MARKET WRAPS

STOCKS: Stocks rose as traders awaited developments in U.S.-Iran negotiations.

TREASURYS: Short-dated Treasury yields rose and while 30-year yields slipped from multiyear highs.

FOREX: The U.S. dollar rose slightly against rivals as inflation concerns lingered.

COMMODITIES: Oil futures slipped amid hopes the Strait of Hormuz would soon reopen for shipping.

HEADLINES

Mortgage Rates Hit a Nine-Month High in Blow to Prime Buying Season

Mortgage rates this week rose to the highest level since August, more bad news for home shoppers during what is usually the busiest time of the year for home sales.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.51% this week, from 6.36% last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Higher mortgage rates and expensive home prices are keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines. Rising costs in many places for home insurance and property taxes have also spooked buyers.

SpaceX Set to Launch Upgraded Starship on Pre-IPO Test Flight

SpaceX is preparing to launch a new version of its Starship rocket a day after officially kicking off its IPO process.

The Elon Musk-led company is targeting a Thursday evening liftoff from its Starbase complex outside of Brownsville, Texas. The test mission is set to debut Starship "V3," featuring upgrades designed to prepare for bigger satellites and, one day, potentially settling Mars and mining asteroids.

Starship, bigger and more powerful than any rocket ever built, is central to Musk's vision for SpaceX's future and his deeper-space dreams. The rocket hasn't flown any customer satellites yet after intense flight tests and technical setbacks, and is consuming a huge amount of investment.

Walmart Sees Signs at Gas Pump That Consumers Are Stressed

For the first time since 2022, Walmart shoppers filled their tanks with an average of less than 10 gallons per trip at its gas stations.

"That's an indication of stress," said Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey in an interview. "The headline consumer is reasonably healthy, but when you look underneath, the pressure is uneven."

The retailer on Thursday reported strong sales growth in the most recent quarter and noted that rising fuel prices could draw more cash-strapped low-income shoppers. In this environment, Walmart plans to keep prices low to grab share but could lift prices later if fuel costs stay high, he said.

Trump Postpones AI Order Because of Concerns About Overregulation

WASHINGTON-President Trump postponed the signing of an executive order that would have given the government more oversight over the artificial-intelligence industry, saying he didn't want to take any action that would slow down the U.S. in the AI race.

Hours before a scheduled signing event Thursday that was set to include industry executives, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the order would have asked AI companies to preview models with the federal government. Such a move would set back the U.S. in its competition with China, which AI analysts say the U.S. is winning, he said.

"I really thought that could have been a blocker, and I want to make sure it's not," he said. "I don't want to do anything that will get in the way of that lead."

Social-Media Companies Settle Youth-Harm Case Ahead of Wave of Trials

Meta Platforms reached a settlement with a Kentucky school district over accusations that social-media companies intentionally designed their platforms to addict young people, becoming the last major platform to resolve the case and avert a coming trial.

The settlement announced Thursday spares the companies from a June jury trial that was poised to be the first among more than 1,200 lawsuits brought by school districts alleging student mental-health harms caused by Meta, TikTok, Snap and Alphabet's YouTube. The cases are consolidated in federal court in Oakland, Calif., but will be tried individually.

Breathitt School District reached the settlement for an undisclosed amount. The district is located in rural eastern Kentucky and had roughly 1,700 students enrolled in the 2024-25 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Fed's Barkin Says Raising Rates Doesn't Address Supply Shock-Driven Inflation

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said raising interest rates doesn't address the root cause behind supply-shock-driven inflation in a speech on Thursday, but added that if inflation shocks persist the Fed may have no choice but to respond.

Speaking at an event in Raleigh, N.C., Barkin discussed the latest supply shock from the Middle East conflict. While textbook monetary policy prescribes looking through sudden supply shocks such as higher oil prices, Barkin said it would depend on a variety of factors.

"It comes down to how much businesses, consumers and inflation expectations can take," a published text of his remarks said.

Ralph Lauren Sales Climb, Boosted by Strength in China

Ralph Lauren logged higher sales in its latest quarter, driven by growth across regions and strength in China in particular.

The stock climbed 11% to $365.71, on track for its largest single-session percent increase in more than a year. Shares are now in positive territory for the year, up 3.4% year to date.

The maker of apparel, handbags and fragrances on Thursday recorded quarterly revenue of $1.98 billion, up 17% from the year-earlier quarter and topping analyst estimates of $1.85 billion.

Deere Sales Rise as Construction Growth Offsets Agriculture Weakness

Deere posted higher fiscal second-quarter sales as growth in the company's construction equipment business helped to offset weakness in its production agriculture segment.

The company reiterated its fiscal-year guidance for net income of $4.5 billion to $5 billion.

Shares fell 3.7% to $539.50 in premarket trading.

Global Economy Slowing as Middle East Conflict Bites, Surveys Show

Business activity in the U.S. grew at a steady pace in May while slowing in Europe and Asia as energy costs have risen, an indication that the global economy has been weakened by the fallout from the conflict in the Middle East.

The war has led to a sharp decline in shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas supplies usually transit. As a result of reduced supplies, energy prices have jumped around the world.

Responding to the conflict, economists have lowered their forecasts for global growth this year, with the United Nations now projecting the weakest expansion since the Covid-19 pandemic, or setting that unusual year aside, the weakest since the global financial crisis.

Eli Lilly's New Weight-Loss Treatment Shows Promising Results

An investigational drug developed by Eli Lilly delivered clinically meaningful weight loss in a trial, the company said as it looks expand its obesity treatment portfolio amid soaring demand.

Lilly said Thursday that retatrutide, designed to be taken once a week, met the primary endpoint in a phase 3 clinical trial, as well as key secondary endpoints.

According to Ania Jastreboff, a Yale School of Medicine professor and lead investigator for the trial, every dose of retatrutide assessed resulted in clinically meaningful weight reduction for nearly all participants. On average, those with severe obesity on the highest dose lost 30% of their body weight over two years, Jastreboff added.

TALKING POINT Blame AI for the Strange Death of Dividends

The dividend yield on the S&P 500 is on the verge of an all-time low, and dividend investing has proved deeply disappointing.

Blame artificial intelligence. Excitement about the prospects for the new technology has encouraged companies to plow their profits back into capital spending rather than paying them out to shareholders, while boosting interest in stocks whose profits, and dividends, are merely hopes for the distant future.

The result has made the oldest way of picking dividend stocks-selecting steady payers that increase the "divi" every year-lag behind the index by the most over three years since the peak of the dot-com bubble in March 2000.

I measured this using the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index, which buys only stocks in the S&P that have increased their dividend every year for a quarter of a century. The idea is that these stocks are conservatively run businesses able to generate cash for shareholders whatever the economy does.

Investors might be reinvesting dividends if they don't need the income. If they want income, there's a problem: Dividends on the S&P are only just over 1%-and only a whisker above their lowest ever, in 2000. Even the dividend aristocrats only yield 1.3%.

It is important to note that this approach isn't about buying stocks with a high dividend, which is often a sign of a troubled company about to slash its payout. Rather, it is a bet that slow and steady wins the race.

--James Mackintosh

Expected Major Events for Friday

05:00/JPN: Apr Steel Production

05:00/JPN: Apr Supermarket sales

06:00/UK: Apr Public sector finances

06:00/GER: 1Q GDP - Detailed breakdown

06:00/UK: Apr Retail sales

06:00/GER: Jun GfK consumer climate survey

06:45/FRA: May Monthly business survey (goods-producing industries)

08:00/GER: May ifo Business Climate Index

10:00/FRA: Mar OECD Harmonised Unemployment Rates

12:30/CAN: Mar Employment Insurance

12:30/CAN: Apr Industrial product and raw materials price indexes

12:30/CAN: Mar Retail trade

14:00/US: Apr Leading Indicators

14:00/US: Apr State Employment and Unemployment

14:00/US: May University of Michigan Survey of Consumers - final

All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.

Expected Earnings for Friday

BJ's Wholesale Club Holding Inc $(BJ)$ is expected to report $1.00 for 1Q.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp $(BAH)$ is expected to report $1.25 for 4Q.

Noble Romans Inc (NROM) is expected to report for 4Q.

Smith-Midland Corp $(SMID)$ is expected to report for 1Q.

Spanish Broadcasting System Inc - Class A (SBSAA) is expected to report for 4Q.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 21, 2026 16:32 ET (20:32 GMT)

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