What’s News in Markets: The War Trade, Megadeals and a Sneaker Slowdown
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Hey Zuschauer, es ist Samstag, April 4th. Ich bin Imani Maliz für die Wall Street Journal und das ist News & Markets. Unser Blick auf die größten Stockmovement der Woche und die News, die sie geführt haben. Lass uns einsteigen. Es war eine kurze Woche für die Märkte. Große Stockverhandlungen wurden am Freitagabend geschlossen. Die Stocks schlugen durch die Woche, als sie vermischte Signale über den Konflikt in Iran. In the end, all three major stock indexes finished the week higher. The Nasdaq led the way, closing up 4.4% on Thursday. Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were also up about 3% for the week. Brent Crude, the international oil benchmark, surged nearly 8% this week to finish at $109 a barrel, as hopes for a quick end to the Iran conflict faded.
But higher commodity prices didn't translate to gains for oil stocks. Energy was the only sector in the S&P 500 to finish the week lower, falling more than 5% as investors worried about long-term supply. Bond markets also closed early this week, but not before the latest jobs report gave bond yields a small boost. The 10-year Treasury recently traded at 4.35%, up from 4.32% before the Friday report. Stock futures moved slightly lower after the report. Turbulent Markets are usually a deterrent for mergers and acquisitions, but 2026 is off to a historic start for dealmaking. Corporations announced 22 M&A transactions worth $10 billion or more in the quarter that wrapped up this week. That marks the strongest start to the year for mega deals on record.
While that's good news for bankers, shareholders appear to have buyer's remorse. Some of the companies announcing these massive acquisitions were among the week's biggest losers. McCormick shares tumbled 8% this week after announcing it was taking on debt as part of a $65 billion deal to combine its food business with Unilever. Similarly, Cisco shares were down 13% on the week as investors weighed the mountain of new debt tied to its $29 billion acquisition of Jetro Restaurant Depot. but investors rewarded at least one company for writing a multi-billion dollar check. Intel shares jumped nearly 17% this week after announcing it would spend $14.2 billion to buy out Apollo Global Management's 49% stake in their Irish chip plant.
Executives positioned the move as proof of the company's stronger balance sheet and more focused corporate strategy.
Market Momentum was good to tech stocks this week. Facebook-Parent Meta and Google-Parent Alphabet both rebounded to finish near the top of the leaderboard, gaining roughly 8 to 9 percent each.
Why are oil prices and oil stocks moving in opposite directions?
Their rally is somewhat of a return to normal. Both companies led losses last week after courts found their social media platforms liable for failing to protect young people from online danger. Nike was the biggest loser in the S&P 500 for the week. Shares plunged nearly 14% after the sportswear brand warned investors that sales in China, its second largest market after the US, could fall by as much as 20% this quarter. The company has now experienced sales declines in China for seven straight quarters and the current one, ending on May 31st, could be even worse.
Looking ahead, investors are getting their bids ready for what could be the biggest IPO of all time. Elon Musk's SpaceX filed confidential paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, setting the stage for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $80 billion. SpaceX, which merged with XAI in February, is the first of three mega-IPOs anticipated in 2026.
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