By John Towfighi, CNN

New York (CNN) — Brent crude has climbed back above $100 per barrel and the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for the global economy, remains closed. But the stock market is brushing off the turmoil.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit record highs on Wednesday, resuming a rally despite the rise in oil prices. It’s a stark shift from last month, when higher oil prices sent stocks lower.

The S&P and Nasdaq have rallied more than 12% and 18%, respectively, since their recent nadirs on March 30. The S&P is now up nearly 4% since the war began while the Nasdaq is up nearly 9%.

Markets are forward looking, and Wall Street is trying to look past the war. Investors are leaning in to optimism about US corporate earnings season and betting that the oil shock won’t last long enough to severely hinder economic growth.

Meanwhile, tech stocks are back in favor after sliding earlier this year over nerves about expensive valuations and AI disrupting the software industry. The tech rebound is supporting the market rally.

“The combination of improving Iran headlines, investor exhaustion over the volatility in March and a strong start to earnings season has helped to propel stocks to record highs,” Rick Gardner, chief investment officer at RGA Investments, said in a note.

Back at record highs

While the war has stirred up volatility, earnings results and estimates for US companies — core drivers of stock prices — remain strong.

Wall Street is in the midst of earnings season, with nearly a fifth of companies in the S&P 500 reporting quarterly earnings as of Wednesday morning. Of those companies, 86% beat expectations for earnings per share, a measure of profitability, according to FactSet.

Tech and AI stocks, which lagged the market in recent months, have also rallied: Tech is the best performing sector in the S&P 500 so far this month. The tech sector is estimated to account for 60% of earnings growth this year, according to analysts at research firm Strategas.

The tech sell-off in prior months made those stocks cheaper, creating a buying opportunity for eager investors. Some have scooped up tech stocks despite uncertainty over how a prolonged war with Iran could potentially disrupt supply chains, drive up inflation or impact earnings.

Venu Krishna, head of US equity strategy at Barclays, said that he is optimistic about tech and AI and that there are positive signs for the broader market. The underpinnings for the rally include spending on AI and defense, he said, adding that there is “extremely strong” momentum for earnings growth in the US.

“Oil moving around at these levels at this point is not derailing that momentum,” Krishna said. “Let’s see how the earnings season unfolds, but right now, the US is looking quite attractive.”

On March 24, when the S&P 500 was down nearly 5% since the war began, Krishna raised his year-end target for the index from 7,400 points to 7,650, expressing confidence in the market. A year-end target of 7,650 implies a 7% gain from yesterday’s close.

“Investors seem to be growing comfortable with the disruption of the crude and petrochemical markets,” Louis Navellier, founder and CIO at Navellier & Associates, said in a note. “Strong and rising earnings estimates, along with firm retail spending and stable labor markets, trump higher energy prices.”

“Momentum remains positive, and FOMO (fear of missing out) is growing,” Navellier said.

Too far, too fast?

The fierce

By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

The curator Jeffrey Uslip wants everyone to know that everything is normal.

“This is the smoothest exhibition I’ve curated in 30 years,” said Uslip, who has been working on the US Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2026 in Venice, which opens in two weeks.

Uslip was insistent on the point. “I also just want to be clear, because I know how people talk, it’s important to know that we have had complete artistic autonomy throughout this process,” he said by phone. Later, by email, he emphasized the process to select the artist — the sculptor Alma Allen — was “exactly the same” as it always was.

There’s a reason Uslip was adamant. Like so much touched by the Trump administration, this year’s US Pavilion, which is partly funded by the government, at the so-called “Olympics of the art world” — has been plagued by controversies and delays. For months, it was uncertain whether the State Department, whose Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs oversees the search, would select an artist to present in Venice at all.

For decades, the US has brought artists from Jasper Johns and Georgia O’Keeffe to Isamu Noguchi and Simone Leigh to the Venice Biennale, a 131-year-old international exhibition where, every two years, the world’s nations present ambitious contemporary art shows in architectural pavilions to visitors around the globe.

This time, the usual process was upended and new players empowered — including Allen, who has had a steady but quiet career, prompting a string of “Who is Alma Allen?” headlines when he was announced; Uslip, whose last major exhibition in the US ten years ago was marked by scandal and accusations of racial insensitivity; and pavilion commissioner Jenni Parido, a former pet supply shop owner organizing the show with her new nonprofit, the American Arts Conservancy. Not much is known about the group, aside from the fact that it is soliciting donations for the endeavor on its website.

No one knows quite what to expect this year, with extreme delays, including the fall government shutdown, resulting in just six months to fundraise and plan an exhibition that typically takes more than a year and millions of dollars to organize. It is complicated by the fact it is also coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, and has become part of a larger effort for President Trump to project an image of “American exceptionalism” through the arts.

Many in the art world have been watching — though often to rubberneck.

“This will certainly be taken up by historians,” said the contemporary art historian and Columbia University professor Alexander Alberro, who lectures on the Venice Biennale. “It is something that’s representative of the moment. It’s not an accident, given what’s happening elsewhere in the country.”

A motley crew

Exactly who selected Allen and Parido as artist and commissioner remains unclear.

That task has usually depended on the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) — which, like so much of the federal government, has been gutted by the Trump administration. The group normally convenes a federal advisory committee of leading curators, museum directors and other experts to vet applications and recommend the artist and its commissioner, which is typically a major museum or other arts nonprofit that organizes the show and fundraises the exorbitant costs. (The State Department provides $375,000, a third of which goes to facility upkeep).

Recent pavilions have been historic and widely celebrated firsts, including Leig

By Sarah Ferris, Fredreka Schouten, Steve Contorno, CNN

(CNN) — Senior Republicans in Washington are ramping up the pressure on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to redraw his state’s US House map after Virginia Democrats flipped potentially four seats in their favor.

With just six months until the midterms, Republicans see Florida as their last major chance to make gains in the redistricting war President Donald Trump launched last summer. They hope to pick up as many as three seats in the Sunshine State, which would give Republicans back their slight advantage from redistricting, though much smaller than they’d once hoped. With Tuesday’s referendum passing in Virginia, Democrats are estimated to have drawn 10 seats in their favor nationwide compared to the Republicans’ nine.

“Florida has the right and the intention to do it. And my view is that they should,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. Asked if the Florida legislators should redraw the state’s maps before the midterms, Johnson said: “Yes, absolutely.”

A special session to consider redistricting in Florida is slated to start Tuesday, but no map has been publicly released. A DeSantis spokesperson did not respond to a CNN inquiry about its status.

Key Republicans involved in redistricting say they’ve been kept largely in the dark on DeSantis’ plans. There’s no coordination on the state level because of strict state rules around partisan gerrymandering, and no maps have been officially circulated within Florida’s congressional delegation either.

“They’re just kind of firing up the software now and seeing what they can draw, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has a plan,” someone close to DeSantis’ inner circle told CNN earlier this week. “They know they have to do something, but everyone is hoping we don’t get too greedy.”

Rep. Kat Cammack told CNN she is eager to see Florida Republicans redraw their maps and believes the GOP could pick up two or three seats and still “maintain compactness and fairness.”

But she also warned her party not to go too far: “I think that we get into some dangerous territory if we’re seriously considering five.”

Cammack is one of eight Florida Republicans that House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries specifically pledged to “aggressively target for defeat” if the state GOP advances a new map. (To that threat, she responded: “Bring it on.”)

Not all Republicans are on board. Some members of Florida’s congressional delegation – particularly those in the southern half of the state – are increasingly anxious about creating a potential new map so late in the year. Some simply dislike the idea of being forced into a new district; others are worried that they or their colleagues could have their reelection bids put in danger, according to multiple Republicans briefed on the effort.

GOP Rep. Laurel Lee, who once served as DeSantis’ secretary of state and now represents a Tampa-area district, was cautious when asked whether Florida should move ahead based on Virginia’s election results.

“I am sure that the legislature will make an independent decision about what they think is appropriate, separate from what some of the other states have decided to do,” Lee said.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna noted in a recent interview with CNN that a new map for the 2026 election would mark the third time in four elections that the contours of the district she’s running in have changed.

“Please, guys, c’mon,” Luna said jokingly. “Not again. I’m having commitment issues.”<

Por Morgan Rimmer, Sarah Ferris y Ted Barrett, CNN

Ante el estancamiento del Congreso sobre cómo poner fin al cierre del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, los republicanos del Senado dieron un paso clave para preparar una medida partidista que financie los programas de inmigración más controvertidos y, finalmente, reabra el Gobierno por completo.

El intento del Partido Republicano de financiar al Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas y a la patrulla fronteriza sin ningún apoyo demócrata siguió adelante tras una maratónica sesión nocturna conocida como “vote-a-rama” en inglés o voto por rama en español que se prolongó hasta la madrugada del jueves.

La cámara aprobó el proyecto de presupuesto del Partido Republicano del Senado por 50 votos a favor y 48 en contra, con todos los demócratas presentes votando en contra. Dos republicanas, las senadoras Lisa Murkowski de Alaska y Rand Paul de Kentucky, rompieron filas y votaron en contra de la medida.

A continuación, la Cámara de Representantes tendrá que aprobar la misma medida, y luego un paquete legislativo republicano que financie a ICE y a la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza tendrá que superar una dura prueba parlamentaria en el Senado antes de otra maratónica serie de votaciones en las próximas semanas.

Este complejo proceso, denominado conciliación presupuestaria, debería permitir a los republicanos en el Congreso aprobar los fondos sin necesidad de los votos demócratas.

La oposición ha dejado claro que no apoyarán ninguna financiación futura para la aplicación de las leyes de inmigración a menos que se produzcan cambios importantes en las tácticas y los protocolos de ICE, tras la muerte a tiros de dos estadounidenses a manos de agentes federales en Minnesota a principios de este año.

Hace semanas, el Senado aprobó por unanimidad un paquete para financiar al resto del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, pero los republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes rechazaron el acuerdo bipartidista, prolongando el cierre del Gobierno porque no incluía fondos controvertidos para la aplicación de la ley en materia de inmigración.

El líder de la mayoría del Senado, John Thune, expresó su esperanza de que el avance de los republicanos en el Senado para financiar ICE y el CBP garantice que la Cámara de Representantes también lo apruebe.

Sin embargo, la dirección republicana de la Cámara no se ha comprometido a establecer un cronograma para financiar el resto del DHS.

Durante la “votación masiva”, los demócratas presentaron enmiendas dirigidas a modificar las políticas de ICE y abordar cuestiones de asequibilidad que, según argumentan, los republicanos están ignorando de cara a las elecciones de mitad de mandato.

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Con información de Logan Schiciano, de CNN.

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