🚀 Softbank skyrockets at Japense Tech soars

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Market Overview
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Year To Date Performances:

1. SoftBank Group shares skyrocketed 16.5% on Thursday, marking their best performance in six years as Japanese markets reopened from an extended Golden Week holiday to a massive AI-fueled rally. The surge propelled the Nikkei 225 to fresh record highs, with SoftBank serving as a primary beneficiary due to its strategic positioning as a proxy for both OpenAI and Arm Holdings. Investors are increasingly betting on the massive hardware requirements of agentic AI and inference workloads, a trend that also lifted semiconductor giants Tokyo Electron and Advantest by 9.2% and 7.8% respectively. This local excitement mirrors a record-breaking streak on the Nasdaq, where significant gains from AMD and Super Micro Computer have signalled a robust long-term outlook for data center infrastructure. Market analysts suggest that with the addressable market for data center CPUs projected to reach $120 billion by 2030, SoftBank’s portfolio is uniquely situated at the center of the global AI build-out. The rally was further bolstered by a de-escalation of geopolitical tensions, allowing Japanese tech names to effectively price in multiple days of global optimism in a single session.

2. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of war in Iran has triggered a global jet fuel crisis, threatening to paralyze summer travel across Asia and Europe. With exports from the Persian Gulf—previously the world’s largest source of jet fuel—effectively halted, global shipments plunged 30% in April, sending prices in Europe soaring to $187 per barrel. The crisis is particularly acute because Asian refineries, which provide the bulk of alternative supplies, are struggling with a 90% loss of the Middle Eastern crude oil feedstocks required for production. Major carriers like Lufthansa have already pre-emptively slashed 20,000 flights through October, while industry leaders from Chevron and ConocoPhillips warn that the "grace period" provided by pre-war inventories is ending, likely leading to critical shortages by June or July. While U.S. refiners have surged exports to Europe by over 400% to fill the void, the scale of the disruption remains a "slow-motion car crash" that could take months to normalize even if hostilities cease, as the strait must be cleared of mines and global shipping lanes recalibrated.

3. Snap shares fell approximately 4% in after-hours trading following a first-quarter report that highlighted a cautious outlook and the termination of a high-profile $400 million partnership with AI startup Perplexity. Although the company returned to growth in daily active users, reaching 483 million, and narrowed its net loss by 36%, the loss of expected revenue from the Perplexity deal and ongoing geopolitical instability in the Middle East have cast a shadow over its second-quarter guidance. CEO Evan Spiegel is navigating this "AI-driven transformation" alongside aggressive cost-cutting measures, including a 16% workforce reduction announced in April, as the firm struggles to regain momentum with large North American advertisers. While rivals like Reddit and Alphabet reported surging revenues, Snap remains more vulnerable to the current operating environment, including the ripple effects of regional conflicts on advertising spend. The company’s projected second-quarter sales of $1.52 billion to $1.55 billion reflect these headwinds, signalling a challenging road ahead as it attempts to balance infrastructure investments with a more volatile global market.

   Headlines

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   2. Nvidia announced that it will invest up to $3.2 billion in Corning.