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Solar panel manufacturer to establish $23.78M Shenandoah County facility

Woodbridge-based solar panel startup plans to invest $23.78 million to establish a facility in that is expected to create 150 jobs, announced Thursday.

Founded in 2018, MSolar has renovated a vacant warehouse into a 56,000-square-foot facility in that will produce high-efficiency solar modules for large-scale energy projects. The site is expected to become operational in August.

“By choosing to invest in Mount Jackson, MSolar is creating new career opportunities in the Shenandoah Valley and helping make sure Virginia has the infrastructure to make energy more affordable and reliable for local communities across our commonwealth,” Spanberger said in a statement. “Increasing energy generation is critical to addressing high energy costs and supporting greater economic growth. I congratulate MSolar on this exciting investment and look forward to watching them grow in the Shenandoah Valley.”

According to the governor’s office, the facility will produce solar glass, silicon cells and heterojunction (HJT) cells, which layer different types of silicon, and to assemble finished solar modules. The plant is expected to manufacture more than 500,000 HJT annually for utility-scale and commercial projects across the United States.

“We’re building the foundation of a vertically integrated solar manufacturing platform here in Virginia,” MSolar Michael O’Connor said in a statement. “This factory represents the first step in our long-term strategy to expand domestic solar production and deliver high-performance technology for energy projects.”

According to O’Connor, MSolar has not yet done any manufacturing. He said the site Spanberger announced will be the first of four  facilities MSolar plans to build in the region within the next four to five years, all within about 8 miles of each other. He said the company will make announcements on the other sites at a later time.

The Virginia Partnership worked with Shenandoah County to secure the project and will support MSolar through the three-year , which provides recruiting and training services as well as cash grant reimbursements for associated human resources costs after a company has had new employees on the payroll for at least 90 days.

Virginia Chamber of Commerce taps new leader

The Virginia has appointed Brad N. Hall as and , effective June 29, according to a Thursday announcement.

Hall joins the chamber, which conducted a national search for its next leader, from , where he served as vice president of external affairs.

“Brad brings an exceptional combination of chamber leadership experience, strategic vision and deep knowledge of the commonwealth of Virginia, including the importance of our rural communities,” Jennifer Siciliano, chair of both the chamber and the search committee, said in a statement. “Having served in and led chambers throughout his career, he understands both the opportunities and challenges facing Virginia’s business community.”

Hall succeeds Keith Martin, who served as interim president and CEO after Cathie J. Vick resigned as the organization’s leader after only four months on the job.

Martin previously worked for the Virginia Chamber from 2011 to 2024 as executive vice president of public policy and general counsel, and he will stay with the chamber in those roles. He briefly worked as director of government relations for Appalachian Power before taking the interim role in August.

During a 13 year-tenure at Appalachian Power, Hall provided for the company’s government affairs, , communications, customer relations and community engagement departments across its three-state service territory of Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. He also previously served as president and CEO of the Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Hall earned an MBA from Morehead State University.

At the chamber, Virginia’s largest business advocacy organization with more than 30,000 members, Hall will execute the priorities outlined in the chamber’s strategic plan, Blueprint Virginia 2035.

“From day one, our focus will be clear: championing public policies that support a competitive business climate, listening closely to our members and expanding membership so that the chamber continues to represent the full strength and diversity of Virginia’s economy,” Hall said in a statement.

US weekly jobless claims increase to four-month high; worker productivity revised down

Summary:
  • Initial claims rose 13,000 to 225,000 for week ended May 30
  • accounted for 39% of 97,006 job cuts in May
  • Beige Book reports low-hire, low-fire environment

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased more than expected last week, touching their highest level in four months, but the underlying trend remained consistent with a stable .

Economists shrugged off the rise in reported by the on Thursday as volatility related to last Monday’s . Claims tend to rise around public holidays. They said there were no signs yet the conflict was having a noticeable impact on the labor market, though uncertainty was growing.

“The big picture remains that the trend in both initial and continuing claims still is very subdued,” said Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “It would be unwise, however, to conclude that all is fine and well with the labor market simply because claims are low. Low fire, low hire remains an apt description of labor market conditions, and only around one of four of those unemployed make a claim.”

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 225,000 for the week ended May 30, the highest level since the first week of February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 213,000 claims for the latest week. The four-week moving average of claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, increased only 6,500 to 214,750.

Last week’s rise pushed claims to the upper end of their 190,000-230,000 range for this year. Applications could remain higher in the weeks ahead as the school year ends.

“Some states allow school workers who are off for the summer to claim unemployment benefits and that can lead to a rise in headline claims that isn’t always captured by the seasonal factors,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

Seasonal factors are the model used by the government to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data.

Layoffs remain low by historical standards, despite high-profile job cuts by technology firms related to the adoption of . U.S.-based employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May, about 39% of them in the technology sector, a separate report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas showed on Thursday. That was up 16% from April.

Still, planned job cuts rose only 3% compared to the same period last year. Though employers have not responded with mass layoffs to rising shortages and inflation stemming from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, now in its fourth month, economists said that could change, the longer the conflict drags on.

The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report on Wednesday said employment showed “little to no change” in May, and that “most districts described a low-hire, low-fire environment.” It added that “hiring remained selective and primarily focused on critical roles or attrition replacement.”

For now, low layoffs are anchoring the labor market. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, fell 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.777 million during the week ended May 23, the claims report showed.

LABOR MARKET REMAINS STABLE

The claims data have no bearing on the closely watched employment report for May, due to be released on Friday, as they fall outside the survey period.

Nonfarm payrolls likely rose by 85,000 jobs in May after rising 115,000 in April, a Reuters survey of economists predicted. The unemployment rate is forecast unchanged at 4.3%.

The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday showed hiring decreased and layoffs fell in April, suggesting the increase in payrolls that month was due to lower layoffs. A stable labor market allows the Federal Reserve to focus on inflation. Financial markets expect the U.S. central bank to keep its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50%-3.75% range into 2027.

U.S. stocks opened lower. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields fell.

A third report from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics showed growth slowed faster than initially thought in the first quarter, but the underlying trend remained strong and a boost is expected from businesses adopting artificial intelligence for many roles.

Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a downwardly revised 0.3% annualized rate last quarter. That was the slowest since the first quarter of 2025. Productivity was previously estimated to have risen at a 0.8% pace last quarter. Economists had expected productivity growth would be revised down to a 0.5% pace.

Productivity grew at a 2.8% rate from a year ago, instead of the 2.9% pace estimated last month. It has grown at a 2.1% rate from the fourth quarter of 2019 through the first quarter of 2026. The softness in the first quarter was flagged by last week’s downgrade to gross domestic product growth to a 1.6% rate from the previously reported 2.0% pace. Productivity grew at an unrevised 1.6% rate in the October-December quarter.

Economists believe the rising integration of AI will boost productivity and rein in labor costs.

– the price of labor per single unit of output – increased at a 1.8% rate last quarter. That was a downward revision from the 2.3% pace reported last month. Fourth-quarter growth in unit labor costs was lowered to a 2.1% rate from the previously reported 4.6% pace.

Economists had expected unit labor costs to increase at a 2.5% rate last quarter. They grew at a 0.5% rate from a year ago. Hourly compensation increased at a 2.1% rate last quarter and grew at a 3.3% pace from a year ago.

“Normally, unit labor costs would rise when productivity is revised lower,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “Obviously, there is a basis effect at work here.”

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci )

 

Wall Street ends lower as Middle East tensions escalate

Summary:
  • S&P 500 drops 0.74% amid geopolitical risks
  • Financials and tech sectors lead losses
  • SpaceX plans record $75 billion pricing

NEW YORK, June 3 (Reuters) – stocks pulled back from record highs on Wednesday as flaring tensions in the and rising crude prices stoked jitters and convinced investors to take some profits.

All three major U.S. stock indexes closed in negative territory, dragged lower by financials and tech, with the small-cap underperforming its larger-cap counterparts.

Chips advanced, indicating the artificial intelligence fervor is alive and well. Still, most of the Magnificent Seven group of AI-related megacaps were lower.

“The AI names are trading on their own completely separate world, largely oblivious to macro and geopolitical risk, at least within reason,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. “And so there’s going to be a bid for those names, especially on days where everything else looks a little bit less attractive.”

The S&P Software & Services index declined. It has been battered in recent months by fears of AI disruption.

Middle East hostilities intensified as the U.S. and Iran traded a new round of air strikes, the latest test of a shaky ceasefire.

Oil prices rose, adding to worries that upward pressure on energy prices could metastasize into broader, systemic inflation.

“This market continues to demonstrate a tug of war between fundamentals in the U.S. economy, which are incredibly positive, and concerns that the duration of the conflict in the Middle East will lead to downside risks,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, Billings, Montana. “Our framework is centered around the duration of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as the primary input to inflation expectations.”

“The longer the duration of that closure, the less likely the will be able to ease in 2026,” Northey added.

In fact, financial markets are pricing more than a 40% likelihood of a rate hike at the conclusion of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s December meeting, up from 9.1% one month ago, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

New York Fed President John Williams reiterated his position that the central bank does not need to change interest rates despite upside inflation risks, stating monetary policy is “in the right place.”

Economic data suggested the labor market was stable, and the services sector continued to expand, but input prices remained elevated and corporate spending plans appeared soft amid rising energy costs and geopolitical uncertainties.

The , the Fed’s regional economic survey, showed economic activity gathered steam in recent weeks, employment was little changed, but the fallout from higher energy prices due to the war was pervasive.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 54.11 points, or 0.74%, to end at 7,555.67 points, while the  lost 230.97 points, or 0.85%, to 26,862.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 581.84 points, or 1.13%, to 50,725.95.

Among chipmakers, Marvell, Intel, Qualcomm, and Sandisk outperformed.

Asset managers dropped after Switzerland’s capped withdrawals from an $8.6 billion private equity fund. , Blackstone, Blue Owl and Ares Management all lost ground.

GameStop advanced after the original meme-stock posted a rise in quarterly revenue and unveiled a $2 billion share buyback program.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to price its IPO at $135 a share to raise a record $75 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Broadcom results were expected shortly.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Medha Singh and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)

US private payrolls rise broadly in May

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – U.S. increased broadly in May, but economists cautioned against viewing the rise as a sign of a strengthening , noting that other indicators continued to point to stabilizing conditions.

Private employment rose by 122,000 jobs last month after a downwardly revised 105,000 gain in April, the national employment report showed on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment increasing by 117,000 jobs after a previously reported 109,000 advance in April.

Last month’s increase in hiring was across businesses of all sizes, and was led by the education and health services sector, which added 57,000 jobs. Trade, transportation and utilities payrolls rose 36,000. But there were job losses in the information and natural resources and mining industries.

The ADP report is jointly developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and was published ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ more comprehensive and closely watched employment report for May on Friday. ADP has been a poor predictor of the BLS’s private payrolls estimate.

“The indicators with a better track record of forecasting payrolls – the hiring intentions indexes of the NFIB and regional surveys, as well as the job availability differential of the Conference Board’s survey – have weakened in recent months,” said Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “Evidence that the labor market is regaining momentum remains unconvincing.”

The labor market has regained its footing after wobbling last year amid uncertainty stemming mostly from tariffs. While the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has raised commodity prices and fanned , layoffs have remained historically low, anchoring the labor market.

The ‘s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday showed a surge in job openings in April, but they were concentrated in a single sector. Hiring decreased and layoffs fell, suggesting the solid increase in nonfarm payrolls in April was mostly due to lower layoffs.

Nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 85,000 jobs in May after rising 115,000 in April, a Reuters survey of economists predicted. The unemployment rate is forecast to be holding steady at 4.3%.

Financial markets expect the Federal Reserve will keep its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50%-3.75% range into next year, while monitoring the inflation fallout from the war.

Inflation increased at its fastest pace in three years in April, the government reported last week.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci )

 

SpaceX will disrupt $1.6T US communications industry, Oppenheimer says

June 3 (Reuters) – will disrupt the $1.6 trillion U.S. as the -led company’s satellite unit expands, said in a note on Wednesday, adding that legacy broadband providers like may be most at risk.

The brokerage raised its estimate for 2035 space revenue to $800 billion from $500 billion earlier, ahead of the company’s highly anticipated this month.

• The expansion of Starlink is expected to further pressure cable firms, which are already losing subscribers.

• Oppenheimer said companies such as AT&T, and could see faster declines in subscribers and revenue going forward.

• The brokerage expects Starlink to “entrench itself in many critical applications, reducing churn and increasing pricing power.”

• Oppenheimer raised its 2030 estimates for U.S. broadband subscribers to 15 million from 10 million earlier.

• SpaceX’s rise could also tap into the half-a-trillion-dollar handset market as the company aims to replace smartphones, Oppenheimer said.

• “Should SpaceX execute on its mission…it will be the modern-day East India Company of space, controlling routes, infrastructure, and commerce of an entire frontier and giving it a quasi-sovereign reach, far beyond that of any ordinary corporation,” Oppenheimer said.

• The company is set to debut on the Nasdaq on June 12 and is aiming to reach a $1.75 trillion valuation in the IPO, Reuters has reported.

• SpaceX’s valuation is grounded in Starlink, which has over 10 million subscribers, and a launch business that analysts and investors say has transformed access to orbit.

 

(Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty in Bengaluru)

 

40 Virginia companies make 2026 Fortune 1000

SUMMARY:

Virginia’s top companies saw some dramatic ups and downs in 2025, as reflected on the Fortune 500 list released Wednesday, although the total number of corporations on the list stayed stable from the previous year.

Two Virginia-based companies debuted on the elite Fortune 500 list this year, among 24 companies total. On the 2026 Fortune 1000 list, Virginia is represented with 40 companies, down from last year’s 41 Fortune 1000 companies total and 25 on the Fortune 500.

The Fortune 1000 list ranks the 1,000 largest United States corporations by total revenue, including public companies and private companies for which revenue information is available.

As usual, Freddie Mac tops the pack in Virginia at No. 33, up from last year’s No. 38 ranking. Arlington County defense contractors Boeing and RTX traded places on the list, with Boeing landing at No. 47 and RTX two spots below at No. 49.

Last year, Boeing sank to No. 63, after the January 2024 midair blowout of a 4-foot wall panel in a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet cabin temporarily cratered sales and led to an executive shakeup. Notably, the aerospace giant’s ranking improved by five spots from its 2024 ranking of No. 52, showing how the company has rebounded over the past two years.

Chantilly-based Amentum, a spinoff of AECOM’s Management Services that acquired PAE for $1.9 billion in 2022, debuted on the Fortune 500 list at No. 313. Helmed by CEO John Heller, the government contractor plans to move its headquarters to Reston in early 2027.

Arlington-based Venture Global, an exporter of U.S.-produced liquefied natural gas, saw a meteoric rise in this year’s list, from No. 670 in 2025 to No. 328, a total of 342 spots. Co-founded by billionaire former investment banker Mike Sabel, Venture Global reported $13.7 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, up 176.9% from the previous year. For the first quarter of 2026, the company raised its full-year adjusted core profit forecast, expecting higher liquefaction fees and sales volumes, Reuters reported. U.S. export volumes of liquified natural gas have risen as the Iran war disrupted energy markets, according to Reuters.

Financial, not surprisingly, saw its stock rise 19 places to No. 63 following its May 2025 acquisition of Discover Financial Services, a stock deal valued at $35.3 billion, creating one of the world’s largest credit card businesses with more than 100 customers.

Dollar Tree, the -based discount retailer, also saw its ranking fall by 43 places this year, from No. 139 in 2025 to No. 182, with revenue falling by 18.8% year-over-year to $25 billion in fiscal 2025. In July 2025, Dollar Tree completed its sale of Family Dollar for roughly $1 billion.

Nationally, Amazon.com made big news for taking No. 1 on this year’s Fortune 500 list, bumping  Walmart, now No. 2, from the top spot for the first time in 13 years. However, the e-tail giant has stalled hiring at its Arlington County HQ2 headquarters, as reported on a filing submitted in April to the Virginia Partnership. Amazon did not add any jobs last year that qualified for Virginia’s workforce grant incentives and did not request a state payment, in contrast to 2024, when it requested more than $6.4 million after adding 293 qualifying jobs in 2024.

On the Fortune 1000 list, CoStar Group, which relocated its headquarters to Arlington from Washington, D.C., moved up 100 spots to No. 879, marking an 18.7% rise in revenue in the past fiscal year.

McLean media company Tegna, currently embroiled in an antitrust with multiple states as Nexstar attempts to acquire it, fell 98 places from last year, and now is at No. 998 on the 2026 list.

This year, nine Virginia Fortune 500 companies are based in Fairfax County, retaining its status as the Virginia locality with the most Fortune 500 companies. Arlington County is home to four companies on the Fortune 500, and Ashburn and Falls Church have one each, making Northern Virginia’s total 15.

The metro area, including Henrico and Goochland counties, has the second most companies on the Fortune 500, with six companies. The Hampton Roads region has three.

These are the Virginia-based companies that made the 2026 Fortune 1000 list, in order of ranking:

33) Freddie Mac, McLean

47) Boeing, Arlington County

49) RTX, Arlington County

63) Capital One Financial, McLean

80) Performance Food Group, Goochland County

91) General Dynamics, Reston

112) Northrop Grumman, Falls Church

147) Ferguson Enterprises, Newport News

162) CarMax, Goochland County

182) Dollar Tree, Chesapeake

221) Altria Group, Henrico County

260) Leidos, Reston

270) Markel Group, Glen Allen

272) Dominion Energy, Richmond

313) Amentum, Chantilly

328) Venture Global, Arlington County

343) DXC Technology, Ashburn

352) Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News

358) AES, Arlington County

367) Hilton Worldwide Holdings, McLean

372) Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean

407) Accendra Health (formerly Owens & Minor), Henrico County

409) NVR, Reston

459) CACI International, Reston

510) Genworth Financial, Henrico County

513) Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), Reston

557) Arko, Henrico County

568) Parsons, Centreville

628) Maximus, Reston

653) Brink’s, Henrico County

682) Graham Holdings, Arlington County

731) V2X, McLean

787) Everforth (formerly ASGN), Glen Allen

879) CoStar Group, Arlington County

890) Navient, Herndon

891) BWX Technologies, Lynchburg

924) AvalonBay Communities, Arlington County

940) Universal Corp., Richmond

991) NewMarket, Richmond

998) Tegna, McLean

Virginia Tech board names new rector following upheaval

SUMMARY:

  • The Board of Visitors elected Jim Miller as rector effective July 1
  • The vote came less than a week after removed Rector John Rocovich
  • Also Tuesday, the presidential search committee discussed possible timelines

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors picked a new rector Tuesday, days after Gov. Abigail Spanberger took the unusual step of removing the former rector from the university board.

Appointed to the board by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024, Jim Miller is the founder and of Leesburg-based Quantum Leap, a provider of cybersecurity and intelligence solutions for U.S. government customers. The board unanimously elected Miller, a 1997 alumnus, as the next rector, starting July 1. Dr. Nancy Dye, a retired surgeon appointed by Youngkin, was unanimously picked as vice rector.

Spanberger removed then-Rector John Rocovich, a Roanoke County attorney, from the board in a letter May 27. He was set to serve another year on the board through June 30, 2027.

However, the governor wrote that Rocovich’s conduct had “violated the Code of Conduct for Commonwealth Appointees to Boards, Authorities, & Commissions, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors’ Code of Ethics and the governing statutes requiring board members to act in accordance with the best interests of Virginia Tech.”

The governor did not specify what Rocovich had allegedly done to violate state standards, but U.S.  voiced concern in April that Virginia Tech President Tim Sands may have been forced to step down so that a new could be selected before Spanberger was due to fill four seats on the university’s board July 1. Dominion Energy Virginia President Ed Baine, whose term was set to end June 30, was appointed to complete Rocovich’s term.

Rocovich said Saturday when reached at home that he did not plan to attend this week’s quarterly BOV meetings, although in a May 28 letter to Candi Mundon King, the state’s secretary of the commonwealth, he declined to resign as rector. “I was appointed to serve a term, I have served that term faithfully, and I intend to fulfill my obligations to the students, faculty and people of Virginia.”

Before Rocovich’s removal, the board considered scrapping term limits for rectors and other leadership positions, but on Monday its governance committee voted 4-1 to keep a limit of two one-year terms as rector. Rocovich, however, served three terms total as rector after the board waived its bylaw limiting terms.

When Sands spoke to the board Tuesday, he didn’t ignore the elephant in the room.

“After a period of, I think, highly unusual stability, we’re entering a period of rapid change in positions of leadership, both on the board and in the administration,” he said.

The university’s president since 2014, Sands acknowledged that it’s natural for change to cause nervousness. “But what we have built together is not dependent on any one individual or even a few individuals,” he said. “The next president will inherit a highly functional leadership team that is capable of running the show through anything.”

Board faculty representative Justin Lemkul, an assistant professor of biochemistry, said he feels hopeful about Virginia Tech’s future, “but hope alone is not enough. We must all recommit ourselves to our traditions, our system of shared governance and collaborative decision-making.”

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech’s Presidential Search Committee, which includes the full board, met in open session Tuesday and discussed timelines for interviewing candidates and finalizing hiring. The committee decided to aim for a candidate to accept a job offer by December instead of September, a faster option.

Isaacson Miller, a Boston executive search firm, is helping lead the search. Jim Miller said that the committee can remain flexible during the search, “with the understanding that we’ll speed up or slow down based on what we’re seeing.”

Dye acknowledged the controversy the presidential search has generated.

“I would be remiss if I did not address the environment we find ourselves in with leadership changes throughout the university,” she said. “However, this is not unusual, and in fact, many such changes were going on when  … we conducted our search in 2013.”

Wall St ends modestly higher as AI zeal overcomes Middle East jitters

Summary:

NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Dow closed modestly higher on Tuesday as risk appetite driven by AI fervor was counterbalanced by tensions arising from U.S.-Iran talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the months-long war.

Gains in most of the 11 major S&P sectors kept the S&P 500 and the Dow in the green, with the small-cap outperforming its larger-cap peers. The Nasdaq ended the session nominally higher.

Small-cap stocks have been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the ongoing enthusiasm surrounding stocks, which provided some upside muscle. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index advanced 5.9%.

The Software & Services Index, battered in recent months over worries of AI disruption, ended off 3.3%.

Strong results from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a funding commitment from Alphabet reinforced confidence in the AI buildout.

“The market is kind of muted at the surface level, but there is a lot going on under the hood, and that describes much of this year,” said Mike Dickson, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina. “There’s some massive dispersion in the whole AI infrastructure ecosystem.”

“Markets could be in for one of these heated, melt-up rallies where the momentum keeps winning,” Dickson added. “I would not be surprised at all to be sitting here at the end of the summer a good bit higher.”

Tehran is studying a U.S. proposal to bring the war to a halt, but has not been in contact with Washington for days, according to Iranian media, which also said Iran is taking a “stern” approach, given what it views as a history of U.S. noncompliance and mutual distrust.

Simultaneously, Israel is continuing its strikes on Lebanon, despite Tehran’s warnings that the attacks are threatening to derail the fragile truce.

The war has sent crude prices soaring, reviving worries over and giving rise to an increasing likelihood that the U.S. could hike interest rates by year-end.

Cleveland Fed Beth Hammack said on Tuesday that such a hike could become necessary if already-elevated inflation pressures continue to mount.

On the economic front, a report from the Labor Department showed an unexpected spike in job openings, driven by the volatile professional and business services sector. Otherwise, hiring, firing and quits all decreased, suggesting a slowdown in churn in the face of uncertainties related to strife in the and inflationary effects.

Analysts look to the May employment report due on Friday, which is expected to show the U.S. economy added 85,000 jobs last month, a monthly deceleration of 26.1%. The unemployment rate is forecast to stand pat at 4.3%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 228.91 points, or 0.45%, to 51,307.79, the S&P 500 gained 9.94 points, or 0.13%, to 7,609.90 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 7.09 points, or 0.03%, to 27,093.90.

Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, utilities gained the most, while communication services suffered the steepest percentage loss.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped 19.5% after the AI server maker pulled forward its long-term financial targets by two years.

In further evidence of AI buildout, Alphabet said it was looking to raise $80 billion in equity offerings, including an investment from Berkshire Hathaway, to fund a costly expansion of its AI infrastructure. Its shares slipped 3.9%.

Marvell Technology’s shares surged 32.5% after Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang called the chipmaker the next “trillion-dollar company” at the Computex conference in Taipei. Nvidia invested $2 billion in Marvell in March.

A 5.7% drop in bitcoin hit cryptocurrency firms. Coinbase dropped 4.7% while Strategy Inc sank 9.2%.

Broadcom reports quarterly results on Wednesday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.52-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange. There were 571 new highs and 139 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,280 stocks rose and 2,506 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.1-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 134 new highs and 96 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 20.51 billion shares, compared with the 19.93 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York; Additional reporting by Medha Singh and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

 

Chesapeake Regional Healthcare CEO suddenly departs role

Chesapeake Regional and is no longer serving in the role after a decade leading the health system.

In a statement, the Hospital Authority Board announced that Jackson’s tenure as president and CEO ended on May 30. The board appointed Chief Operating Officer and Nursing Officer Amber Egyud to serve as interim CEO.

“Mr. Jackson is thanked for his service and wished the best in his future endeavors,” the board statement read.

The board provided no further details about the reason for Jackson’s departure or its timeline for finding a permanent CEO, and the health system declined to comment this week.

The leadership change comes as the health system continues to face litigation related to former OB-GYN Javaid Perwaiz, who was convicted in 2020 of healthcare fraud and is serving a 59-year prison sentence.

In December 2025, more than 500 former patients sued Jackson and two former CEOs in Chesapeake Circuit Court for $10 million each for negligence, alleging they enabled Perwaiz to perform unnecessary medical procedures, including hysterectomies, for nearly a decade. In March, multiple news outlets reported that the number of plaintiffs had grown to more than 900.

And in January 2025, a federal grand jury indicted on charges of healthcare fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and interference with government functions. The federal government claims the hospital received approximately $18.5 million in reimbursements from healthcare benefit programs for surgical and obstetric procedures performed by Perwaiz at the facility between 2010 and 2019.

Chesapeake Regional Healthcare previously characterized the indictment as an “excessive overreach” by the federal government.

Jackson could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Egyud has worked at Chesapeake Regional since 2017, serving as COO and chief nursing officer. The health system credited her with playing a key role in advancing strategic growth, expanding critical service lines, improving quality outcomes and leading major initiatives, including development of the critical care tower and cancer treatment center and operational leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chesapeake Regional Healthcare includes one hospital, , and more than 50 practice locations. The health system employs about 600 physicians.