11.35 billion (+18% YoY) missed the $11.56 billion consensus. Insurance underwriting earned $1.72 billion (+29%). BNSF contributed $1.38 billion. Cash hit roughly $397 billion. Abel ruled out a breakup and a dividend. KBW called the no-dividend stance a surprise. BRK.B had trailed the S&P 500 by 37 percentage points over the trailing 12 months — the worst stretch since 2000.
Visa fell 1.15% Friday on news the U.K.'s FCA had opened an investigation into Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal. Visa's prior-week fiscal Q2 had delivered 17% revenue growth and a record $7.9 billion buyback.
JPMorgan Chase traded between $313 and $323. CEO Jamie Dimon repeated his "bond crisis" warning. Insider sales drew attention.
Consumer Staples & Healthcare
Eli Lilly's April 30 blowout carried into the window. Q1 revenue grew 56% to $19.8 billion. Adjusted EPS of $8.55 beat $6.66 consensus. Volume jumped 65%, offset partly by 13% lower prices. Lilly raised full-year revenue guidance to $82-85 billion. The FDA approved Foundayo, the first oral GLP-1 obesity pill that works any time of day. Over 20,000 patients started within weeks. Shares popped over 10% and held.
UnitedHealth Group made waves Tuesday, May 5. UnitedHealthcare said it would eliminate prior authorization for 30% of healthcare services. Today only 2% of medical services require it. The change targets outpatient surgeries, diagnostic tests, and chiropractic care. UNH closed near $373.35 Friday, gaining roughly 12% YTD after a 36.9% April rebound.
Costco reported April sales Thursday. Adjusted total comparable sales rose 7.8%. Digital comps jumped 18.4%. Headline comps came in at 13%. The stock trades at 53x earnings — pricing perfect execution.
Energy & Industrial
Exxon Mobil traded with the oil chop. WTI ran from $104.10 Monday to $94.81 Thursday. The XLE energy ETF gained 0.6% Monday as the only S&P sector in the green that day, then sank 4.2% Wednesday on peace hopes. Nationwide regular gas hit $4.483 a gallon Tuesday — the highest since July 2022.
Home Depot announced Tuesday, May 5, that it would hold its Q1 earnings call May 19. No fresh fundamentals dropped in the window.
We don’t take shortcuts, chase headlines, or push narratives. We just bring you the news, straight and fair. If you value that, click here to become a paid subscriber—your support makes all the difference.
Baked with love,
Anna Eisenberg ❤️