5 Things to Watch on
March 17, 2026

Markets are trending higher, up more than +0.2% in premarket trading, as the war in the Middle East rages on and the Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day policy meeting. Adding to the geopolitical backdrop, President Trump has requested a delay to his planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, citing the need to remain in Washington to oversee military operations against Iran.

Nvidia (NVDA) is flat in premarket trading after CEO Jensen Huang, speaking at GTC, raised the projected purchase opportunity for Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips to $1T through 2027, doubling last year's $500B estimate. Huang also unveiled the Groq 3 LPU from its $20B Groq acquisition, capable of boosting Vera Rubin GPU token-per-watt performance by 35x when paired together, and previewed Kyber, the next rack architecture expected in 2027. On the autonomous vehicle front, Uber (UBER) will deploy Nvidia's Drive AV software across 28 cities by 2028, with BYD (BYDDY), Hyundai (005380), Nissan (NSANY) among the automakers building Level 4 vehicles on its Drive Hyperion platform.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) is up over +4% in premarket trading after CEO Ed Bastian confirmed the airline is maintaining its Q1 EPS guidance of $0.50-$0.90 and raising revenue guidance despite absorbing a $400M fuel cost hit from the Iran war. Demand has more than offset the headwind, with bookings up +25% YoY and eight of the top 10 sales days in company history occurring this quarter. DAL cited broad-based strength across main cabin, premium, and loyalty, with domestic and international unit revenues growing in the mid-single digits YoY.

Lumentum (LITE) and Coherent (COHR) both slipped roughly -4% in premarket trading after Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang reaffirmed the use of copper alongside co-packaged optics in upcoming Vera Rubin Ultra and Feynman server rack lines. NVDA advancing both copper and optical paths in parallel signals no near-term optical takeover, pressuring LITE and COHR while Credo Technology (CRDO), which makes active electrical cables, edged up nearly +1%.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) announced plans to open more than 130 new locations in California and roughly 15 in Arizona, growing its California footprint by more than +50% atop its existing 220 centers. Seven California locations open in 2026, targeting Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and San Diego, while Arizona additions focus on Phoenix and Tucson over five years. The expansion runs alongside BMO's separate agreement to sell 138 U.S. branches to First Citizens Bank & Trust (FCNCA) in lower-priority markets.