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Markets widely anticipate Apple to unveil its revamped AI-powered Siri at next week's WWDC, amid strong business and stock momentum, but risks loom.

America’s retail heavyweights, from The Home Depot and Target to Lowe’s and Walmart, could provide one of the clearest tests yet of US consumer resilience in 2026, revealing whether spending remains broad-based or is increasingly shifting toward essentials as economic pressures build.

Wednesday's earnings come amid continued AI investments that support Nvidia demand, but there are growing risks to its dominance.

Q1 earnings are undeniably strong, but strip out mega-cap winners like Alphabet, Amazon.com, and Meta Platforms, and the story shifts from explosive growth to a healthier, but far more uneven, corporate backdrop.

AI-driven fears sparked a sharp selloff in software stocks, but improving earnings and more balanced sentiment suggest the sector may be stabilising as investors reassess its role in the AI era.

Meta’s increased AI spending sparked a negative market reaction as its cloudless model inhibits monetization, but the results were actually really strong, benefiting from AI-driven advertising growth.

Alphabet's blowout earnings show its massive AI investments are paying off, driving financial growth and cloud demand, but challenges still loom.

Intel delivered strong earnings and guidance thanks to AI demand and strategic partnerships, showing turnaround momentum, but pitfalls still loom.

Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple report amid newly found AI optimism, but risks from uncertain macros and the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict loom.

In 2025, markets were driven by aligned tailwinds from expected Fed easing, AI-led growth optimism, and resilient economic performance, but by April 2026 those same forces have become less synchronised and more uncertain, with the Fed on hold amid inflation risks, AI being reassessed, and growth holding up but narrowing.

A rise in Q1 EV deliveries may help struggling financials, but auto challenges are set to persist as markets focus on the AI shift and robotaxi rollout.