5 Things to Watch on
May 15, 2026

Stocks are trending sharply lower in premarket trading, down more than -1.2%, after investors came away underwhelmed by the results of President Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Despite warm optics and sweeping rhetoric from both sides, the two-day meeting produced few concrete agreements on trade, Iran, or semiconductor exports.

A filing with the Office of Government Ethics revealed President Trump made at least $220M in stock and bond transactions in Q1, including purchases of up to $5M each in Nvidia (NVDA), Boeing (BA), Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Costco (COST), alongside six transactions involving Intel (INTC). The largest single moves came on Feb. 10, when Trump sold between $5M and $25M each in MSFT, Meta Platforms (META), and Amazon (AMZN). The White House said independent financial managers executed the trades using index-replication programs, with neither Trump nor his family directing any of the activity.

Cerebras Systems (CBRS) priced its IPO at $185 per share, opened at $350 on the Nasdaq, and closed at $311 after orders covered more than 20 times the shares available, raising $5.55B in total proceeds. Arm Holdings (ARM) and SoftBank (SFTBY) reportedly made late acquisition bids before the listing but were turned away. CBRS posted $510M in 2025 revenue, up +76% YoY, with a $24.6B backlog anchored by a $20B OpenAI deal, and its flagship WSE-3 chip claims to deliver AI inference up to 15 times faster than leading Nvidia (NVDA) GPU solutions.

Pershing Square (PS) CEO Bill Ackman disclosed a new Microsoft (MSFT) position ahead of its upcoming 13F filing, calling MSFT "highly compelling" at current valuations, with its newly launched PSUS (PSUS) fund also holding the stock as a core position. Ackman argued that investor concerns over M365's competitive positioning against AI alternatives and Azure's growth durability are overblown, citing MSFT's deep enterprise integration and security infrastructure as near-impossible to replicate. MSFT shares turned positive in premarket trading following the announcement.

Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) will develop a $1.7B Sphere venue on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, partnering with the emirate's Department of Culture and Tourism on a project targeted for completion by end of 2029. The venue will accommodate up to 20K guests and host immersive experiences, concert residencies, and live events across flexible configurations. CEO James Dolan called it the "first step in realizing our vision for a global network of venues," with SPHR also planning a smaller-scale venue near Washington, D.C.