DailyBrief: April 23

Markets & Economics

Wall Street Records Then Retreats as Iran Ceasefire Talks Stall, Oil Surges
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at fresh record highs on Wednesday, buoyed by strong corporate earnings and an extension of the US-Iran ceasefire. The momentum reversed sharply on Thursday: futures for both indices slid 0.5% as stalled diplomatic talks and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz drove oil sharply higher. The Dow had risen 305 points, or 0.62%, on Wednesday, with Boeing, Apple, and UnitedHealth leading gains. Source: Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance
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Brent Crude Hits $104 as Strait of Hormuz Stays Closed, IEA Sounds Alarm
Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed 2.2% to $104.17 per barrel on Thursday, extending a multi-week rally driven by the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Middle East conflict. The International Energy Agency's executive director, Fatih Birol, warned that the world is confronting the "biggest energy security threat in history." MSCI's Asia Pacific equity gauge fell 0.6% in early trading, as higher energy costs weighed on regional growth outlooks. Source: Bloomberg, PBS NewsHour
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IBM Beats Q1 Estimates, ServiceNow Raises Guidance, Both Stocks Fall
IBM reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $15.9 billion, up 9% year-over-year, beating analyst expectations, as cloud and AI adoption drove double-digit software and infrastructure growth. ServiceNow posted subscription revenue of $3.67 billion, up 22% year-over-year, and raised its full-year guidance to $15.74-15.78 billion. Despite the strong results, both stocks fell sharply in after-hours trading, with IBM down roughly 7% and ServiceNow off 13%, suggesting investors had priced in even stronger forward guidance. Source: CNBC, ServiceNow Newsroom
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IMF Cuts 2026 Global Growth Forecast to 3.1%, Warns of War-Driven Stagflation Risk
The International Monetary Fund lowered its 2026 global growth forecast to 3.1% in its April World Economic Outlook, titled "Global Economy in the Shadow of War," down from recent growth rates of approximately 3.4%. The downgrade was driven primarily by the disruption caused by the Middle East conflict, including elevated oil prices and strained supply chains. Global headline inflation is projected to rise modestly before declining in 2027. In an adverse scenario, the IMF warned growth could fall to 2.5% while inflation reaches 5.4%. Source: IMF
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Tech & AI

Google Strikes Multibillion-Dollar Mira Murati Deal, Launches $750M AI Fund, Unveils New TPU Chips at Cloud Next
Google had a sweeping AI day on Wednesday at Google Cloud Next. The company deepened its partnership with Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, in a new multibillion-dollar cloud infrastructure deal powered by Nvidia's GB300 chips. Separately, Google launched a $750 million fund to help major consulting firms including McKinsey, Accenture, and Deloitte deploy agentic AI for enterprise clients. Google also unveiled the eighth generation of its custom tensor processing units (TPUs), split into two variants: the TPU 8t for model training and the TPU 8i for inference, in a direct challenge to Nvidia's data center dominance. Source: TechCrunch, Bloomberg
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AI Pioneers Back Sooth Labs' $50M Raise to Build Geopolitical Event-Prediction Models
Sooth Labs, a new artificial intelligence startup founded by former Meta employees, is raising approximately $50 million led by Felicis Ventures at a roughly $335 million valuation. The company is building AI models designed to forecast the likelihood of specific geopolitical and market events, a capability with broad applications in finance, risk management, and government. The round was backed by a group of AI pioneers, according to Bloomberg. Source: Bloomberg
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