Ringside · Pre-Bell · May 25
- The Iran deal announcement window.
- The 5-year Treasury auction at 1:00 PM Tuesday.
- The Salesforce Q1 print after Wednesday's close.
Indexes
US equity and bond markets are closed today for Memorial Day. CME index futures are trading on a modified holiday schedule with a 12:00 PM CT halt and a 5:00 PM CT reopen. Cash equities, Treasuries and listed options resume normal hours Tuesday. Futures are pointing sharply higher overseas on Iran-deal optimism after President Trump's Saturday Truth Social post that an agreement is "largely negotiated," with crude oil down roughly 6%.
| Contract | Level | % Chg | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| ES (S&P 500) | 7,555 | +1.10% | Implied open above Friday's 7,473.47 cash close |
| NQ (Nasdaq 100) | 26,900 | +1.30% | Chip-led bid tracking Asian semis |
| YM (Dow) | 51,150 | +1.10% | +570 pts; energy laggard, industrials lead |
| RTY (Russell 2000) | 2,890 | +1.20% | Small caps participating on the duration relief |
| Global Tape | % Chg | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Nikkei 225 | +3.02% | 65,254.00; first close above 65,000, intraday all-time high |
| Topix | +2.40% | 3,953.89 record intraday; breadth confirms the Nikkei move |
| Hang Seng | +1.10% | Tech and shipping firms lead; Hormuz-reopen play |
| CSI 300 | +0.55% | Mainland steadier than offshore; consumer names firm |
| Kospi | +1.45% | SK Hynix and Samsung lead on AI-memory pricing |
| DAX | +1.10% | Autos and industrials bid on oil relief |
| CAC 40 | +0.90% | Luxury firmer with the broader risk-on backdrop |
| Stoxx 600 | +0.85% | Fifth straight session of gains |
| FTSE 100 | closed | UK Spring Bank Holiday; London markets shut |
In the News
Drivers
1. The Iran deal announcement window. President Trump's Saturday post framed an agreement as "largely negotiated" but Iran has not signed. Senior US officials told reporters over the weekend that no signature would come Sunday because "the Iranian system did not move fast enough." The asymmetric setup remains constructive: a confirmed deal reopens the Strait of Hormuz, pulls Brent through $90, and lifts risk assets broadly. A breakdown of the talks puts the war-premium bid straight back into Brent and adds back to defense names. The headline cadence between Saturday's optimism and Tuesday's 9:30 AM cash open is the dominant variable for the reopen.
2. The 5-year Treasury auction at 1:00 PM Tuesday. The bond market reopens Tuesday with three sessions of news flow to digest at once — the oil pullback, the Iran-deal optimism, and the European-rates picture. A weak 5-year auction would push the long end higher and complicate the equity reopen; a clean auction validates the duration-relief setup Friday's session pointed toward. The Wednesday 7-year follows the same script.
3. The Salesforce Q1 print after Wednesday's close. CRM arrives against two opposite cohort signals from last week: Workday's positive AI-monetization data point and Intuit's defensive layoff framing. Management commentary on Agentforce adoption, annual contract value trends, and customer-count compression will determine which signal sticks for the enterprise software group. The Marvell print the same afternoon is the AI-infrastructure parallel — together, the two reports set the tone for the cohort heading into June.
Rates, FX, Commodities
The US bond market is closed for Memorial Day; yields below are Friday's settle and are stale by definition. Currencies and commodities trade on their normal global schedules and are live as of this morning.
| Asset | Level | Chg | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| VIX | 17.19 | -0.43 | Friday close; futures suggest a softer open Tuesday |
| 2Y Treasury | 4.14% | flat | Friday settle; cash market closed today |
| 10Y Treasury | 4.58% | flat | Friday settle; cash market closed today |
| 30Y Treasury | 5.10% | flat | Friday settle; cash market closed today |
| 2s10s Spread | +44 bp | flat | Curve frozen at Friday's flatter print |
| DXY | 98.95 | -0.35 | Off Friday's six-week high as deal optimism reduces safety bid |
| Commodity | Level | % Chg | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| WTI Crude | $94.10 | -5.71% | Two-week low; war-premium unwinds |
| Brent Crude | $98.45 | -5.81% | Below $100 for the first time since early May |
| Gold | $4,562 | +0.85% | Bid despite risk-on; safe-haven demand sticky |
| Nat Gas | $3.04 | -0.33% | Quiet; cooling-degree-day outlook in line |
Technicals
Broad indices, frozen at Friday's close. SPX finished at 7,473.47, roughly 1.5% above the 50DMA near 7,360 and 5.3% above the 200DMA near 7,100. The next visible resistance is the 7,500 round number, with first-line support stepping down to the 7,420-7,440 prior-resistance shelf. NDX printed inside its prior range at 26,150 zone, with 26,500 the breakout level to watch on Tuesday's reopen. Futures pointing to an ES open near 7,555 would clear that 7,500 level on the gap and put 7,600 in view if breadth participates.
Rate technicals, also frozen. The 10Y at 4.58% closed at the low end of the recent 4.55-4.70% range, with a sustained break below 4.55% the trigger for the duration-friendly rotation. Tuesday's reopen will absorb three sessions of overseas news flow at once: the Iran deal headlines argue lower yields on the risk-off-to-risk-on rotation, while a weak 5-year auction Tuesday afternoon could push back. The 30Y at 5.10% sits in the upper half of its post-financial-crisis range.
Single-name technicals heading into Tuesday's open are framed by Friday's leadership. Workday (WDAY) closed at six-month highs on the largest single-day volume in over a year following its Q1 beat-and-raise. Ross Stores (ROST) printed a fresh 52-week-high close. BJ's Wholesale (BJ) extended to an all-time high. On the downside, Intuit (INTU) continues to grind below its 200DMA, and Salesforce (CRM) sits below its 50DMA into Wednesday's Q1 print.
Breakouts & Breakdowns
Breakouts
Workday (WDAY) — Cleared multi-month resistance Friday on its Q1 beat-and-raise, closing at fresh six-month highs. Next visible resistance is the November high near $315; a hold above $290 keeps the breakout intact heading into Wednesday's CRM print.
Eli Lilly (LLY) — Reclaimed its 50DMA on continued retatrutide pipeline momentum and is testing the prior shelf near $1,040. A close above that level on Tuesday's reopen sets up a run at the early-May highs near $1,075.
Breakdowns
Intuit (INTU) — Sits below its 200DMA after Wednesday's restructuring shock, with the prior accumulation shelf around $310 the next visible support. A loss of that level on Tuesday opens the gap-fill toward $295.
Salesforce (CRM) — Closed below the 50DMA for the third consecutive session into Wednesday's Q1 report. A weak result puts the 200DMA near $245 in play; a clean beat-and-raise in the Workday mold could reclaim the $265 shelf on the open.
Top Movers
No US pre-market activity to report — cash equities are closed. The items below frame the names most likely to move on Tuesday's reopen as the Iran-deal headlines, the weekend oil plunge, and the overnight Asia surge are priced in at the cash open.
Gainers (Tuesday setup)
Boeing (BA), Carnival (CCL), United Airlines (UAL). The travel and transport group is the cleanest beneficiary of the oil pullback, with jet fuel making up roughly 25% of operating costs for the major US carriers. A sustained Brent print below $100 would re-engage the consumer-discretionary travel trade that had been pressured by the wartime fuel surcharges through April and May.
SK Hynix ADR, Micron (MU), Marvell (MRVL). Memory and AI-server semiconductor names are tracking the Asian semis bid that drove Nikkei past 65,000. SK Hynix and Samsung led the Kospi rally on tightening DRAM supply chatter, and MRVL reports Wednesday after the close — the AI-infrastructure read into the CRM and NVDA aftermath.
Workday (WDAY), Ross Stores (ROST), BJ's Wholesale (BJ). Friday's earnings winners carry their gap-up into Tuesday absent overnight news — WDAY's AI-monetization data point, ROST's 17% comp beat, and BJ's revenue-and-margin combination remain the strongest single-stock setups across software, off-price retail, and warehouse-channel retail respectively.
Losers (Tuesday setup)
Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Occidental (OXY). The integrated-major and US shale group faces direct pressure from the 6% Brent decline. The war-premium that supported the group through Q1 and most of Q2 is fading, and the breakeven economics of US shale production at $90 Brent are meaningfully different than at $105.
Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC), Raytheon (RTX). Defense primes have moved with the war-premium trade, and a deal announcement would compress the elevated multiples the group has held since the late-February operation against Iran. The pullback would not change the longer-dated procurement cycle but the near-term setup is mean-reversion lower.
Intuit (INTU), Salesforce (CRM). The software-multiple-compression debate stays live into the CRM print Wednesday. INTU adds to last week's drawdown if the AI-rev-per-seat narrative re-anchors, and CRM's guide will be the cohort tell for the entire enterprise software group.
Macro Calendar
| Time (ET) | Release | Consensus | Prior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon, May 25 | Memorial Day — US markets closed | n/a | n/a |
| Tue, 9:00 AM | Case-Shiller Home Price Index (Mar) | +3.5% YoY | +3.6% YoY |
| Tue, 10:00 AM | Conference Board Consumer Confidence (May) | 93.0 | 92.0 |
| Tue, 1:00 PM | 5-Year Treasury Auction | n/a | n/a |
| Wed, 10:00 AM | New Home Sales (Apr) | 695K | 724K |
| Wed, 1:00 PM | 7-Year Treasury Auction | n/a | n/a |
| Thu, 8:30 AM | Q1 GDP (2nd estimate) | -0.2% | -0.3% (adv) |
| Thu, 8:30 AM | Durable Goods Orders (Apr) | +1.4% | +9.2% |
| Thu, 8:30 AM | Initial Jobless Claims | 228K | 227K |
| Fri, 8:30 AM | Core PCE (Apr) MoM / YoY | +0.2% / +2.5% | +0.0% / +2.6% |
| Fri, 8:30 AM | Personal Income / Spending (Apr) | +0.3% / +0.2% | +0.5% / +0.7% |
The week's data load is back-end weighted. Tuesday's consumer confidence reading is the first read on whether the elevated-oil tape and the wartime gas prices have started to bind into household sentiment. Thursday's GDP revision and durable goods come together at 8:30 AM and could move yields in opposite directions. Friday's core PCE is the headline release and the bigger driver into the June FOMC framing — an in-line +0.2% month-over-month reading keeps the no-cuts-in-2026 base case intact, while a +0.3% surprise reopens the policy-rate question.
Earnings Today
Today: US markets closed; no notable reports on the calendar.
This week's headline prints:
Tuesday: Bank of Montreal (BMO), Box (BOX), HEICO (HEI), Okta (OKTA) after the close. Box and Okta are the cohort tells for the mid-cap software and security complex into Wednesday's CRM read.
Wednesday: Salesforce (CRM), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Nutanix (NTNX), Pure Storage (PSTG), HP (HPQ) all after the close. Salesforce is the highlight — the AI-software referee between Workday's strong print and Intuit's defensive framing. Marvell ties into the AI-infrastructure read after NVDA's record Q1 reported on May 20.
Thursday: Costco Wholesale (COST) and Dell Technologies (DELL) after the close, with Dollar Tree (DLTR) and Best Buy (BBY) before the open. Costco is the warehouse-channel read after BJ's strong Friday print; Dell is the AI-server cohort name into the MRVL aftermath.