GoKawiil1. Shifting interest
Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on May 13, 2026. NYSE
2. Target-ing a turnaround
People exit a Target store on Black Friday in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., Nov. 29, 2024. Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Target beat Wall Street's top- and bottom-line expectations for the first quarter this morning, reporting a 5.6% increase in same-store sales — its first positive number for the key metric in five quarters. The retailer also hiked its revenue outlook for the full year, helping shares rise in premarket trading. The better-than-expected report comes as Target attempts to win back shoppers and reverse a sales slump. CEO Michael Fiddelke told reporters that "we know our work is just beginning, and we have confidence we're on the right path because guests are responding in areas where we are leaning in and driving change." Target wasn't only retailer beating expectations today. Lowe's also topped analysts' revenue and earnings estimates amid what CEO Marvin Ellison called a "challenging housing macro." Shares of the home improvement retailer are 2% lower before the bell, despite the positive report.
3. Eye spy
Shahram Izadi, general manager and vice president of Android XR at Google, during the Google I/O Developers Conference in Mountain View, California, US, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google announced at its annual developer conference yesterday that it's rolling out a new version of Gemini called 3.5 Flash, a lighter-weight artificial intelligence model that CEO Sundar Pichai said its cheaper than comparable products. The company also unveiled a new general-purpose AI agent and a new world model designed to simulate real-world environments. On the hardware front, Alphabet gave a first look at its audio smart glasses coming later this year. The Big Tech company teamed up with Samsung, as well as glasses makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, for the products. Elsewhere in the AI race: Andrej Karpathy, an OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla leader, said he is joining Anthropic. The AI startup said Karpathy will work on its pretraining team tasked with helping Claude acquire core knowledge and capabilities.
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Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa speaks during an event in Turin, Italy, Nov. 25, 2025. Daniele Mascolo | Reuters
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