Daily Summary: Markets Stabilize After Moody's US Downgrade

US500 fell 1% after recovering from an early slide that topped 2%, while the US100 declined 1.5% and the US30 finished 0.7% as investors digested Moody's downgrade of US credit.

US Leading Economic Index declined 1.0% in April, worse than the expected 0.9% drop and marking its largest monthly decrease since March 2023.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic signaled just one potential rate cut in 2025, expressing concern that inflation isn't decreasing toward the Fed's target as quickly as expected and citing uncertainty about tariff impacts.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned a recession remains possible despite the bank's economists recently lowering their recession probability below 50%, citing the country's large deficit, rising long-term interest rates, and inflation concerns.

Wall Street strategists largely dismissed the Moody's downgrade with Thomas Lee at Fundstrat calling it a "non-event" and Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson suggesting investors "buy the dip" on any resulting weakness.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed a $15 billion cost from the US ban on its H20 chips for China, calling it "enormously costly" and "deeply painful" during an interview at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

Microsoft unveiled its "open agentic web" vision at its annual Build conference, projecting businesses will deploy 1.3 billion AI agents by 2028 and introducing various tools including the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit.

Tesla shares fell 3% after Chinese tech giant Xiaomi announced it will reveal its Model Y competitor, the YU7 crossover EV, this Thursday, May 22.

Netflix was downgraded by JPMorgan to Neutral from Overweight despite a higher price target, with analyst Doug Anmuth citing the stock's elevated valuation after its 30% year-to-date gain.

Bath & Body Works CEO Gina Boswell resigned and was immediately replaced by former Nike executive Daniel Heaf as the retailer reported preliminary Q1 results at the high end of guidance.

10-year Treasury yield rose 2 basis points to 4.50% with the 30-year yield briefly climbing above 5% amid growing concerns about America's ballooning debt burden.

Dollar Index dropped 0.6% with the euro rising 0.8% to $1.1253 and the Japanese yen strengthening 0.5% against the dollar to 144.93.

Bitcoin traded above $104,000 after holding the key $100,000 milestone, gaining 0.4% to $104,504, while Ether rose 2.5% to $2,453.

30-year mortgage rates edged up to 6.81% from 6.76% last week, though still remaining below the 7.02% rate from a year ago.