Public Markets 8 Hours

Last updated: May 22, 2026, 2:30 PM ET

Mergers & Acquisitions

Apollo Global Management made a £1.5 billion ($2.04 takeover proposal for heat treatment specialist Bodycote, sending shares sharply higher as the two companies entered discussions. In a separate move, Uber Technologies is exploring options for a full takeover of Germany's Delivery Hero SE, a move that would help it better compete with Door Dash Inc. outside the US. Meanwhile, CVC consortium launched a €10.9 billion offer for Italian drugmaker Recordati, tightening the buyout group's control of the 100-year-old company and extending its bet on rare diseases.

IPOs & Space Stocks

Gavin Baker, the star stock picker who bet big on SpaceX before the company even landed a rocket, has positioned his fund to capitalize on the highly-anticipated debut of Elon Musk's aerospace venture. This euphoria has drawn comparisons to Tesla Inc.'s effect on electric-vehicle stocks, with Musk's latest venture giving space stocks their own surge. However, Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett warned that mega-IPOs like those eyed by SpaceX and OpenAI threaten to push the weighting of tech in equity benchmarks beyond market-bubble levels of concentration. As a result, OHB and KNDS are considering pushing back their share sales to avoid the expected market melee around SpaceX's record initial public offering.

Market Performance

US stocks advanced as investors struck an upbeat tone ahead of a long holiday weekend, with the S&P 500 on track for its strongest earnings growth in five years as momentum spreads beyond artificial intelligence-fueled gains to much of corporate America. The benchmark is heading for its eighth weekly gain since 2023, with S&P 500 futures rising 0.2% as of 7:50 a.m. in New York. Canadian stocks also jumped to a record on Friday, hitting the highest mark since early March, propelled by gains in financial and technology stocks.

Commodities & Energy

The bellwether industrial metal copper is trading like an AI stock as investors bet that skyrocketing power use for artificial intelligence will fuel a surge in demand. Trafigura Group has moved to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars of copper from London Metal Exchange warehouses as lucrative trading opportunities emerge in the US and China. In energy markets, European natural-gas prices are back below 50 euros a megawatt-hour, though they are headed for a weekly gain of nearly 2% on supply tightness. Meanwhile, the combination of Next Era and Dominion represents a gargantuan energy deal for the AI age, a pragmatic response to growing energy needs.

Fixed Income

Bond traders are fully pricing in an interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year, a sign of conviction that Chair Kevin Warsh will need to move quickly to combat inflation. In a surprising development, junk-rated bonds in Argentina are yielding less than US Treasuries, reflecting the byzantine financial rules in place under President Javier Milei's libertarian reforms. India's central bank will transfer 2.87 trillion rupees ($30 to the government, a record dividend that fell short of expectations even as the Iran war pushes up energy prices and strains public finances.

Regulatory & Market Structure

The SEC delayed prediction market ETFs from Roundhill, Granite Shares and Bitwise after upstart fund issuers raced to wrap election and recession bets into tickers. This came as trading in US-listed options on Futu Holdings Ltd. and Up Fintech Holding Ltd. surged just before China's regulator's announcement that it planned to penalize them triggered a record share slump. In Washington, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer opened an investigation into how users of Kalshi and Polymarket are using insider information to make trades on prediction markets. Meanwhile, GameStop Corp. is asking shareholders to approve a massive increase in its authorized share count as the video-game retailer pursues an acquisition of eBay Inc.