Your Evening Briefing

April 21, 2026

Stocks slip as peace prospects dim

The S&P 500, Russell 2000, and the Nasdaq 100 closed lower. Stocks erased modest early gains and fell further on negative news reports about the status of peace talks between the US and Iran, which culminated in reports shortly before markets closed that Vice President Vance's trip to Pakistan for those talks had been canceled.

Energy was the only sector to close higher as oil prices rose, while real estate was the worst-performer.

Stocks that moved higher:

POET Technologies surged above $10 for the first time in 4 years amid an explosion in call volumes.
Shares of Avis hit a new all-time high amid its meme stock rally.
UnitedHealth rose after reporting earnings results that beat Wall Street expectations and raising its full-year guidance.
Lucid climbed following the release of a regulatory filing that revealed Uber is now its second-largest shareholder.
Amazon rose on news that the company will invest up to $25 billion more in Anthropic, while Anthropic plans to spend $100 billion on AWS tech over the next decade.

Stocks that moved lower:

GE Aerospace fell after leaving earnings guidance unchanged.
Apple dipped after yesterday’s announcement that CEO Tim Cook will step down in September. John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware, will take the helm September 1.
United Airlines and American Airlines dropped after President Trump said he doesn't like a potential United-American merger in an interview with CNBC. Trump also commented that “maybe the federal government should help” Spirit Airlines find a buyer, sending shares of rival discount carrier Frontier Airlines lower.
Alaska Airlines fell after reporting its first-quarter results after the bell yesterday. Looking ahead, Alaska said it expects a second-quarter loss per share of $1, deeper than the Wall Street consensus of a $0.15 loss, but suspended full-year guidance due to rising fuel prices.
Cava dipped after Northcoast rated the stock a "Sell" with a price target of $63, the only bearish rating among Wall Street analysts.
AXT dropped after announcing a $550 million stock offering.
Shares of Tesla slipped ahead of its Q1 earnings announcement tomorrow as Wall Street has dialed back its forecasts following its delivery miss earlier this month, in which the company produced 50,000 more vehicles than it sold.

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In an effort to cement control ahead of SpaceX’s IPO, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bought $1.4 billion shares of the rocket company from current and former employees last year, The Information reports, citing the confidential IPO prospectus. Read more.

What analysts want from Apple’s new CEO
John Ternus is known for his decisiveness, and he needs to make some big decisions on AI.
Analyst says “liquidity conditions, not halvings” are now bitcoin’s primary clock
The breakdown of the four-year cycle removes a key empirical metric that investors relied on.
Ethereum ETFs notch eight straight days of inflows, longest streak since start of October
And BitMine, the largest ethereum treasury company, acquiried 101,627 ethereum tokens last week worth $234.8 million.
Xbox cuts price of its Game Pass subscription by 23%, removes new “Call of Duty” games
The announcement comes about six months after Xbox raised its Game Pass prices by 50%.

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