Stocks Gain on Deal, No Deal Momentum; Friday Looking to Close Out Good Week to the Upside; Mentions of AI in Quarterly Reports Boosts Share Price

No deal.

Oh, well, at least the Dow finished Thursday's session at a record closing high and Nvidia was down less than four points after disclosing first quarter 2026 results. Overall, a this was to be expected, with the totally fake media saying Iran and the U.S. were close to a final draft, which, for all intents and purposes, is an oxymoron. It's a draft, a framework. There's nothing final about it and that alone should have tipped off anybody who is fluent in the English language (about 8% of the U.S. population) that the whole thing was cooked up by the usual suspects on Wall Street and inside the Beltway.

Everybody else was fooled, again, and again and surely will be fooled the next time imminent peace or a resumption of the war is touted as imminent.

For the week, through Thursday’s close, the Dow is up 759 points, the NASDAQ has added only 68 points, and the S&P is up 37. Obviously, with a three-day weekend ahead, nobody wants to see losses on the Friday session, making Thursday evening an ideal time to announce that the Trump administration has agreed to award $1 billion to International Business Machines Corp. (BM) to build a foundry for producing quantum computing chips, part of a broad strategy to bolster US leadership in an emerging industry.

Yippie! The government investing in one of the Dow stocks. That is just so democratic and free market oriented that American taxpayers must be on board with this episode of Winning Big Business while the rest of America can just GFY. These continuing investments by the federal government into mega-corportions are nothing short of full-blown fascism, which, broadly defined, is the co-mingling of government with big business. Next thing you know, the Mango Mussolini will impose martial law, cancel elections (Why not? They don't work anyway.) and declare himself dictator for life.

Yes, you peons, GFY.

With that, less than an hour before Friday's opening bell, Dow futures are up 330 points, NASDAQ futures are ahead by 110, and S&P futures are higher by 28. Treasuries are taking a breather, with the 10-year yield down to 4.55% and the 30-year posing 5.08%. Regardless of the slight downturn in yields, gold and silver can't catch a bid, both down less than one percent Friday morning.

After the bell Thursday, these companies reported 1Q earnings:
Deckers (DECK) - Beat the Street, initially soared, pre-market down 1-2%
Workday (WDAY) - Tops earnings forecasts, cites AI as profit driver, stock up 6-7%
Ross Stores (ROST) - Solid quarter, shares up 4-5%
Lionsgate (LION) - Studio turns profitable, shares ahead 3-4%

Friday before the open:
BJ's Wholesale (BJ) - Hikes membership fees, profit up, shares down 3%
Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) - Appropriate stock symbol, earnings miss, mentions AI, stock up 7%

Everything is well positioned for another solid day of stock slinging. Happy Memorial Day, peons. GFY.

At the Close, Thursday, May 21, 2026:
Dow: 50,285.66, +276.31 (+0.55%)
NASDAQ: 26,293.10, +22.74 (+0.09%)
S&P 500: 7,445.72, +12.75 (+0.17%)
NYSE Composite: 23,127.69, +105.95 (+0.46%)