Records Again — But the Details Are What Matter

The S&P 500 closed at 7,563.63 on Thursday, May 28, 2026 — a gain of 0.58%, according to CNBC. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.91% to close at 26,917.47. Both hit intraday all-time highs. The Dow barely moved, up 0.05% to 50,668.97.

Three distinct catalysts hit the tape simultaneously.

Dell Just Broke Every Record It Owned

Dell Technologies reported fiscal Q1 2027 results after the bell Thursday that weren't just a beat — they were a demolition of expectations.

Revenue came in at $43.84 billion against analyst consensus of $35.43 billion, according to CNBC. That's an 88% year-over-year revenue jump — the fastest growth rate since Dell returned to public markets in 2018. For context, the previous record was 39% growth.

The engine? AI servers. Dell's AI server revenue hit $16.1 billion, up 757% from a year ago. The company now expects full-year AI revenue of $60 billion, raised from a $50 billion projection in February. That would represent 144% annual growth.

Earnings per share came in at $4.86 adjusted versus the $2.94 expected. Net income more than tripled to $3.44 billion.

Dell stock was already up more than 150% for the year heading into Thursday's print, per CNBC. It jumped another 24% after hours.

President Trump is a Dell shareholder, per U.S. government ethics filings, having bought in during Q1. He publicly told people at a White House event to "go out and buy a Dell." The Pentagon announced a $9.7 billion five-year contract with Dell for Microsoft 365 services the day before. Dell CEO Michael Dell and his wife Susan donated $6.25 billion to fund Trump Accounts for 25 million American children roughly five months ago. CNBC mentioned these connections.

Snowflake Killed the 'SaaSpocalypse' Narrative

Snowflake posted its best single trading day ever — shares closed up 36.5% — after the cloud data company beat on earnings and announced a $6 billion compute deal with Amazon Web Services over five years, according to CNBC.

Finance chief Michael Scarpelli told analysts that AI tools like Cortex Code are driving what he called a "step function change" in revenue potential.

Snowflake's fiscal Q2 guidance called for $1.415 billion to $1.420 billion in product revenue at a 12.5% adjusted operating margin — both above StreetAccount consensus estimates.

The result directly challenged a thesis that had been hammering software stocks for months: the idea that AI tools replacing traditional software-as-a-service would trigger a so-called "SaaSpocalypse." That fear had driven a massive sector selloff, per CNBC. Thursday reversed it hard.

ServiceNow and Oracle gained over 6%. Palantir jumped more than 8%. Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, and Atlassian all gained at least 3%. Okta beat estimates separately and climbed 14% after hours — CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that agentic AI is spiking demand for identity security tools.

Salesforce was the outlier. It sank slightly after posting weak guidance. Not every company wins the AI trade.

The Iran Deal — Unconfirmed, Unpriced, Unresolved

Stocks hit their session highs Thursday afternoon after Axios reported — citing two U.S. officials and a regional source — that American and Iranian negotiators agreed to a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire and continue nuclear talks.

Critical detail: Trump has NOT approved it yet, per the Axios report as cited by CNBC and Yahoo Finance.

This came after a chaotic 48 hours. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Thursday it targeted a U.S. airbase, per the Tasnim News Agency as reported by CNBC. The U.S. military had previously conducted strikes on an Iranian military site. U.S. forces also carried out what Central Command called "self-defense" strikes in southern Iran against missile launch sites and boats placing mines, according to Analytics Insight.

Oil markets whipsawed. WTI crude settled up about 0.3% at $88.90 a barrel. Brent fell 0.6% to $93.71. Both had been higher earlier in the session.

David Wagner, head of equities at Aptus Capital Advisors, told CNBC the market "has been expecting some type of MOU here" and that consumer discretionary names would run first on any deal confirmation.

Markets are pricing in hope on a deal that isn't signed.

The Inflation Number Nobody Wants to Talk About

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the Personal Consumption Expenditures index rose 0.4% in April — slightly below the 0.5% economists polled by Dow Jones expected, per CNBC. The 12-month rate held at 3.8%.

The Economic Times flagged something the U.S. financial press largely soft-pedaled: inflation hit a three-year high in this reading, and GDP growth was revised lower. Markets celebrated the monthly number coming in a tick below estimates. But 3.8% annual PCE inflation with slowing growth signals the economy faces headwinds.

The Fed is not cutting rates into that environment.

The Takeaway

The AI spending cycle is accelerating, not plateauing. Dell's numbers prove it at the hardware layer. Snowflake proves it at the software layer. Okta proves it at the security layer. The market is repricing this reality in real time.

But two things are true simultaneously: earnings are genuinely strong, and a war in the Middle East is one Trump decision away from escalating. The Iran MOU is unsigned. Oil is still elevated. Inflation is still running hot.

Record closes are real. So is the risk underneath them.