Your Evening Briefing

April 23, 2026

Stocks fall from record highs amid a software slump and rocky negotiations with Iran

Stocks began the day by trading sideways, but dropped after a report that Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has resigned from Iran's peace talks team after intervention by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful wing of Iran's military. The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all closed lower.

Utilities was the best-performing sector, while information technology was the worst as weak guidance from ServiceNow after the bell yesterday dragged the entire software sector down.

Bitcoin struggled to hold the $78,000 level amid geopolitical tensions putting pressure on risk assets.

Stocks that moved higher:

Applied Digital soared after announcing a new lease agreement with a hyperscaler, representing $7.5B in total contracted value over an estimated 15-year term.
Texas Instruments skyrocketed after beating on Q1 revenue with strong guidance to match.
Oklo jumped after announcing a partnership with Nvidia.
Nokia climbed higher on a Q1 earnings beat and strong AI and cloud guidance.
American Airlines rose after delivering better-than-expected Q1 results, despite cutting its full-year earnings forecast.
Alaska Air also ticked higher after a report that the carrier is exploring revenue-sharing and other strategic partnerships with American Airlines.

Stocks that moved lower:

Despite Tesla’s big Q1 earnings beat, the stock dropped as the company signaled a bigger capex bill ahead.
Avis plummeted after its announcement of Q1 earnings next week raised speculation about an imminent share offering.
Lululemon dipped after naming former Nike executive Heidi O'Neill as its next CEO.
Super Micro Computer sank after BlueFin Research reported that the company has lost a significant contract with Oracle.
IBM fell despite posting a Q1 earnings beat after the bell yesterday as the company failed to include an update on its internal metric used to track AI business.
Microsoft dipped after reports it is planning to offer voluntary buyouts to a small number of employees for the first time in its corporate history.
Southwest Airlines slipped after reporting lower-than-expected Q1 earnings and revenue after the bell yesterday.

Trump-induced volatility has been noise, with the biggest five losses nearly perfectly canceling out the biggest gains

There’s an underlying non-Trump, mainly-AI trend that’s mattered, and that’s probably the main reason the US stock market is where it is. See a chart of the causes of the five best and worst market days during different presidencies.

Two truths and a lie from Tesla’s earnings call

Elon Musk was a little more straightforward on this earnings call, but is still Musk.

Read more.

In December, the White House announced a new program to let wealthy foreigners get a shortcut to US citizenship — the "Trump Gold Card." After paying a $15,000 application fee, passing a vetting process, and ultimately paying a $1 million “contribution,” the applicant gets a card in Trump’s favorite color which grants the owner US citizenship “in record time.”

So how many of these rich foreigners have received their shiny ticket to American residency? Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a House committee today that only one of the cards has been issued, but “hundreds” of applications were being reviewed.

Amazon’s making a big push to become your doctor and your pharmacy
A Q&A with John Love, vice president of Amazon Pharmacy.
Tesla tries to throw Waymo under the bus
Elon Musk said a Waymo hit a bus. Waymo says that's not what happened, and there are no NHTSA crash reports backing Musk up.
What3words is a simple and genius idea with one of the worst business models of all timeWhat3words is crowdfunding for new shareholders... and seeking exits for current ones.
The national average of US gas prices drops to $4.03
The national average of gas prices has gone down since last week.
ServiceNow’s guidance shows that there’s no margin for error in software shortfalls
If there’s margin pressure, details don’t matter.
Hims rises after it says it now offers “full range” of FDA-approved GLP-1s
Hims providers can now send prescriptions to Eli Lilly’s direct-to-consumer pharmacy.
OpenAI releases ChatGPT 5.5 — more complex “knowledge work” for fewer tokens
OpenAI’s new frontier model has greater coding and enterprise work capabilities, while using fewer tokens.
Southwest says jet fuel surge is a $1 billion headwind for Q2
Southwest held its first-quarter earnings call on Thursday morning.
Netflix announces $25 billion share buyback boost
The stock gained on the news.
Lyft to acquire London black cab app Gett UK
Lyft describes its international expansion strategy as “expanding ‘out’ in more locations and ‘up’ into more high-value segments.”

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