Midday Fly By: BofA, Morgan Stanley beat expectations in Q1

The major averages were mixed near noon, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the red and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq trading higher. Traders remain optimistic about a possible end to the U.S.-Iran war, particularly amid renewed signals that a new round of talks could resume within days as well as tentative reports of a ceasefire extension. This has kept oil capped below the recent highs and prevented another spike in inflation expectations, even though the broader conflict remains unresolved.

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Meanwhile, investors are weighing a new slate of corporate earnings, with major lenders Bank of America and Morgan Stanley leading the way with Q1 beats.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Bank of America (BAC) provided a “beat and raise” report for Q1
• Morgan Stanley (MS) reported upbeat Q1 results, with the company saying it is entering 2026 from a position of strength
• Broadcom (AVGO) and Meta (META) announced an expanded partnership over Meta Training and Inference Accelerator chips
• BRP (DOO) suspended its FY27 outlook following the recent amendment of Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper imports into the U.S.
• ASML (ASML) reported a year-over-year increase in Q1 earnings and revenue

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Cloudflare (NET) upgraded to Overweight at Piper Sandler
• SolarEdge (SEDG) cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs on challenging valuation
• Citi (ADNT) to Buy, opened “90-day upside catalyst watch”
• Shift4 Payments (FOUR) downgraded to Peer Perform at Wolfe Research
• DA Davidson (SYM) to Buy on “unparalleled” AI tech moat

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• AMD (AMD), Arm (ARM), and Qualcomm (QCOM) are investing $60M in Wayve as an extension of its $1.2B Series D round, TechCrunch reports
• Volkswagen (VWAGY) is preparing for even tougher competition in China, where the car market could shrink for the first time in a decade, Reuters reports
• Stellantis (STLA) mulls carmaking deal with Dongfeng (DNFGY) in Europe, China, Bloomberg says
• Uber (UBER) CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga says the company’s surging use of AI coding tools has maxed out its full-year AI budget just a few months into 2026, The Information reports
• Anthropic has fielded multiple offers from VCs valuing the company at as much as $800B in recent weeks, Business Insider says

4. MOVERS:

• Oklo (OKLO) higher after announcing changes to its board of directors
• Webull (BULL) gains after the SEC approved changes to remove day-trading limit for investors
• Tempus AI (TEM) increases after announcing an expansion of its GenoPredicta with Predicta Biosciences
• TeraWulf (WULF) lower after announcing a 47.4M share offering
• Dauch (DCH) falls after TD Cowen lowered its price target to $7 from $8

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Orion (OESX) backed its guidance for FY26 and FY27
• M&T Bank (MTB) reported Q1 results, with Daryl Bible, M&T’s CFO commenting, “M&T continued to produce strong operating results and return capital to its shareholders in the recent quarter”
• NOV Inc. (NOV) provided Q1 revenue and earnings guidance below prior guidance
• Snap (SNAP) provided guidance for Q1
• Gloo (GLOO) reported Q4 results, backed its guidance for Q1, and raised its outlook for FY26

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was down 0.40%, or 192.72, to 48,343.27, the Nasdaq was up 1.06%, or 250.76, to 23,889.84, and the S&P 500 was up 0.45%, or 31.46, to 6,998.84.