May 14th Pre-Market

Good Morning

Cisco came out swinging last night and now the Dow is back knocking on 50k. Retail sales came in nicely, but jobless claims ticked up a bit.

Trump and Xi shook hands in Beijing today. Nothing concrete yet, the real announcements are tomorrow at the working lunch. Boeing is bid in premarket on hopes of a big aircraft order.

New ipo Cerebras opens for trading later this morning. If it pops, the AI names likely hit the gas.

Let's dig in...

Today's Big Picture

1. Cisco Pulls The Dow Back To 50,000

Cisco beat. The real story is they're cutting 4,000 white-collar jobs to fund AI capex, and hyperscaler orders nearly doubled to $9B. Meta is running the same playbook next week, cutting 8,000 people on May 20. Networking, optical, and chip equipment names get the read-across today.

2. Trump And Xi Met In Beijing. Day One Was All Photo Ops. 

The two sides agreed the Strait of Hormuz stays open and that Iran can't have nuclear weapons. That's it. No trade deals, no aircraft orders, no rare earths commitments. The real announcements, if any come, drop at Friday's working lunch. Boeing is bid in premarket on the chance Trump walks away with a $1 trillion Chinese purchase pledge tomorrow.

3. The H200 China Approval Looks Better Than It Is 

Reuters reported overnight that the Commerce Department cleared roughly ten Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com, to buy Nvidia's H200 AI chip. Problem is zero chips have actually shipped, and Beijing is quietly telling those same companies to buy Huawei instead. Commerce Secretary Lutnick said on record last month that the Chinese government won't let them place the orders.

Market Overview

Today’s Sponsor

5 Zacks experts scan thousands of publicly traded companies. » Then select one apiece.

 See them now.

Our team of 5 Zacks experts scan thousands of publicly traded companies and selects a single stock apiece, with the best realistic shot at gaining +100% or more in the next 12 months.

Every company also carries a strong Zacks Rank, meaning earnings estimates are already trending upward. These aren't companies you simply hold and hope.

These are positioned to start moving.

Download “5 Stocks Set to Double now”.

Stock Spotlight (pre-market)

Cerebras Systems $CBRS ( 0.0% )  

opens today after pricing at $185 and raising $5.55B, biggest US IPO of the year. A weak first day tape forces every late cycle AI hardware long to reconsider sizing. A strong open and the IPO window stays open for the next AI name in line.

Applied Materials $AMAT ( ▲ 1.26% )  

Reports after the bell. The order book is what moves the memory complex tomorrow. A soft guide forces the hedge fund crowd, now at decade high semi exposure, to start trimming.

Doximity $DOCS ( ▼ 11.57% ) $docs

Getting crushed on a weak full year guide. Healthcare digital ad spend is rolling over and that puts the vertical SaaS book on notice. PMs holding adjacent names are forced to defend the thesis or cut today.

Biogen $BIIB ( ▲ 2.59% )  

Advancing its Alzheimer's drug to phase 3 despite missing the phase 2 primary endpoint. The FDA appears to be softening on data quality, which forces a re rate across the entire neuro pipeline.

Boeing $BA ( ▲ 1.58% )  

Bid on China summit order expectations. Graham Allison floated a $1 trillion Chinese purchase commitment as possible for Friday. If the deal prints, every fund underweight industrials is forced to chase, and BA is the cleanest vehicle.

Verizon $VZ ( ▼ 1.5% )  joining AT&T $T ( ▼ 1.94% )  and T-Mobile $TMUS ( ▼ 1.56% )  

On a satellite rural coverage JV. The carriers consolidating against dead zones forces AST SpaceMobile and the standalone satellite names to defend their addressable market today.

What to Watch

IPO’s

MarketBeat did an excellent job on this free IPO guide.

Import Prices Hit 4.2% YoY 
Highest since October 2022, with petroleum products up 19% on the month. Paired with yesterday's PPI at 6, the inflation pipeline is loaded for the next two CPI prints. Bessent admitted on CNBC this morning we may see 1-2 hotter readings ahead.

Samsung Strike Risk (May 21)
Forty-one thousand workers threatening an 18-day walkout. South Korea's finance minister called it a major risk to exports and markets. If it lands, DRAM and NAND pricing tighten and Micron and SanDisk get a tailwind. This is the trade nobody is talking about.

Trump-Xi Day Two (Friday Morning) 
The trade isn't Taiwan. It's whether Friday's readout includes a Boeing aircraft order or a soybean commitment. Watch grain futures and BA into the open tomorrow.

- John

Today’s Sponsor

“AI is Going to Fundamentally Change…Everything”

That’s what NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang just said about the AI boom, even calling it “the largest infrastructure buildout in human history.”

NVIDIA’s chips made this real-time revolution possible, but now it’s collaborating with Miso to unlock amazing new advances in robotics.

Already a first-mover in the $1T fast-food industry, Miso’s AI-powered Flippy Fry Station robots have worked 200K+ hours for leading brands like White Castle, just surpassing 5M+ baskets of fried food.

And this latest NVIDIA collaboration unlocks up to 35% faster performance for Miso’s robots, which can cook perfect fried foods 24/7. In an industry experiencing 144% labor turnover, where speed is key, those gains can be game-changing.

There are 100K+ US fast-food locations in desperate need, a $4B/year revenue opportunity for Miso. And you can invest alongside Ecolab and become a Miso shareholder today. Even better, you can unlock free additional bonus stock for a limited time. Become a Miso investor today.

Invest in Miso Today

^{This is a paid advertisement for Miso Robotics’ Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.misorobotics.com.}