Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and why.
Ed Yardeni just raised the bar on Wall Street. The veteran strategist lifted his year-end S&P five hundred target to eight thousand two hundred fifty, the most bullish call among major forecasters. He's pointing to strong earnings momentum and what he's calling a continuation of the Roaring Twenties thesis, suggesting this rally has fundamental legs beneath it.
Complicating that optimism, however, is the geopolitical picture. Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed the Iran conflict is not over, and oil markets are listening. Energy prices have climbed sharply since the war entered its second month, adding an inflationary wildcard that the Fed and equity bulls alike cannot afford to ignore.
And on the trade front, President Trump is set to land in Beijing on May fourteenth expecting leverage in the room. Analysts and observers are pushing back hard on that assumption. China has spent six years diversifying alliances and reducing dollar dependencies, and Treasury Secretary Bessent's recent public appeal to Beijing for help on the Strait of Hormuz signals Washington may be negotiating from a weaker hand than it appears.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
