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US Equity Indexes Give Up Gains as Iran Reportedly Unveils Plan to Charge Fee for Safe Hormuz Transit

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-- US equity indexes fell midday Thursday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite giving up intraday gains after Iran reportedly created an agency to control shipping in the Strait of Hormuz before sending its response to Washington's proposal to restart peace talks.

The Nasdaq slid 0.3% to 25,760.7 after touching a record 26,036.38 intraday. The S&P 500 retreated 0.5% to 7,326.7 after hitting an all-time high of 7,385.02 earlier in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 49,545.5, extending declines.

All sectors except technology fell, with energy, industrials, and utilities leading the decliners.

Iran has created a government agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, an Associated Press report cited a shipping data company Thursday. Tehran has laid out a new set of rules for vessels seeking to transit through the Hormuz, a chokepoint to about 20% of global crude oil flows, according to a document seen by CNN.

Entitled "Vessel Information Declaration," the document is an application form issued by Iran's newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority, and it must be completed by all transiting vessels to ensure safe passage, CNN reported. The document was shared with CNN by the Lloyds List and another shipping industry source who wished to remain anonymous, according to the news report.

The Trump administration is looking to restart an operation to guide commercial ships through Hormuz with naval and air support as early as this week, after Saudi Arabia and Kuwait lifted restrictions on US access to their bases and airspaces, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing Pentagon officials.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic is reviewing messages from Pakistan, which is mediating peace negotiations with Washington, but Tehran "has not yet reached a conclusion, and no response has been given to the U.S. side," the Associated Press cited Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei on state TV.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rose 1.8% to $96.81, while Brent crude futures slipped 0.4% to $100.83, off session lows when declines hit more than 3% each.

US Treasury yields turned the corner, leaning higher after midday, compared with a move down across most of the maturities earlier in the session. The 10-year rose four basis points to 4.39%, and the two-year rate climbed 4.7 basis points to 3.92%.

In precious metals, gold futures edged up 0.6% to $4,727.2, off session highs. Silver futures were up 4.1% to $80.49 but off highs of more than 5% earlier in the session.

In economic news, employers in the US announced 83,387 job cuts in April, up 38% from March, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday. The two previous highs were 105,441 job cuts recorded in April 2025 and 671,129 in April 2020, the global outplacement firm added.

"Technology companies continue to announce large-scale cuts and are leading all industries in layoff announcements. They are also often citing AI spend and innovation. Regardless of whether individual jobs are being replaced by AI, the money for those roles is," said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

US initial jobless claims rose to 200,000 in the week ended May 2 from an upwardly revised 190,000 in the previous week, compared with expectations for 205,000 in a survey of analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The four-week moving average fell by 4,500 to 203,250.

In company news, Datadog (DDOG) raised its full-year outlook after the software maker posted Q1 results above analysts' estimates. Shares surged 28%, the top gainer on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

ARM (ARM) Chief Executive Rene Haas said, in an earnings call with investors, that while demand for ARM's new AGI CPU doubled to $2 billion within six weeks of its launch, the company has only secured enough manufacturing capacity to fulfill half of those orders. Shares sank 10%, among the worst performers on the Nasdaq.

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Strait of Hormuz Disruption Pushing Oil Market Toward Rationing, Wells Fargo Says

The global oil market is moving toward physical shortages and possible demand rationing within the current quarter if disruption in the Strait of Hormuz persists, Darrell Cronk, President of Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said in a Tuesday note.Cronk estimates cumulative supply losses tied to the conflict and partial closure of the key shipping route have reached about 600 million barrels as of early May. The disruption reflects not only delayed shipments, but also production effectively removed from the system through shut-ins, damage, and deferred output.With inventories and floating storage already significantly reduced, the market has limited remaining capacity to absorb additional shocks. If the strait does not reopen soon, the system may require demand destruction of 4 to 5 million barrels per day within weeks to restore balance.Supply disruptions are expected to take roughly 30 days to fully transmit through the system, meaning physical shortages at the consumer level could lag the initial shock.The most immediate stress is expected in natural gas and in intermediate- and medium-sour crude grades. Downstream impacts would likely emerge first in refined products, particularly diesel and jet fuel, before crude scarcity becomes visible to end users.A likely sequence of disruption would begin with petrochemicals and LPG, followed by diesel, affecting freight, agriculture, and industrial activity, and then jet fuel, which would constrain airline capacity and broader mobility.Import-dependent emerging markets are expected to experience the earliest strain, followed by Europe and other developed regions. Potential policy responses could include fuel allocation systems, airline capacity limits, and emergency consumption controls if shortages intensify.The US is partially insulated due to strong domestic production and Canadian pipeline imports, but global pricing would still transmit higher fuel costs domestically. Elevated energy prices could add to inflation pressures heading into the summer driving season and complicate interest rate expectations.Cronk also highlighted longer-term structural risks, noting that global energy supply chains have become less redundant and more vulnerable than widely assumed. It warned that prolonged disruption to infrastructure in the region could extend recovery timelines well beyond past oil shocks, even if geopolitical tensions ease.

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Research Alert: CFRA Maintains Hold On Shares Of Solventum Corporation

CFRA, an independent research provider, has providedwith the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:We lower our 12-month price target by $6 to $76, reflecting an 11.6x multiple of our 2026 EPS estimate, in line with the 11.6x historical forward average since spin-off from 3M in 2024. We raise our 2026 EPS estimate to $6.57 from $6.46 and lower our 2027 estimate by $0.03 to $7.03. We think SOLV continues to demonstrate progress with the separation from 3M, having exited over 50% of the transition service agreements with a target to exit over 90% by year-end. In addition, over 75% of system applications have been migrated, according to Q1 earnings commentary. The company maintained the $100M-$120M estimate of tariff headwinds against 2026 earnings. However, this estimate was made based on tariff dynamics prior to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling against the IIEPA tariffs, adding some uncertainty to SOLV's near-term financial outlook, in our view, as the company awaits more information about potential refund dynamics.

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Daily Roundup of Key US Economic Data for May 7

Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported 83,387 layoff intentions in April, up from 60,620 in March, but down from 105,441 a year ago.The largest layoff count in April was in the technology sector, which accounted for 33,361 of those intentions, with increased use of artificial intelligence with the most cited reason for layoffs.The New York Fed's inflation expectations survey for April showed an increase in inflation expectations and uncertainty for the next year.Nonfarm productivity rose by 0.8% in Q1 after a 1.6% gain in Q4, reflecting slower output growth and a rebound in hours worked. Released at the same time, unit labor costs rose by 2.3% after a 4.6% gain, with the slower pace of productivity growth only partially offsetting a much slower pace of compensation growth.Construction spending rose by 0.6% in March after a 0.2% decline in February. Private residential construction rose by 1.7%, with single-family construction up 2.7%, multi-family construction up 0.3% and remodeling activity up 0.9%.Private nonresidential building fell by 0.2% and public construction declined by 0.2%.Consumer credit usage jumped by $24.8 billion in March after an $8.9 billion gain in February, with revolving credit use and nonrevolving credit use both rising at a faster rate than in the previous month.Initial jobless claims increased by 10,000 to 200,000 in the week ended May 2, but the four-week moving average fell by 4,500 to 203,250, a second straight decrease.Insured claims declined by 10,000 to 1.766 million in the week ended April 25.Natural gas stocks rose by 63 billion cubic feet to 2.205 trillion cubic feet in the week ended May 1, up 3.5% from a year earlier and 6.7% higher than the seasonal average for the current week over the previous five years.The Q2 GDP nowcast estimate from the Atlanta Fed is for a 3.7% gain, unrevised from the previous estimate.