Market update for May 28, 2026. Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK) Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions. In today’s episode, Zaid covers: April PCE inflation hitting 3.8%, its hottest reading since 2023 Meta charging for AI and rolls out paid subscriptions for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp Salesforce beat on earnings but the stock barely moves Snowflake pops on a blowout quarter and a $6B Amazon deal Fun fact: just 10 companies now make up almost 40% of the entire S&amp;P 500

Fed’s Favorite Inflation Gauge Comes in Hot, Snowflake Beats AI Doomsday Narrative

The Rundown

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Rundown

## Participants

- **Zaid Admani** (Public.com)

## Transcript

Public.com presents The Rundown, your daily market update in 10 minutes. My name is Zaid Admani and today is Thursday, May 28th. In today's episode, we'll break down the latest inflation data and what it means for the Fed. We'll also tell you why Meta wants to start charging for extra features on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

Then we break down earnings from Salesforce and Snowflake. Finally, stick around to the end of the show to find out an insane stat about the 10 largest companies in the S&P 500. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks inched higher on Wednesday. The S&P 500 was up just 0.02%, while the Nasdaq was up 0.07%.

So basically a flat day, but it was enough for another record close for both these indices. Oil prices in Iran were the dominant storylines yesterday. Oil prices have been falling all week, actually. In fact, prices hit a six-week low because the market thought we were on the verge of a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But then overnight, the U.S. launched more strikes inside Iran. Then Iran retaliated by launching strikes on a U.S. airbase.

And just like that, oil is taking back up again. Brent crude is trading around $96 a barrel, while WTI is around $90 a barrel at the time of this recording. Now, to be fair, prices have come down from their wartime highs of over $120 a barrel. So the market is still betting on some kind of peace deal getting done. But oil is still more than 30% higher than it was before the war started. And that spike in energy prices is pushing up inflation.

That brings us to today. The PCE inflation report just came out this morning, which is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. And according to that report, inflation in April was up 3.8% year over year, which was right in line with expectations. But it's still the hottest it's been since 2023. But even if you strip out energy and food prices, which are volatile, right? Core PCE was up 3.3% in April. So that means that the impact of higher energy prices are spreading to other parts of the economy and driving up prices.

Now, there was one bright spot from this PCE report. The month-to-month numbers came in cooler than expected. So the price increases in April compared to March weren't as much as economists were expecting. And that could be a sign that the worst of the inflation surge due to the Iran war could be behind us. We'll have to see how this plays out and how the Fed reacts to it. I still think the Fed is in a tough spot here. With these inflation numbers, it's going to be hard for new Fed chair Kevin Warsh to convince his fellow Fed governors to back a rate cut anytime soon.

In fact, there seems to be a growing camp of Fed governors that might be pushing for a rate hike soon. The market is actually pricing in a 50% chance of a rate hike before the end of the year. I'm not quite sure if we'll g...

Fed’s Favorite Inflation Gauge Comes in Hot, Snowflake Beats AI Doomsday Narrative

Transcript

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Fed’s Favorite Inflation Gauge Comes in Hot, Snowflake Beats AI Doomsday Narrative

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.