U.S. Stocks Decline as Oil Prices Surge Above $100
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: May 21 2026
0mins
Source: CNBC
- Oil Price Impact: U.S. oil prices surged above $100 a barrel, leading to a decline in stocks as investor concerns about inflation reignited, particularly after optimism faded regarding an Iran peace deal.
- Nvidia's Bullish Outlook: Jim Cramer views Nvidia's modest post-earnings pullback as a buying opportunity, suggesting investors gradually build positions despite market volatility driven by rising oil prices.
- Arm Holdings Surge: Following Nvidia's earnings call, Arm Holdings' stock jumped nearly 9%, extending its weekly rally to 35%, with projected CPU-related revenue of about $20 billion this year, solidifying its market position.
- FedEx Rating Upgrade: Citi reinstated FedEx with a buy rating and a $443 price target, highlighting its potential for market share growth and improved profitability, with Jim Cramer suggesting a 30% upside from current levels.
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Analyst Views on ARM
Wall Street analysts forecast ARM stock price to fall
24 Analyst Rating
19 Buy
4 Hold
1 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 335.270
Low
120.00
Averages
160.58
High
201.00
Current: 335.270
Low
120.00
Averages
160.58
High
201.00
About ARM
Arm Holdings plc is a United Kingdom-based company. The Company is engaged in the design of central processing units (CPUs) and compute platforms for semiconductor chips. It develops and licenses CPU products and related technology. Its cloud and data center solutions include Arm AGI CPU and Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystems. The Arm Agentic Generalized Infrastructure (AGI) CPU is a production-ready system on a chip (SoC) for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, delivering compute at scale. The Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) are pre-validated, performance-optimized compute platforms designed to accelerate infrastructure silicon development. The Company's primary markets include smartphone applications, processors and other chips used in mobile phones, consumer electronics, networking equipment, cloud and data center servers, automotive applications, Internet of Things (loT) and other embedded computing devices.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Positive Economic Data: The May Chicago PMI rose by 13.5 to 62.7, far surpassing expectations of 50.3, marking the fastest expansion pace in 4.25 years, which further bolstered market confidence in stocks.
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- Market Dynamics to Watch: Next week, Merck will review its cancer portfolio, while Palo Alto Networks and Ulta are set to report earnings; Cramer anticipates that these companies may be influenced by AI-driven market changes, particularly in cybersecurity.
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- Nvidia's Lagging Performance: Despite the strong performance of tech stocks, Nvidia has emerged as a laggard, with Cramer suggesting that next week's Computex keynote by CEO Jensen Huang could provide crucial updates that may shift this trend.
- Upcoming Earnings Reports: A series of earnings reports from companies like Palo Alto and Broadcom next week are expected to offer significant insights for investors, particularly regarding the rising AI-driven cybersecurity threats that could impact results.
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See More
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- Tech Stocks Rally: Dell Technologies surged over 31% after reporting Q1 total revenue of $43.84 billion, significantly exceeding the consensus estimate of $35.52 billion, and raised its 2027 revenue forecast to $165 billion to $169 billion, indicating robust demand for AI infrastructure.
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