Stocks rise, yields ease on signs of U.S.-Iran progress

May 23, 2026

Summary

Global stocks rose and Treasury yields fell as investors weighed signs of progress in U.S.-Iran talks amid ongoing energy-price concerns.

Why this matters

The story shows how diplomatic developments in the Iran conflict were shaping global markets, bond yields, and oil prices. It also highlights investor concern that energy disruptions could increase inflation and affect monetary policy.

Major stock indexes rose and U.S. Treasury yields fell on Friday as investors assessed signs of progress in talks aimed at ending the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Oil prices rose. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States had seen some progress toward a deal with Iran, but more work was needed. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said differences between the sides were deep and significant.

Pakistan’s military chief arrived in Tehran on Friday to continue mediation efforts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high, and the S&P 500 posted an eighth straight week of gains. European shares ended at their highest level in more than a month and recorded their biggest weekly gain in seven weeks.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note fell 2.6 basis points to 4.558%, from 4.584% late on Thursday. Earlier in the week, a sell-off pushed yields to multi-month or multi-year highs, with the 10-year yield reaching its highest level since January 2025 on Tuesday.

More top news

Business

Kash Patel clothing site taken offline after hack reports

On Friday, Trump Mobile confirmed it had left customers’ personal information exposed online.

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Based Apparel, a merchandise website associated with FBI Director Kash Patel, was taken offline Friday after reports that hackers had hijacked it to try to infect visitors with malware, Straight Arrow News first reported.

As of Friday, the website was offline.

On Thursday, an X user identified as Debbie posted that the brand’s website appeared to contain malware, specifically an infostealer, a type of malicious software designed to steal credentials and passwords. A security researcher later analyzed the malware.

The incident followed another security issue involving a business tied to President Donald Trump. On Friday, Trump Mobile, President Trump’s cell phone provider and phone maker, confirmed that it had left customers’ personal information exposed online, including names, email addresses, mailing addresses, cell phone numbers, and order identifiers.

That confirmation came days after a researcher alerted two YouTubers who had bought a Trump Mobile phone that their personal data was exposed online.
Finance & Markets

Stocks rise, yields ease on signs of U.S.-Iran progress

The Dow rose 294.04 points, or 0.58%, to 50,579.70. The S&P 500 gained 27.75 points, or 0.37%, to 7,473.47, and the Nasdaq Composite added 50.87 points, or 0.19%, to 26,343.97.

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Major stock indexes rose and U.S. Treasury yields fell on Friday as investors assessed signs of progress in talks aimed at ending the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Oil prices rose. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States had seen some progress toward a deal with Iran, but more work was needed. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said differences between the sides were deep and significant.

Pakistan’s military chief arrived in Tehran on Friday to continue mediation efforts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high, and the S&P 500 posted an eighth straight week of gains. European shares ended at their highest level in more than a month and recorded their biggest weekly gain in seven weeks.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note fell 2.6 basis points to 4.558%, from 4.584% late on Thursday. Earlier in the week, a sell-off pushed yields to multi-month or multi-year highs, with the 10-year yield reaching its highest level since January 2025 on Tuesday.
Finance & Markets

House panel probes insider trading on prediction markets

Kalshi said in April it suspended and fined three congressional candidates for “political insider trading” tied to bets on their own campaigns.

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The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether customers of Kalshi and Polymarket used nonpublic information to trade on the prediction market platforms.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer asked Polymarket Chief Executive Officer Shayne Coplan and Kalshi Chief Executive Officer Tarek Mansour on Friday for documents on how the companies verify account holders’ identities, enforce geographic restrictions, and monitor suspicious trading.

Prediction markets, which let users wager on a range of outcomes, have grown in popularity over the past 18 months. Critics have questioned whether some profitable trades were based on access to information not available to the public.

A spokesperson for Polymarket said the company maintains a comprehensive market integrity framework. Both companies said they looked forward to engaging with lawmakers.

In April, a U.S. soldier was charged with using classified information about the timing of the capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to make more than $400,000 trading on Polymarket. The company said it identified the trader and referred the matter to the Justice Department.

Scrutiny of possible insider trading has increased this year after a series of unusual trades ahead of President Donald Trump’s policy announcements. Lawmakers have raised those trades with regulators.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also begun investigating a series of trades in the oil futures market, Bloomberg News reported in April. The agency is leading that inquiry into trading on platforms owned by CME Group Inc. and Intercontinental Exchange Inc.
Finance & Markets

Chip stocks reach records as gains broaden beyond Nvidia

NVIDIA did not lead the gains; instead, its stock fell again on Friday and has lost more than $100 billion in market value over the past three sessions.

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Chip stocks returned to intraday record highs Friday after a quick reversal from last week’s pullback.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) reached its first intraday record high since May 11, extending a three-day rally after a three-day slide that began late last week.

Qualcomm (QCOM) led Friday’s advance, rising more than 12% on the day and nearly 20% over the past three sessions.

Recent gains instead spread across other semiconductor companies. Over the last three sessions, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) added nearly $100 billion in market value. Arm Holdings (ARM) and Micron Technology (MU) each added close to $90 billion.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) and ASML (ASML) each added more than $70 billion, while Intel (INTC) added more than $50 billion.

The move also extended to smaller, more volatile chip stocks. Navitas Semiconductor (NVTS) rose nearly 18% Friday, Vishay Intertechnology (VSH) gained more than 10%, and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) climbed nearly 10%.

Broadcom (AVGO) was an exception. It fell Friday and remained lower over the three-day rebound.
Tech & Artificial Intelligence

SpaceX Starship V3 completes first test flight

The launch was the first for the V3 versions of both Starship and its Super Heavy booster, and the first from a new launch pad built for the more powerful rocket.

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SpaceX on Friday completed the 12th uncrewed test flight of its Starship rocket, marking the first flight of the upgraded V3 version.

The test lasted about an hour. Starship re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down in the Indian Ocean, nose up as planned, after what appeared to be a successful flight. The lower-stage Super Heavy booster landed separately in the Gulf of Mexico about six minutes after liftoff.

The vehicle lifted off at about 5:30 p.m. CT (2230 GMT) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas.

During the suborbital flight, Starship deployed 20 mock Starlink satellites one by one. It also released two modified satellites that scanned the spacecraft’s heat shield and transmitted data to ground operators during descent.

SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion developing Starship as a fully reusable spacecraft. The company said the vehicle is intended to support more frequent Starlink launches and future NASA moon missions.

The outcome could influence investor confidence ahead of SpaceX’s initial public offering next month, which is expected to be the largest on record. Starship is central to Elon Musk’s goals of lowering launch costs, expanding Starlink, and pursuing broader space and orbital projects tied to a targeted $1.75 trillion valuation.
World

CDC bars some green card holders over Ebola risk

U.S. citizens must return through Washington Dulles International Airport, where enhanced screening protocols are in place.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it was expanding its authority to prevent people from entering the United States “in the interest of public health,” including lawful permanent U.S. residents, citing the current Ebola outbreak.

Under an interim final rule, lawful permanent residents who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the previous 21 days are barred from entering the United States through mid-June, the agency said.

“The rule does not permanently bar lawful permanent residents from returning to the United States,” the CDC said in a Friday statement. “Instead, it gives CDC discretionary authority to restrict entry when needed and allowed by law.”

The move expanded existing CDC travel restrictions tied to the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has no approved vaccine or treatments. On Monday, the CDC said foreigners who had been in the three countries within the previous three weeks were barred from entering the United States.

The restrictions are among the most extensive the United States has used during an Ebola outbreak. More than 30 Ebola outbreaks have been recorded since the disease was identified in the 1970s, including the 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people.

Earlier this week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection forced an Air France flight carrying a passenger from Congo to land in Montreal instead of Detroit, according to a New York Times report.

The CDC said the current outbreak had resulted in more than 700 suspected cases and more than 150 suspected deaths, nearly all in Congo.

Officials at the World Health Organization, part of the United Nations, said they feared Ebola had spread for months before it was detected, in part because officials were not initially testing for the Bundibugyo strain.
US

Judge dismisses indictment against Kilmar Ábrego

Ábrego said he was charged in retaliation for suing the U.S. government after he was sent to El Salvador in March 2025.

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A U.S. judge on Friday dismissed a criminal indictment against Kilmar Ábrego García, finding the Trump administration had not shown it would have prosecuted him if he had not challenged his deportation.

U.S. District Judge Waverly David Crenshaw Jr. in Tennessee rejected Ábrego’s claim of “actual vindictiveness,” a high legal standard, but said there was sufficient evidence of “presumptive vindictiveness” to dismiss the human smuggling charges. Crenshaw cited the timing of the indictment, statements by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and oversight by senior Justice Department officials.

Ábrego pleaded not guilty and argued prosecutors charged him in retaliation for suing the U.S. government after he was sent to El Salvador in March 2025 despite a prior court order barring his return there because of a risk of persecution.

The Trump administration later said Ábrego had been sent there by “administrative error.” He was among 261 people, mostly Venezuelans, deported on March 15, 2025, to El Salvador’s Cecot prison, despite a federal judge’s order to halt the flights and accusations of human rights abuses at the prison.

The White House had opposed returning Ábrego to the United States, but he was brought back in June after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return. Prosecutors had secured the indictment based on a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee before he was returned.

Ábrego, 30, grew up in El Salvador and fled at 16 because a local gang extorted and terrorized his family, according to court records. He went to Maryland, where his brother is a U.S. citizen, found construction work, and later met his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura.

Court records said Ábrego was detained by local police in Maryland in 2019 while seeking day labor work at a Home Depot. In 2022, police in Tennessee stopped him for speeding while he was driving a car registered to a Texas man convicted of “the illegal transportation of aliens.”
US

San Francisco immigration court closes, cases shift

San Francisco had the third-highest number of asylum cases; from 2019 to 2024, nearly 75% of petitioners received some form of relief, compared with 43% nationwide.

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San Francisco’s main immigration court closed May 1 after most of its judges were fired, retired, or resigned, shifting most of its 117,000 cases to Concord, about 30 miles away.

The court had 21 judges when President Donald Trump was sworn in last year. It had two left when it closed. Those judges will keep working from another federal building in San Francisco, but as part of an immigration court across the bay.

The closure reflected broader changes in the immigration court system as the administration sought to reduce a backlog of 3.8 million asylum cases and increase deportations. According to advocates and former judges, asylum denial rates rose after the administration fired nearly 100 judges it viewed as too liberal and approved the use of hundreds of military lawyers to replace them. Immigrants also have been arrested at courthouses and government offices during scheduled appearances.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Justice Department office that oversees immigration courts, said in March that it would close the San Francisco courthouse in 2027 as a cost-saving measure and move cases to Concord. In a statement, it said only that it had decided not to renew the lease and does not comment on personnel matters.
US Politics

Kevin Warsh sworn in as Federal Reserve chair

Trump said he wanted Warsh to be independent in leading the central bank.

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Kevin Warsh was sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve.

In remarks announcing Warsh’s leadership, President Donald Trump said Warsh became the youngest Federal Reserve governor at age 35 and has been a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution for the past 15 years.

“I want Kevin to be totally independent. I want him to be independent and just do a great job. Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody, just do your own thing and do a great job,” Trump said.
World Politics

WHO members decline action on Argentina withdrawal

Argentina, a G20 country, was a relatively small contributor to the WHO budget. Its membership fees for 2024 and 2025 were about $4.1 million a year.

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At the 79th World Health Assembly, member states agreed by consensus that no further action was needed on Argentina’s notice that it will leave the World Health Organization.

The assembly noted a March 17, 2025, communication to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stating that Argentina would withdraw from the WHO effective one year after receipt of the letter.

In a brief resolution adopted Friday, the assembly said that while the WHO would always welcome Argentina’s full cooperation, “it is not considered that any further action at this stage is desirable.” Norway and Paraguay led work on the compromise text.

A January report by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled that in 1949 and 1950, seven member states, including the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria, said they no longer considered themselves members. When they resumed participation, the assembly decided they would make a “token payment” for the period when their membership was inactive. The resolution adopted Friday used the same language as the assembly did in 1950.

Sigrid Kranawetter, the WHO’s director for governing bodies, said: “I don’t like to use the word withdrawal because it’s legally not correct.”

The WHO is “not a social club” and “you don’t stop your membership,” Kranawetter said.

“There is no need for anyone who accepts the WHO constitution to withdraw from it, because you do not give up any part of your sovereignty when you accept the WHO constitution.

“If you stop engaging, if you stop working, that is the prerogative of a sovereign state. You can do that any time.”

During the assembly, China asked whether departing members could still participate in WHO frameworks. Its representative said, “Global public health is a whole and cannot be divided; no country can stay out of it.”