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According to The Wall Street Journal, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that they do not care about others' satisfaction, and are willing to defend national interests through combat or diplomatic mediation.
They responded to the U.S. peace proposal, demanding a comprehensive ceasefire and compensation for war damages, emphasizing control of the Strait of Hormuz to ensure oil transportation.
Iran is also willing to delay decisions related to its nuclear program until the right moment to facilitate a quick end to the war.
Trump called the proposal "completely unacceptable";
oil prices rose, with Brent crude hovering above $100 per barrel.

Cowboy Space Corp. founded by Baiju Bhatt announced the completion of Series B funding of $275 million, with a valuation of $2 billion. Index Ventures led the investment, with Blossom Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz participating. The company is headquartered in San Carlos, California, and was established in 2024, formerly known as Aetherflux. They plan to develop their own rockets, build data centers in orbit, compete with SpaceX, and aim for their first flight in 2028; Bhatt stated that the upper stage will become a satellite, and due to limited launch resources, they need to manufacture their own rockets, with plans to proceed with launches this year.

German energy giant E.ON Group announced that it plans to acquire the UK energy supplier Ovo Energy. The transaction is subject to approvals from regulators such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority, and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2026. Due to not meeting Ofgem’s higher requirements for financial resilience, Ovo is seeking external investment to improve its financial position, and the acquisition price has not been disclosed.

Kodiak's adjusted EPS for the first quarter of 2026 was $0.59, with revenue of $345.4 million, a 4.9% year-over-year increase, but below analysts' expectations of $355 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached $190.1 million, contract service revenue was $307 million, with a gross margin of 70.6%. In early April, the company completed the acquisition of distributed power solutions, adding approximately 260 MW of power generation capacity. The company raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $820–860 million, with a midpoint of $840 million, considering the contribution from acquisitions. As of March 31, the fleet utilization rate was 98.0%, and free cash flow was $126.5 million, a 9.0% increase year-over-year.

Rolls-Royce, according to Bloomberg, plans to issue euro-denominated bonds again, with maturities of 5 and 10 years, and the funds will be used for general corporate purposes to offset potential operational disruptions caused by Middle East conflicts and to maintain the 2026 guidance: underlying operating profit of £4 billion-£4.2 billion and free cash flow of £3.6 billion-£3.8 billion. The bonds are jointly arranged by multiple banks and will be roadshowed during investor conference calls.

VDP data shows that in the first quarter, housing prices in Germany increased by a total of 2.2%, with residential up 2.3%, office buildings up 1.9%, and retail up 1.5%. Although the Iran war has driven up energy prices, inflation, and financing costs, VDP CEO stated that based on first-quarter data, the impact on real estate is not yet obvious, and the effects remain to be seen.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon is planning its first issuance of Swiss franc bonds to fund artificial intelligence expenditures, enlisting BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan as underwriters, to be divided into six tranches with maturities ranging from 3 to 25 years. To finance AI infrastructure, European tech companies have recently also been issuing large-scale bonds to expand non-dollar channels; Alphabet raised approximately 3 billion Swiss francs in February this year, setting a record for the market, and Amazon’s euro bond issuance in March also broke records.

Investing.com - HSBC and investment research firm Yardeni Research have both raised their year-end target prices for the S&P 500, mainly driven by stronger-than-expected earnings growth during the current first-quarter earnings season.
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HSBC raised its S&P 500 target price for the end of 2026 from 7,500 points to 7,650 points, and increased its 2026 earnings per share (EPS) forecast by 8% to reflect the latest quarterly performance. The bank currently expects 2026 EPS growth of 20%, or $325, with the technology sector and the “Magnificent 7” still the main drivers.
Yardeni is even more optimistic, as the overall market’s earnings expectations have gone beyond its own prior optimistic forecasts,

UBS maintains a bullish outlook on the Korean won, stating that the won is undervalued and strong inflows of current account funds will push USD/KRW below 1,400 in the second half of 2026.
The won's undervaluation of export share exceeds 5%, and the JPY/KRW cycle-to-defensive stock relationship is high by 8%, with an expected export growth rate dominated by storage chips to exceed 250% year-on-year in 2026.
Current account surpluses or exceeding 10% of GDP, and Korean bonds entering the WGBI will drive capital inflows.
UBS also forecasts that the international balance of payments will improve by 5-6 percentage points compared to 2025 in 2026.

Investing.com -- The biotech company Cellular Intelligence, supported by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announced on Monday that it has acquired a cell therapy candidate for treating Parkinson's disease from Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
Novo Nordisk shut down its cell therapy division during a broader business restructuring in October last year, and subsequently ceased research and development of this therapy.
The specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to the biotech company, Novo Nordisk will receive equity in Cellular Intelligence and is expected to receive milestone payments and royalties in the future.
The therapy is called STEM-PD, an allogeneic stem cell-derived therapy designed to replace dopamine-producing neurons lost in Parkinson's patients. Parkinson's

Investing.com - Samsung Electronics' stock price has increased approximately 421% over the past year, but an analyst believes that investors do not need to be deterred by the large increase and points out that the current stock price is still the cheapest in history.
KB Securities analyst Jeff

Seco net sales in the first quarter were €48.5 million, up 3% year over year, driven by a rebound in orders in the industrial vertical and from Asia-Pacific and EMEA; however, rising operating costs and high memory prices weighed on profits. Adjusted EBITDA and net profit both declined, and the stock price fell by about 5% intraday. Clea platform recurring revenue increased 20% year over year, but some non-recurring income moved into deployment phases, causing total revenue to decline. The company expects second-quarter revenue to exceed €50 million, with demand for edge AI and Clea providing support, and the outlook through 2026 is considered promising.

Caitong Securities said that shares related to commercial aerospace are collectively rising, with Qunda Shares, Aerospace Holdings, AsiaSat, and AVIC Construction & Technology among the gainers. SpaceX is expected to list this summer, with an estimated valuation of about $1.75 trillion, which could become one of the largest IPOs in history. Huaxi Securities stated that the SpaceX IPO will use core variables such as Starship V3 and Starlink V3, driving global commercial aerospace asset pricing. CITIC Construction Investment expects multiple catalysts to be realized, including recovery-related challenges such as the Long March 10-2 first flight in May, the GalaxySpace Zhishen Star 1, and Blue Arrow Aerospace Zhuque-3.

The recent rise in the Korean stock market has been concentrated mainly in Samsung and SK Hynix, and excluding these, the index has only increased by about 30%, revealing that residents' long-term investment support is insufficient and the market is fragile. It is a reminder that diversified investing is the true path to stable wealth, as pulse-like returns amplify volatility, and ordinary retail investors are prone to chasing gains and selling at losses. If the government suppresses overseas allocations out of patriotic duty, it will push risks even deeper. The core conclusion is that the key to navigating cycles lies in systemic diversification, restraint, and patience.

Zhihui Finance APP has learned that on May 11, the National Bureau of Statistics data shows that in April 2026, the year-on-year increase in the factory gate prices of industrial producers was 2.8%, and the month-on-month increase was 1.7%. The year-on-year increase in the purchase prices of industrial producers was 3.5%, and the month-on-month increase was 2.1%. Among the purchase prices of industrial producers, chemical raw material prices increased by 7.3%, fuel and power prices increased by 6.3%, textile raw material prices increased by 1.3%, prices of ferrous metal materials increased by 0.6%, and prices of agricultural and sideline products increased by 0.3%.
The original text is as follows:
In April 2026, the year-on-year increase in the factory gate prices of industrial producers was 2.8%, and the month-on-month increase was 1.7%.
In April 2026, the national factory gate prices of industrial producers increased by 2.8% year-on-year and 1.7% month-on-month. The purchase prices of industrial producers increased by 3.5% year-on-year and 2.1% month-on-month. From January to April, the average factory gate price of industrial producers

Tongtong Finance News: Construction machinery stocks continue to strengthen, with Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, and others rising. Data from the China Construction Machinery Association shows that in April 2026, excavator sales saw a significant year-on-year increase, with both domestic and export sales rising, and cumulative sales from January to April also achieving double-digit growth. Cinda Securities states that domestic and foreign sales continued to grow rapidly in April, with main engine manufacturers sequentially raising prices: Sany increased prices by 5%, XCMG excavators by 3–5%, and LiuGong by 5%, highlighting the need to pay attention to industry leaders.

Vedanta announces record-breaking annual performance.
Net profit for the fiscal year ending March 31st was $2.8 billion, up 22% year-over-year;
net profit for the fourth quarter was $1 billion;
full-year revenue grew 15%, approaching $20 billion,
and fourth-quarter revenue increased nearly 30% year-over-year to $5.6 billion.
The company also announced that the spin-off restructuring has officially entered the implementation stage,
splitting the group into five independent units: aluminum, oil and gas, power, steel and base metals, and key minerals, to unlock group value.

Cailian Press, May 11 (Reporter Li Ting) — The insurance funds, which have been highly anticipated, are the focus of market attention with every move they make. Judging by the trends of insurance funds in the first quarter of 2026, according to incomplete statistics, by the end of the first quarter, insurance funds had appeared in the top ten circulating shareholders’ lists of nearly 650 A-shares. Increasing holdings of equity assets remains the general direction.
However, it is not something to be ignored that the downward shift in the interest-rate center, the contraction in the supply of high-quality assets, and the new accounting standards amplifying performance volatility are becoming the “threefold pressures” hanging over the insurance industry, further increasing the difficulty of investing insurance funds.
As representatives of long-term funds and liability funds, insurance fund investment is a “marathon,” and even more so a “relay race” based on asset-liability matching. How should we view the pressure of moderately increasing the allocation to equity assets amid short-term performance volatility? How can we balance maturity-structure matching and cost-benefit matching in a low-interest-rate environment? And how can we seize opportunities in sectors such as the energy transition, technology innovation, and other tracks?

Zhitong Finance APP has learned that as streaming leader Netflix (NFLX.US) has significantly raised its latest “ad-free standard subscription plan” to $20, the tipping point at which streaming moves closer to traditional TV appears to be getting nearer. Netflix has raised the ad-free standard plan to about $20 per month, while the ad-supported plan is about $9 per month, marking a shift in the streaming business model from “charging purely subscription fees” to a “dual-engine” of subscription fees plus advertising revenue. How much users pay is no longer the only key factor; how long users can watch and how much advertising exposure they can generate are becoming a new standard for platforms to measure user value.
Streaming companies seem to be finding that their most valuable customers may not be the subscription customers who pay the most. Instead, those who watch the longest are becoming increasingly valuable.
This change is driven by a typical shift: the industry is moving from a single subscription model to a model that combines subscription fees with advertising

This article interprets the breakeven employment growth (the net new jobs needed to maintain the unemployment rate), pointing out that due to tighter net immigration and declining labor force participation, BEG will approach zero starting from 2025. If confirmed, this will increase monthly employment volatility, and rate cut decisions will focus more on the unemployment rate rather than growth. It also briefly summarizes April's non-farm payrolls: an increase of 115k jobs exceeding expectations, unemployment rate at 4.34%, labor force participation rate at 61.8%, hourly wages year-over-year up 3.6%, month-over-month up 0.2%, and weekly working hours at 34.3. The market's expectations for rate hikes have slightly decreased, with U.S. stocks rising and bond market yields declining.