- Indexes on Wall Street opened slightly higher today
- Markets await Powell's speech (18:00 BST)
- Buffett's new purchases boost Occidental Petroleum (OXY.US)
- Weak Foot Locker (FL.US) results weigh on Nike (NKE.US) shares
- Palantir begins correction after euphoric AI-driven gains (PLTR.US)
- Pacwest (PACW.US) gains close to 5% again
Indexes on Wall Street started today's session mostly higher, although volatility in key benchmarks is not high at the moment. The mood was boosted by politicians' optimism over raising the debt limit, which has been one of the main topics in the US in recent weeks. Bulls were also supported by a rally in European stock market and excellent results from Japan's NIKKEI. The Fed's Michelle Bowman once again expressed confidence in the resilience of the US banking system, which helped regional bank stocks. Bowman is also against huge banking system reform. She backs only 'targeted' bank rules reform. Now Wall Street's attention shifts to Fed chair Powell speech at 18:00 BST. 
Shares of S&P500 companies, volume reflects market capitalization. Gains are being made by Alphabet (GOOGL.US), Apple (AAPL.US) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB.US). Source: xStation5
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Driven by positive sentiment around BigTech and the AI trend, the Nasdaq (US100) climbed to levels last seen in April 2022. The bullish 'golden cross' formation on the D1 interval signals a longer bullish momentum, however, looking at the Fibonacci retracements of the March 2020 upward wave, we see that the benchmark still has not yet reached the 23.6 retracement at 14,400 points, where the possible further fate of the index may play out after a great start to the year (nearly 27% rise since January 1). Source: xStation5
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Occidentral Petroleum (OXY.US) shares gained more than 3% today and erased some of the declines after weaker-than-forecast Q1 results. The report did not deter Warren Buffett from making more purchases - the Berkshire chairman bought more shares at an average price of $58.06 per share, for a total of $125 million. In an interview, Buffett indicated that he does not intend to take over the entire company - however, he regularly buys when Occidentral's shares fall below $60. The company's stock price can be heavily dependent on oil prices, but since Buffett took a significant stake in the company, Occidental's shares have remained strongly resilient despite the prospects of a global recession and slowdown that could hit 'black gold' prices.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY.US) shares are approaching the 23.6 Fibonacci retracement of the October 2020 upward wave at $60.6 per share. The share price is still settled below the SMA200 and SMA100. However, recent declines in oil prices have not weighed very heavily on the valuation of the company's shares. Source: xStation5
FootLocker (FL.US) shares are losing nearly 26% today as the company's results failed to beat analysts' forecasts. The footwear company is struggling with melting demand and high inventory levels through which it has had to sell goods at a steep discount. The company's gross margins fell nearly 4% as a result. Weak results today weighed on sentiment around shares of giants like Adidas (ADS.DE) and Nike (NKE.US), which is currently losing around 3% on fears of a weaker consumer.
Shares of Deer (DE.US), a manufacturer of agricultural and industrial equipment, were unable to sustain gains despite a positive quarterly report and the company's raising of its expected full-year 2023 net profit. We can link the decline to concerns around real demand in the economy - a downturn could reduce the scale of the company's overall business. Investors were inclined to take profits quickly, with the company erasing nearly 3% gains.
