Today’s Market Recap: S&P 500 Hits Record Highs Amid Trump's China Visit News and AI-Sector Gains

A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that, at the invitation of the President of China, U.S. President Donald Trump will conduct a state visit to China from May 13 to 15. The Ministry detailed the arrangements and expressed China's expectations, noting that the two heads of state will engage in deep exchanges regarding major issues concerning bilateral relations, global peace, and development. China remains willing to work with the U.S. in the spirit of equality, respect, and reciprocity to expand cooperation and manage differences, aiming to provide greater stability and certainty to a volatile world.

On Monday, the stalemate between Iran and the U.S. remained unresolved. Iran claimed the U.S. continues to insist on "unreasonable demands," while Trump characterized Iran's response as foolish and stated the ceasefire agreement is "in jeopardy." Trump reiterated that Iran must not possess nuclear weapons and vowed to achieve a "total victory." Additionally, he announced plans to lower the U.S. gasoline tax and noted that he has not yet decided whether to restart "Project Liberty" to clear the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that if restarted, the project's scope could be expanded.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has embarked on his third visit to Japan since taking office, coinciding with a sensitive period where Japan is suspected of deploying 10 trillion yen to intervene in the currency market. As a Secretary with 35 years of experience in Japanese markets, Bessent maintains a firm stance, potentially arguing that Japan should bolster the yen through central bank interest rate hikes rather than administrative intervention. This approach aims to mitigate the impact on U.S. Treasury yields caused by Japan selling U.S. debt to fund its interventions.

SoftBank reported a record net profit of 550.8 billion yen for the 2025 fiscal year, significantly raising its mid-term profit targets and announcing plans to build its own energy storage factories to power data centers. SoftBank is accelerating its transformation from a telecommunications provider to an AI infrastructure provider. The company plans to mass-produce large-scale batteries in Osaka to support the electricity needs of AI data centers, targeting annual revenue of over 100 billion yen from its battery business by 2030. Under its new mid-term plan, SoftBank aims for an operating profit of 1.7 trillion yen by the 2031 fiscal year, leveraging partnerships with giants like OpenAI and Oracle to expand its AI ecosystem.

Circle (CRCL)'s Q1 revenue rose 20% year-over-year to $694 million, though net profit fell 15%, while the circulation of USDC grew 28% over the same period. The decline in net profit was primarily driven by a 76% surge in operating expenses, including stock-based compensation following its public listing. The growth of USDC circulation to $77 billion served as the core driver of revenue. Strategically, the ARC ecosystem completed $222 million in pre-sales, and the Agent Stack platform is expanding into AI agent payments. The company maintained its full-year guidance, which does not yet factor in potential incremental gains from ARC.

The chart below lists the ten most actively traded stocks in the market last Friday. Bolstered by massive trading volume and exceptional liquidity, these assets have become key benchmarks for tracking global market dynamics.