5 Things to Watch on
May 28, 2026

Stocks are edging lower today with the Nasdaq down -0.3% as Middle East tensions resurfaced alongside a batch of mixed economic data. U.S. strikes on an Iranian military site in Bandar Abbas were met with retaliatory strikes on a U.S. air base, pushing oil futures up over +2% and leaving markets caught between hopes for a deal and a resolution that looks increasingly elusive. Treasury yields also crept higher, with the 30-year reaching 5.03%.

Caesars Entertainment (CZR) has agreed to be acquired by Fertitta Entertainment in an all-cash deal valued at $17.6B, including the assumption of $11.9B in debt, with shareholders receiving $31.00 per share, a 49% premium to CZR's unaffected price. CZR shares are halted in premarket trading. The combined entity will span 60 casino resorts, sports betting and iCasino through CZR's digital platform, and over 600 Fertitta Entertainment outlets including Landry's restaurant brands. A go-shop period runs through July 11, and analysts see likely asset sales ahead given casino overlap with Golden Nugget properties in several markets.

IBM (IBM) is up +1.5% in premarket trading after announcing a $10B quantum computing investment over five years, targeting delivery of the first large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029, alongside a separate $1B federal co-investment to build a quantum chip foundry in Albany, New York. IBM and its Red Hat subsidiary also unveiled Project Lightwell, a $5B commitment to create a clearinghouse for open-source software backed by more than 20,000 engineers and partnership from a dozen major financial institutions. IBM has already deployed more than 90 quantum systems to date.

Snowflake (SNOW) is up +37% in premarket trading after a beat-and-raise quarter that gave analysts fresh confidence in its AI strategy. Product revenue grew +34% YoY, and SNOW raised its fiscal 2027 product revenue growth guidance to +31%, with AI tools Cortex Code cited as the primary driver. Analysts broadly lifted price targets and praised the results as evidence that AI monetization on the software layer is beginning to accelerate meaningfully, countering the competitive share-loss narrative that had weighed on shares.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk clarified today that the company's agreement to lease its Colossus data center clusters to Anthropic is structured as a 180-day arrangement with 90-day mutual cancellation notice, not a multi-year commitment. The deal, under which Anthropic will pay roughly $1.25B per month through May 2029 for access to Colossus and Colossus II compute capacity in Memphis, Tennessee, could extend further but Musk noted SpaceX may reclaim capacity if compute demand tightens. SpaceX filed for an IPO earlier this month.