☀️ Morning Brief
Morning Brief
Saturday, April 25, 2026
🇺🇸 US News
- The Justice Department is moving to reclassify marijuana as less dangerous while loosening restrictions on some cannabis products.
- Federal execution policy is expanding to include firing squads, electrocution and gassing as approved methods.
- The U.S. and EU announced a preliminary critical-minerals partnership to coordinate supply-chain policy.
🌍 World News
- Militants staged apparently coordinated attacks in Mali’s capital Bamako and several interior locations, the army said.
- Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the U.S. blockade on Iran is going global, widening pressure on Tehran.
- Iran-linked shipping risks stayed elevated as fast-boat swarms added to Strait of Hormuz threats for global shipping.
📈 Stocks
- The S&P 500 traded at 7,165.08, up 0.80%, with tech strength offsetting macro nerves.
- The Nasdaq Composite traded at 24,836.60, up 1.63%, as mega-cap tech led the session.
- The Dow slipped to 49,230.71, down 0.16%, lagging the broader market’s tech-led rally.
- Reuters said tech boosted U.S. stocks to a record close while oil dipped on signs of Iran peace progress.
🤖 Top AI News & Updates
- OpenAI says GPT-5.5 is its “smartest and most intuitive” model yet, pushing ChatGPT’s flagship upgrade.
- Google is preparing to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic, deepening the AI model race.
- The Verge reported OpenAI banned a ChatGPT account tied to a Canadian school-shooting suspect but did not alert law enforcement.
- Google said 75% of its new code is AI-generated, up from 50% last fall, as coding agents become more central.
- DeepSeek-V4 drew attention as a Chinese AI model adapted for Huawei chips.
🏗 AI Related Stocks
- U.S. chipmakers hit record highs as Intel turbocharged the AI-stock rally.
- Nvidia-linked AI enthusiasm stayed hot, with market chatter focusing on a $5 trillion cap milestone.
- Hyperscaler earnings are next week’s key AI-stock test, with Microsoft, Google and Meta in focus.
- QQQ’s tech-heavy exposure remains the clean ETF read-through for AI momentum and rate risk.