Pre-market briefing Pre-Market Briefing for June 1, 2026
Today at a Glance
Previous-Day Recap
Last Friday (5/29), the final trading day of May, saw the Dow gain 0.72% to 51,032, breaking above the 51,000 line for the first time ever, while the S&P 500 (+0.22%, 7,580) and Nasdaq (+0.20%, 26,973) notched fresh record highs. Over the month of May, the Nasdaq rose +8%, S&P +5%, and Dow +2%, wrapping up a strong month. Dell ($DELL) surged 32.76% on the back of AI server revenue exploding +757%, with IBM (+12.71%), Oracle (+10.84%), and Palantir (+9.24%) also posting sharp gains, but with nine sectors outside of tech and financials all declining, narrowing market breadth remains a caution flag. Oil prices recorded their largest monthly drop since 2020 on a U.S.–Iran ceasefire extension agreement.
Current Market Sentiment
As of Monday evening KST, U.S. futures are opening higher on news of NVIDIA's entry into the PC market and accelerating hedge-fund buying. S&P 500 futures +0.17%, Nasdaq 100 futures +0.34%, Dow futures +0.11%, with risk appetite opening the first trading day of June on a strong note. Overnight in Taipei, NVIDIA unveiled the RTX Spark PC superchip (ARM-based N1X), directly challenging Intel and AMD's x86 camp, while Goldman Sachs issued a note stating, "last week, hedge funds bought equities at the fastest pace since November." Renewed Middle East tensions pushed WTI crude to rebound at the open, but AI momentum appears to be overshadowing geopolitical concerns. Today's two inflection points are the May ISM Manufacturing PMI at 23:00 KST and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ($HPE) earnings after the close.
Pre-Market News Roundup
Today's Events
Today serves as the warm-up stage of "Employment Week," with mega-cap earnings relatively quiet, but two key AI-infrastructure names report back-to-back after the close.
Macro Calendar
The first release of "Employment Week" comes tonight.
Consensus 53.0 (prior 52.7). Whether it holds comfortably in double digits above 50 is the first key question, and among sub-indices, new orders and employment serve as previews for Friday's NFP. A beat reinforces the "manufacturing recovery + strong employment" scenario, adding justification for the FOMC to hold rates steady in June, while a miss could revive rate-cut expectations alongside bond strength. It will also be worth watching whether AI-infrastructure capex is beginning to be meaningfully reflected in manufacturing new orders.
Ex-Dividend
Stocks in Focus
Three names where today's earnings and momentum intersect:
Today's Action Guide
Stay steady today, and have a great start to the week.
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