Tonight’s Highlights: Oil and Yields Surge; U.S. Futures Retrench as Chip Stocks Slide Pre-market
U.S. stock index futures trended lower on Friday as a combination of tech-sector weakness and climbing Treasury yields weighed on market sentiment.
The high-flying tech sector faced a wave of profit-taking. In pre-market trading, Nvidia fell 3%, Intel dropped over 5%, Micron shed more than 4%, and AMD declined by over 3%.
Adam Crisafulli, analyst at Vital Knowledge, noted that the recent rally in the sector was "extremely unsustainable" and left stocks vulnerable to profit-taking regardless of the news cycle.
Microsoft was a notable outlier, rising nearly 1% pre-market. The uptick followed a post on X by billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who confirmed that Pershing Square Capital has built a new position in the tech giant.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury yields climbed sharply, exerting further pressure on equities. The 30-year yield broke above 5.1%, while the 10-year yield surged past 4.5%, hitting its highest level in nearly a year.
Data released this week suggests U.S. inflation is heating up again, fueled by high oil prices stemming from the Middle East conflict.
International oil benchmark Brent crude rose over 2% on Friday to trade above $108 per barrel.
Overseas, global indices remained under pressure; South Korea's KOSPI plummeted over 6%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 retreated following data showing a significant jump in April producer prices driven by energy costs.
Corporate News
Samsung Electronics: CEO Jun Young-hyun met with leadership from the company’s largest union on May 15. While management expressed a desire to continue negotiations to avoid a strike, union leaders maintained that dialogue is contingent on a concrete proposal to address their core demands.
Anthropic: The AI startup has reportedly agreed to terms for a funding round at a staggering $900 billion valuation. Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, and Altimeter Capital are expected to co-lead the round, with each potentially investing $2 billion or more. Anthropic’s annualized revenue is projected to soon exceed $45 billion.
OpenAI: CFO Sarah Friar signaled that the company may raise additional capital beyond its recent record-breaking private round. Friar noted that while the recent $122 billion valuation provides "significant optionality," the company may eventually look to public markets, which offer deeper liquidity to meet OpenAI’s massive computational and scaling needs.
Alphabet: Google’s parent company completed a massive 576.5 billion yen (approx. $3.6 billion) bond sale on May 14. This marks the largest-ever yen-denominated "Samurai bond" issuance by a non-Japanese corporation.
Samsung (HBM Technology): Reports indicate Samsung is developing next-generation HBM packaging using "Multi-layer Stacked FOWLP" (Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging) technology. The innovation aims to enable high-performance, on-device AI for mobile platforms by improving existing copper pillar stacking techniques.
Toyota: The automaker has filed for approval to build a new $2 billion manufacturing plant in Bexar County, Texas. Construction is slated to begin this year, with production expected to launch in 2030. The facility is projected to create 75 new jobs.
Faraday Future (FFIE): In its Q1 2026 earnings report, the company posted revenue of $512,000, up 62% year-over-year. Net operating loss narrowed by 18% to $35.9 million. Following the shipment of 68 EAI robots through April, the company raised its 2026 delivery target from 1,000 to 1,500 units.