Your Evening Briefing

April 29, 2026

The S&P 500 finishes marginally lower while oil climbs amid war uncertainty

The S&P 500 finished marginally lower, bouncing back from steeper losses as traders digested the somewhat hawkish shift within the central bank. While the Federal Reserve kept its policy unchanged in a range of 3.5% to 3.75% in its April decision, as was universally expected by economists. Ahead of this decision, event contracts pointed to a high likelihood that precisely one member would dissent at this meeting. That was wildly off the mark, with a whopping four members dissenting. Three of those did not want an easing bias; Governor Stephen Miran preferred a rate cut at this meeting. This marks the highest number of dissents since October 1992.

The Nasdaq 100 gained, while the Russell 2000 fell. Energy was the best-performing sector as oil prices rose on last night’s news that President Trump told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran. Utilities was the worst-performer.

Bitcoin moved past the $77,000 level this morning before pulling back.

Stocks that moved higher:

Bloom Energy surged after reporting a huge Q1-revenue beat and hiking full-year guidance. Bloom's blockbuster results lifted the entire hydrogen fuel cell sector, with FuelCell Energy, Plug Power, and Ballard Power Systems all climbing.
Seagate Technology Holdings soared on a strong earnings beat, citing the "biggest demand-driven QoQ price increase in a decade plus." Seagate's results lifted fellow hard disk drive maker Western Digital, extending the disk drive duopoly's hot streak.
Visa jumped after beating Q2 earnings estimates and reporting its biggest revenue increase since 2022.
NXP Semiconductors leapt after posting a strong beat and raising guidance.
Starbucks shares climbed after the coffee chain raised its full-year outlook and reported its second consecutive quarter of traffic growth.
Brinker International (which owns Chili’s) soared after its earnings release this morning as Chili’s logged its 20th consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth, driving overall growth for the company.

Stocks that moved lower:

Teradyne tumbled after offering dismal guidance that pointed to a sequential decline in revenue and profit.
Despite doubling its profit on record loan and member growth, SoFi Technologies tumbled after leaving full-year guidance unchanged.
Enphase Energy fell after its uninspiring Q2 guidance in yesterday’s earnings call overshadowed better-than-expected numbers in its Q1 earnings report.
JetBlue dropped after United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby threw cold water on merger rumors, saying deals smaller than American may not be worth the effort.
Brown-Forman dropped after merger talks with Pernod Ricard collapsed.
Robinhood sank after reporting disappointing Q1 results after the close on Tuesday. (Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company.)
Wingstop dropped after reporting earnings this morning as its Q1 domestic same-store sales fell by 8.7%, deeper than analysts had expected.

The UAE’s OPEC exit will hit the group in the barrels

The move on May 1 will end almost 60 years of OPEC membership for the UAE. Read more.

Maryland is set to be the first state to ban dynamic pricing at grocery stores

The first-of-its-kind legislation comes amid a growing trend for putting algorithm-driven price systems on US shelves.

Read more.

POST-MARKET MOVE

Meta posts an earnings and revenue beat — and a huge capex bill

Despite an earnings beat, Meta sank in after hours trading after the company said its capex for 2026 would be $125 to 145 billion, compared with analysts’ $122.6 billion (and higher than the $115 billion to $135 billion it estimated last quarter).

Read more.

SpaceX filings reportedly show no one can fire Elon Musk except Elon Musk
The only thing stopping Elon Musk from being chairman and CEO of SpaceX is Elon Musk, according to Reuters.
Disney is no longer considering spinning off ESPN, reports Business Insider
It’s perhaps the biggest call yet of new CEO Josh D’Amaro.

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