Investors are currently navigating the fog of war, but whenever it clears the future of the U.S. stock market looks bright.
Confidence in the near-term prospects may be brittle -- and at the mercy of developments in the Middle East -- but several bullish signs have emerged that should give rise to longer-term optimism.
Highflying Korean tech company SK Hynix said Wednesday it's planning to list in the U.S. in 2026 and has already filed for an American depositary receipt listing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
While it's looking to raise funds to capitalize on the memory-chip and AI boom, the listing -- and its timing -- is a vote of confidence in the U.S. market.
So is Meta Platforms' ambitious $9 trillion valuation target. The Facebook owner revealed a new executive pay plan, including stock options that will be fully realized only if the share price climbs around 500% by 2031.
It's certainly bold, and even outpaces the requirements Elon Musk must meet to trigger his $1 trillion pay package. But if you shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars -- or however the saying goes.
On that theme, SpaceX's mega IPO is coming into orbit and could even be filed for this week, according to a report Wednesday. A successful launch could give the market some much-needed rocket fuel.
It's not all rosy, though. OpenAI, the linchpin of many AI deals, has shut down its Sora video app. It also means the end for the company's $1 billion content partnership with Disney. But it looks to be refocusing its priorities ahead of its own potential IPO -- another opportunity for stocks.
War-weary investors awaiting Iran's response to President Donald Trump's 15-point peace plan may want to look through the current gloom to a tomorrow that seems increasingly brighter for markets.
-- Callum Keown
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Oil Prices Projected to Keep Rising Unless Strait Reopens
Even after the Iran War ends, it will take months for Iran and its Middle East neighbors to return to their full pre-war oil production levels, Shaikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, the CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, told the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. Many expect oil prices to keep rising.
-- Analysts estimate that more than six million barrels of oil production a
day, and perhaps more, has already been shut in by Gulf countries. U.S.
and European oil prices are trading around $100 now, and Middle East oil
prices are trading over $180 a barrel.
-- Al-Sabah said attempts to reroute oil supplies around Iran's blockage of
the Strait of Hormuz are "not even a stopgap." Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates are using pipelines to reroute oil away from the
strait, while the U.S. and others are releasing strategic petroleum
reserves.
-- Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company,
said there is no alternative to fully reopening the strait. "This is not
a supply issue. It is a security issue," he said. "We cannot trade our
way out of this crisis."
-- Average gasoline prices hovered near $4 a gallon on Tuesday, for the
first time since 2022. Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum
analysis, said that until the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened and
ships are able to move freely, prices could go even higher.
What's Next: Energy intelligence company Enverus expects international oil prices to average $95 in 2026 and $100 in 2027. Oil analysts anticipate that absent a quick resolution, Europe and the U.S. could start seeing prices that look more like the $180 levels in the Middle East.
-- Avi Salzman and Janet H. Cho
Shutdown Deal Nears. Relief for Air Travelers, TSA Workers Looms.
Transportation Security Administration workers may finally have a reason to expect a paycheck soon. Republican senators presented Democrats with their most promising deal yet on Tuesday to end the 38-day partial government shutdown that has left the security agents without pay and air travelers standing in long lines.
-- The deal would fund the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, but it would exclude the migrant-removal activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another DHS agency. ICE funding would be broken off into a separate package and passed through reconciliation at a later date. -- A group of Senate Republicans discussed this option with President Donald Trump on Monday evening after another tumultuous day at airports across the country, where some passengers waited for hours in TSA security lines that stretched into airport parking garages. -- Hundreds of the TSA's 50,000 employees have either called out of work or quit during the current shutdown. Major airlines have canceled flights because of it, and shares of Southwest, United Airlines, JetBlue, Frontier, and American Airlines are down. The deal represents an about-face for Trump. -- But after shifting views, Trump seemed to have cooled on it Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters he would take a hard look at the Republicans' proposal, but that "any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with." He had wanted to tie the funding to a voter-ID proposal he favors.
What's Next: Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, needs roughly seven Democrats on board to pass a DHS funding bill. The voter-ID bill is a trickier issue. No Senate Democrats support it. Any DHS funding deal will also need to be approved by the House.
-- Emily Russell
Arm Holdings to Make Its Own AI Chips in Strategy Shift
Arm Holdings revealed a new artificial intelligence data center CPU chip that is going to put itself in direct competition with notable customers including Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft. The product could boost revenue and represents a significant shift in its strategy.
-- At its core, Arm makes intellectual property that chip makers license to
build their own chips. Arm customers also include Apple, Qualcomm,
Samsung, and Broadcom. Just about every smartphone, tablet and even Mac
computers run on top of Arm designs. This is the first time Arm will make
a chip.
-- Meta Platforms, OpenAI, and smaller firms will be the first customers for
the chip, called Arm AGI CPU. Meta's head of infrastructure Santosh
Janardhan said they worked to develop the Arm AGI CPU to deploy an
efficient compute platform that significantly improves its data center
performance density.
-- The new chips will compete with data center CPUs from Intel and Advanced
Micro Devices, which are based on different intellectual property called
x86, plus other Arm-based chips at the big cloud companies. Amazon Web
Services introduced Arm into the data center with its first Graviton CPU
chip in 2018.
-- This represents the most dramatic change in the business model since Arm
was founded in 1990 as an Apple joint venture with two other companies.
But it may be needed. x86 licenses from Intel and AMD are not forthcoming
and the open-source RISC-V chip architecture may not be mature enough.
What's Next: Arm CEO Rene Haas told reporters that as for competing with customers, the market has room enough for others. Since Haas became CEO in 2022, Arm has been aggressively pursuing revenue growth through price hikes and bundling, and the latest gambit is another move to keep that momentum going.
-- Adam Levine
HP Inc. Announces AI Updates. Your Turn, Apple.
HP Inc. announced a new artificial-intelligence update at its Imagine event on Tuesday in New York City, making it even more crucial for Apple to showcase its own AI updates sooner rather than later.
-- HP IQ -- which is scheduled for release in the spring -- is an AI tool
that will appear as a text bar at the top of users' screens. People will
be able to ask questions about personal files such as PDFs or PowerPoint
presentations. HP IQ will respond with in-depth answers and also offer
suggestions for what to do next.
-- Executives also highlighted that this AI will be run on-device, meaning
the data shared with the tool won't be sent to the cloud. That could be
attractive for people or businesses worried about data security.
-- HP stock could use a boost. On top of a sudden CEO departure in February,
the company has been dealing with the rising cost of memory. HP's latest
announcements turn up the heat for Apple to deliver exciting AI updates
of their own.
-- Tech investors are hoping to get more AI updates in the weeks ahead. All
eyes are now turning to Apple, which announced on Monday night that its
annual Worldwide Developers Conference is returning on June 8, and "will
spotlight incredible updates for Apple platforms, including AI
advancements."
What's Next: To date, Apple has been able to get away with its limited AI updates as iPhone demand is strong and services revenue is growing. That might not last if Apple doesn't deliver on the AI front soon, though. HP's latest announcement puts even more pressure on Apple to get its own AI improvements into the hands of consumers.
-- Angela Palumbo and Alex Kozul-Wright
Apollo Latest to Cap Cash-Outs at Private Credit Fund
The latest private debt fund to limit redemptions by its wealthy investors is the $25 billion Apollo Debt Solutions. It's another example of investors rushing to the exits of nontraded funds as they worry about interest rates, private asset estimates, and the quality of loans to software companies that face pressure from AI.
-- Investors sought to withdraw $1.6 billion, or some 11.5% of its $15
billion in net assets (after accounting for the fund's own debt). But
Apollo Global Management will limit its repurchase of investor shares to
the 5% that most nontraded funds commit to cash out in a quarter. That
means redeeming investors will get about $730 million.
-- In a letter to investors, the fund warned that it plans to repurchase
just 5% in the next quarter, too. It acknowledged the volatility and
scrutiny of private credit as an asset class this year. The fund's 5%
redemption limits are designed to match investors' cash commitment to the
five-year term of the fund's typical loan.
-- Nontraded funds at BlackRock and Morgan Stanley have also limited
redemptions, while the Blackstone Secured Lending fund and Blue Owl
Capital Corp. have had to stretch to cash out more than their quarterly
5% limits. Nontraded loan funds are marketed mainly to wealthy
individuals.
-- Apollo's letter took pains to reassure its investors that its business is
solid. Many funds borrow an amount about equal to their equity to juice
up returns; Apollo Debt Solutions levers itself just 60%. It has reduced
its exposure to the software industry.
What's Next: One of the more troubled credit firms is FS KKR Capital Corp., or FSK. It's a $13 billion publicly traded fund run by Franklin Square Holdings and the private-asset manager KKR. Moody's Ratings downgraded FSK's own debt to Ba1 from Baa3. FSK says it can meet all its obligations.
-- Bill Alpert
Dear Quentin,
A few weeks ago, funds appeared in my PayPal account from the Philippines.
It was a small amount. The transaction included an email address and listed two phone numbers to call if I had not authorized it. I looked up PayPal's number using another source and saw that it matched the first number in the email. A bot answered and wasn't helpful.
So I tried the second number in the email, even though I couldn't confirm it was a legitimate PayPal number. It was answered by a human who said, "Security." Not wanting to be scammed, I said I was calling to report a fraudulent charge, but I never mentioned PayPal or the charge.
The person I spoke to seemed to know who I was -- possibly from caller ID -- and appeared to have information about me and the fraudulent charge. I know my information is on the dark web, and I have taken steps to be cautious.
When he said he needed to take remote control of my computer, I knew I was talking to scammers, not PayPal. I told him I felt like I was in over my head and mentioned that my husband was a police officer who would be home in 20 minutes. They hung up on me.
I then called the first number again, reached the bot, and followed the instructions to submit a fraud review. It was decided in the scammers' favor! The review is now closed, and although I can request another review, I don't have any additional information to provide.
I changed the email and password associated with my PayPal account. I now want to close the account, but the company won't allow me to do so because I have an active $5 rebate that was added years ago. It turns out that to access the $5, I need to link to a bank account.
How do I reach a real person at PayPal, use the $5 rebate or remove my Discover card (PayPal won't allow me to remove it without adding a replacement card)? I have an older credit card I could add to PayPal and then cancel a day later.
Any advice?
-- Pay Pal Customer
Read the Moneyist's response here.
-- Quentin Fottrell
-- Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O'Donnell, Rupert Steiner
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 25, 2026 06:46 ET (10:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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