PRIMED UP DAILY
May 22, 2026
Top 5 Headlines
Markets Up Eight Weeks. Oil Says Good Luck.
Eight straight weeks of S&P 500 gains and a fresh Dow record, and the whole thing is one blown diplomatic session away from a crater. The market is pricing in hope on U.S.-Iran talks while oil is already sitting at $98 a barrel. That is not a stable foundation. That is a house of cards dressed up in a suit.
Brent crude at $105.35 is screaming that energy markets do not believe the optimism. “Cautious optimism” is Wall Street’s way of saying they are riding the wave and praying nobody asks hard questions about the Strait of Hormuz.
Gold sliding while the dollar holds at 99.32 means the “safe haven” crowd is temporarily standing down. That is not confidence. That is complacency. The second those Iran talks go sideways, every one of these green numbers flips red before lunch.
Trump and Rubio Want to Invade Cuba Now
Rubio, whose entire political identity is built around hating Cuba, is now the Secretary of State actively threatening a sovereign nation with military force. The fox is not just in the henhouse. The fox is holding the deed.
Trump told reporters out loud, on camera, that he will “be the one” to finally intervene in Cuba and that he would be “happy” to do it. Happy. That is how he described the prospect of military action against a country ninety miles from Florida.
They already kidnapped Venezuela’s elected president in January and flew him to the U.S. on narcoterrorism charges. Cuba is watching that exact playbook getting dusted off right now and China and Russia are both telling Washington to back the fuck off. Nobody in this administration seems to give a shit.
Memorial Day: War Abroad, Broke at Home
Over $100 billion spent on Middle East military operations and the Strait of Hormuz is still effectively blocked. Iran is pulling this off with drones, mines, and fast attack boats at a fraction of the cost. The U.S. is hemorrhaging money to maintain a tense, unresolved stalemate and calling it strategy.
Gas is $4.56 a gallon nationally versus $3.18 this time last year. Americans are collectively burning through an extra $3.5 billion just to drive over this one holiday weekend. That money does not come back.
Week-long beach rentals are up 53% and one in three Americans had to cancel or gut their vacation plans entirely. The wealthy are booking fine. Everyone else is getting priced out of a week at the fucking shore.
Shrinkflation is the quiet knife nobody talks about enough. Same price on the shelf, 20 to 30% less product in the package. That is a hidden price hike of up to 100% on actual volume and Washington is not saying a word about it.
Republicans Killed Trump's $1.8B Slush Fund
The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was $1.776 billion in taxpayer money controlled entirely by five people hand-picked by Trump’s own Acting Attorney General. That is not a fund. That is a personal ATM with a loyalist PIN code.
Mike Lindell and January 6th participants were already flooding the application queue before the fund was even officially open. The line formed before the door unlocked.
Senate Republicans did not block this out of principle. They blocked it because it was so nakedly corrupt that they knew it would torch them with their own voters in an election year. Pure political self-preservation. Zero moral backbone required.
Anytime the MAGA right is going to lose, little Midget Mike Johnson pulls this bullshit to protect his Daddy, the pederast Trump. Sick fucks don’t give a shit about democracy or your life. They only care about covering up the Epstein Files.
Trump's Fed Pick: Billionaire, White House Puppet
Moving the swearing-in to the White House instead of the Fed’s own building is not a tradition. It has not happened in 40 years. It is a deliberate visual message that the central bank now answers to the Oval Office. The erosion of Fed independence is not a theory anymore. It is a ceremony.
Warsh’s father-in-law is Ronald Lauder, one of Trump’s oldest billionaire allies and the same ass clown who sold Trump on trying to buy Greenland. The conflict of interest here is not subtle. It is structural.
“Ironically” Estee Lauder (EL), owned by Ronald Lauder, is the leading stock in premarket ahead of his little bitch boy being sworn in to massage Trump’s balls.
Trump installed Warsh expecting immediate rate cuts. Instead, wholesale inflation is running at 6% annually because of the Iran war and Wall Street is now pricing in an 84% chance the Fed actually has to raise rates. Mortgages, car loans, and credit card debt all get more punishing if that happens. The guy was set up to fail before he was sworn in.
While families are drowning in war-driven inflation, Warsh’s opening priority is restructuring the Fed’s internal bureaucracy and cutting staff. Consumer relief is not the agenda. Institutional control is.
Corporate Heat
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - Lisa Su basically showed up in Taiwan saying what traders have been seeing for months: demand for CPUs is absolutely ripping and the industry underestimated just how hungry customers would be. AMD is scrambling to crank production higher after meeting with major customers in China and around the world. The CPU market is so damn tight that AMD expects supply increases every quarter through the rest of the year, with even bigger capacity expansions lined up for 2027 and beyond. Translation: demand is outrunning supply, and that’s usually not the kind of problem companies hate having.
Apple (AAPL) - Apple is taking its App Store war with Epic Games straight to the Supreme Court because it doesn’t want to eat a contempt ruling tied to fees on outside purchases. The company is arguing that a lawsuit brought by Epic shouldn’t suddenly become law for millions of developers who weren’t even part of the case. Apple is also saying it shouldn’t get smacked for violating the “spirit” of an injunction when the actual language didn’t specifically ban what it was doing. Same fight, bigger stage, more lawyers billing enough money to buy small islands.
Biogen (BIIB) - Biogen and Denali just got punched in the face by reality after their Parkinson’s drug BIIB122 completely whiffed its primary goal in a late-stage study. The drug failed to slow disease progression versus placebo and didn’t deliver on key secondary measures either. Denali isn’t throwing the whole thing in the trash yet and plans to keep testing it in patients with a specific genetic mutation, but for the broader Parkinson’s population this one was a brick.
Cencora (COR) - Cencora gave investors what they love most: higher guidance and a bigger buyback. The drug distributor nudged up the low end of its 2026 earnings outlook and then tossed another $2 billion stock repurchase authorization on the pile. The company has already been buying back shares aggressively and management is basically telling shareholders, “Yeah, we like the stock too.”
Citigroup (C) - Citi is putting more chips on Asia as its wealth management business there keeps growing faster and printing better numbers than other regions. The bank plans to hire around 100 private bankers globally and hundreds of additional specialists, with a big chunk of those hires headed toward Asia. When management starts following the money this aggressively, it’s usually because the opportunity is too juicy to ignore.
Devon Energy (DVN) - Devon dropped about $2.6 billion to grab prime undeveloped acreage in the Delaware Basin, doubling down on one of the best shale neighborhoods in America. Not everybody is applauding though. Some analysts think Devon paid a pretty spicy price for the land, with drilling locations working out to roughly $6.5 million each. Management clearly sees long-term value, while skeptics are looking at the receipt and asking if somebody got a little too excited at the auction.
Estée Lauder (EL) - Estée Lauder and Spain’s Puig walked away from merger talks, and investors actually seemed relieved. Analysts had been warning that a deal could dump a giant integration headache onto a company already trying to fix years of sales declines and market share erosion. Instead, management is sticking with its turnaround plan, focusing on store investments, closing weak locations, and getting its own house in order before trying to buy someone else’s.
FedEx (FDX) - FedEx is part of a consortium chasing parcel locker operator InPost in a roughly $9 billion deal that would expand its European footprint. The companies say they’ll remain independent competitors, but the transaction would help FedEx strengthen its position across Europe while creating a larger parcel locker network. Assuming regulators keep signing off, InPost eventually disappears from public markets and FedEx gets a bigger seat at the European delivery table.
Goldman Sachs (GS) - Goldman agreed to fork over $500 million to settle shareholder claims tied to the infamous 1MDB scandal. Investors accused the bank of misleading shareholders about its involvement with the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that became synonymous with corruption and financial chaos. Goldman isn’t admitting wrongdoing, but half a billion dollars isn’t exactly couch-cushion money either.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) - JPMorgan is reportedly looking to shift risk tied to more than $4 billion worth of loans connected to private equity funds. The idea is to keep the loans on its books while convincing investors to absorb part of the downside if things go sideways. In other words, classic Wall Street engineering: keep the assets, move some of the headaches somewhere else.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) - Lockheed broke ground on a massive new missile production facility in Alabama that will nearly double manufacturing capacity for programs including THAAD and the Next Generation Interceptor. The company says it’s part of an $8 billion to $9 billion investment plan through 2030. Defense spending isn’t exactly slowing down, and Lockheed is building like it knows it.
Meta Platforms (META) - Texas is suing Meta and WhatsApp, claiming the company misled users about the strength and scope of WhatsApp’s encryption. The lawsuit alleges Meta can access far more user communications than consumers have been led to believe. Meta says the claims are flat-out false and insists WhatsApp cannot read users’ encrypted messages. Now lawyers get to spend years arguing over who is full of shit.
Moderna (MRNA) - Moderna and Merck delivered some legitimately impressive cancer data. Their personalized cancer vaccine combined with Keytruda reduced the risk of melanoma spreading by 59% after five years and produced significantly stronger survival rates than Keytruda alone. Separately, Merck also got positive lung cancer data from a Keytruda combination study. This is the kind of pipeline news biotech investors actually wait around for.
Perpetua Resources (PPTA) - Perpetua landed approval for a monster $2.9 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to develop its Idaho antimony and gold project. The mine has Pentagon backing because America desperately wants domestic supplies of critical minerals instead of relying on foreign sources. If everything stays on schedule, Perpetua could become a major supplier of antimony while also cranking out a mountain of gold every year. That’s one hell of a financing win.
Ross Stores (ROST) - Ross raised both sales and earnings guidance after bargain-hunting shoppers kept flooding through the doors. The company said customer traffic increased across basically every demographic, from younger shoppers to higher-income consumers looking to save a few bucks. Inflation may still be punching wallets in the throat, but discount retailers keep benefiting from it.
Starbucks (SBUX) - Starbucks Korea found itself in hot water after a marketing campaign tied to “Tank Day” landed on the anniversary of the Gwangju uprising, one of South Korea’s most sensitive pro-democracy events. The backlash got so loud that the country’s Interior Ministry announced it would stop offering products from companies that trivialize democratic history. What probably looked like a harmless marketing idea in a conference room turned into a full-blown public relations own goal.
Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) - Take-Two reaffirmed the November 19 launch date for Grand Theft Auto VI, which is pretty much the only thing many investors wanted to hear. The problem is the company also projected bookings below Wall Street expectations. GTA VI is still expected to print money like a government with no budget discipline, but management’s broader forecast left some investors wanting more.
VinFast Auto (VFS) - North Carolina is suing VinFast, claiming the EV maker failed to follow through on commitments tied to a massive manufacturing project that was supposed to create thousands of jobs and attract billions in investment. According to the state, work on the site has basically been abandoned for more than a year. VinFast says it hasn’t received official documentation yet, but this situation is getting uglier by the day.
Workday (WDAY) - Workday beat revenue and profit expectations as demand for its AI-powered HR and finance tools continued gaining traction. The company says usage of its recruiting agent surged 44% year over year, showing customers are actually putting these AI tools to work instead of just listening to management throw around buzzwords on earnings calls. For now, the AI story appears to be translating into real business.
Zoom Communications (ZM) - Zoom raised both revenue and earnings guidance, expanded its buyback program by another $1 billion, and continued leaning hard into AI features. The company knows nobody gets excited about basic video meetings anymore, so it’s trying to turn itself into a broader productivity platform powered by AI agents and assistants. Investors liked the update enough to give management a little credit for finally finding new ways to grow beyond “remember when everyone was stuck at home?” mode.
Premarket Leaders
EL | Estee Lauder Cos. Cl A | 86.68 | 9.84%
WDAY | Workday Inc. Cl A | 131.34 | 7.79%
ZM | Zoom Communications Inc. | 104.12 | 7.62%
BAH | Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. | 80.71 | 5.71%
ROST | Ross Stores Inc. | 228.25 | 5.09%
FAF | First American Financial Corp. | 71.00 | 4.66%
ETR | Entergy Corp. | 116.83 | 4.06%
VRSK | Verisk Analytics Inc. | 178.47 | 4.00%
PTON | Peloton Interactive Inc. | 5.38 | 3.86%
MKSI | MKS Inc. | 324.80 | 3.72%
Premarket Laggards
WRB | W.R. Berkley Corp. | 45.72 | -32.24%
IAC | IAC Inc. | 38.17 | -7.29%
INSP | Inspire Medical Systems Inc. | 42.55 | -4.89%
DECK | Deckers Outdoor Corp. | 100.00 | -2.55%
DBX | Dropbox Inc. | 26.59 | -2.41%
NRG | NRG Energy Inc. | 133.65 | -2.39%
BIIB | Biogen Inc. | 185.00 | -2.36%
VYX | NCR Voyix Corp. | 6.22 | -2.35%
ADP | Automatic Data Processing Inc. | 215.30 | -2.17%
CC | Chemours Co. | 21.00 | -2.05%
Macro Calendar
Earnings Calendar
PRIME TAKE
Take Your Shots Early
Friday before a three-day weekend with half the street already mentally checked out and their phones in a beach bag, so volume is going to be thin as fuck and that cuts both ways. The pre-market futures look green across the board but do not let that lull you into a false sense of security because low-volume Fridays are where stops get hunted and fake breakouts go to thrive, and with oil at $98 and Iran talks that could blow up over a weekend tweet from the most unstable president in American history, you are just carrying risk in to a 72 hour blackout. take your shots early in the session when there is still some actual liquidity and volume to move in and out cleanly, book whatever profit you get before lunch, and do not be the idiot holding contracts into the ghost town that this afternoon is almost certainly going to be. The smart money either positioned earlier this week or is sitting on their hands today.
PRIMED UP Charts Of The Day
SPY
1 hour rising wedge could be showing us we are nearing a top, but volume will dictate the move here. If buyers show up and push this over the PMH we can take calls and target the ATH over the 749 level. If we lose the trendline support below puts is the easy move here, with a trip back to 740 area on the menu.
Calls over 745.25: 742c or 743c | PS 745c
Puts under 743.50: 737p or 736p | PS 734p
QQQ
30 minute rising channel/bear flag. Moving higher overnight before giving back some of those gains this morning. Still seeing the rising trendline acting as support for now, so as long as that holds calls is the look here. If that TL breaksdown then puts is the play.
Calls over 717.75: 719c or 720c | PS 721c
Puts under 716.00: 714p or 713p | PS 711p
TSLA
4 hour bull flag set up for a breakout or rejection of the trendline above heading in to open. This can run hard on a breakout, or flush back to 406 on a rejection.
Calls over 422.25: 425c or 430c | PS 435c
Puts under 418.50: 415p or 410p | PS 405p
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