Daily Summary: Market euphoria shows no signs of letting up 🚀

🔑 Key Market Driver

• The primary catalyst of the entire session was the historic Trump-Xi summit in Beijing, described by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as an event of historic significance. Xi Jinping assured assembled business leaders, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and Huang, that "China's doors to opening will only open wider." Additional fuel for the rally came from Cisco's blowout earnings and the spectacular Nasdaq debut of AI chip maker Cerebras Systems.

🌍 Geopolitics

• The New York Times revealed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates carried out covert strikes on Iranian territory in retaliation for attacks on both monarchies, marking the first time in history that both countries directly targeted Iran and signaling a significant shift in regional power dynamics. During the Beijing summit, Trump announced that Xi Jinping declared his willingness to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open and assured that Beijing would not supply military equipment to Tehran. China also expressed interest in purchasing larger volumes of American crude oil, which markets read as a significant de-escalation signal for global energy supply routes. Taiwan remained a point of tension, with Xi warning that supporting Taiwanese independence constitutes crossing a "red line."

📊 Macro Data

• Yesterday's U.S. producer price inflation data came in sharply above expectations: PPI year-over-year reached 6.0% versus the 4.8% consensus, while the monthly reading surged 1.4% against an expected 0.5%. Market reaction was surprisingly muted, with the implied probability of a Fed rate hike before year-end hovering around 33-35%. Today's U.S. retail sales data came in line with expectations at 0.5% month-over-month, though import prices jumped 1.9% versus the 1.0% consensus and export prices surged 3.3% against expectations of 1.2%. Poland's economy disappointed: Q1 2026 GDP grew just 0.5% quarter-over-quarter, the weakest reading since Q3 2024, though the full-year consensus still forecasts solid growth of around 3.5%.

📈 Indices

• Wall Street closed the day with strong gains: the Dow Jones reclaimed the psychological 50,000 level, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq set fresh all-time intraday highs. In Europe, the DAX led with gains of 1.3%, supported by Siemens rising over 3%, though several European exchanges were closed for a public holiday. The picture in Asia was mixed: South Korea's KOSPI gained 1.8% and is now up nearly 90% year-to-date, while the Shanghai Composite fell 1.5% and Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 1%.

💼 Equities

• The undisputed star of the session was Cisco, with shares surging 14-18% after record Q3 FY2026 results: revenues hit $15.8 billion, up 12% year-over-year, while AI infrastructure orders grew over 50%, pushing the full-year AI order forecast from $5 billion to $9 billion. Nvidia gained more than 4% on Reuters reports of U.S. approval for H200 chip sales to 10 Chinese companies, with Jensen Huang's personal participation in the Beijing delegation read as a signal of unlocking one of the largest addressable markets. The biggest sensation was the Nasdaq debut of AI chip maker Cerebras Systems: shares opened at $350, nearly 90% above the $185 IPO price, valuing the 10-year-old company at over $100 billion and making it the largest U.S. tech IPO since Uber in 2019. On the negative side, digital medical platform Doximity tanked 21-23% after disappointing guidance and a wave of downgrades from major investment banks. A new risk factor emerged for Apple: Bloomberg reported that OpenAI is already working with an outside law firm on potential legal action against Apple, arguing that the ChatGPT integration into the iOS ecosystem has not delivered the expected financial benefits, raising uncertainty around Apple's AI monetization path and adding short-term volatility to AAPL shares.

💱 Currencies

• The dollar strengthened throughout the session, supported by the combination of positive signals from the Trump-Xi summit and the hot PPI data: the USDIDX gained 0.31% and EURUSD weakened to 1.1679.The British pound came under pressure, with GBPUSD falling 0.73%. Among emerging market currencies, the South Korean won and South African rand outperformed, while the Brazilian real sat at the bottom of global rankings, weighed down by a political scandal linking Flavio Bolsonaro to the Banco Master affair, which also dragged the Ibovespa down over 10% in the past month.

🛢️ Commodities

• Copper touched historic highs, breaking through $14,000 per metric ton on the LME, driven by a sulfuric acid supply crisis stemming from the Strait of Hormuz blockade, a 6% drop in Chilean copper production in Q1, and China's ban on sulfuric acid exports effective May 1. An additional structural demand driver is AI infrastructure: hyperscale data centers consume 27 to 33 tons of copper per megawatt of installed capacity, with total AI sector demand projected to reach 475,000 tons in 2026 alone. Crude oil held above $100 per barrel: WTI gained 0.68% to over $101, while Brent rose 0.14% to $105.71. Gold edged slightly lower by 0.19% to $4,679 per ounce, while silver suffered a sharp correction, falling over 3% to around $84.75 per ounce.

₿ Crypto

• Bitcoin led all asset classes with a 2.68% gain to $81,433, with positive sentiment spreading across the entire crypto segment. The key catalyst was a landmark legislative step in the U.S.: the Senate committee approved the Clarity Act, a wide-ranging crypto market structure bill representing the first comprehensive regulation of the industry. Stocks of crypto-related companies reacted sharply: Coinbase surged 9%, Figure gained 9%, Galaxy rose 6%, and both Strategy and Sharplink climbed around 7%.