Episode 2026-05-22

You're listening to 7 Horns AI — your AI-powered market update. Good morning, and welcome to your Friday, May twenty-second market briefing. We kick off our pre-market look with a strong positive handoff from overnight Asian trading. Asian markets rallied robustly, led by a surge in Japan. The Nikkei two hundred twenty-five jumped a remarkable two point seven percent to sixty-three thousand three hundred fifty-two, nearing record highs, fueled by chipmakers and AI-linked stocks. This comes as Japan's core inflation slowed to a four-year low of one point four percent in April. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong also rose one point two percent, while the Shanghai Composite climbed a solid half a percent. Overall, the MSCI Asia Index rose about one percent, setting a constructive tone. However, we are noting a one point three nine percent pre-market decline in the China E T F, which could reflect some hedging or profit-taking. Despite the strong performance in Asia, US futures are showing minimal post-close drift this morning, essentially in line with where Thursday's cash session settled. S&P five hundred, Nasdaq one hundred, and Dow futures are all flat to fractionally higher, suggesting a rather quiet open with no strong directional conviction yet. Meanwhile, European markets are adding to the positive global sentiment, with the Stoxx Europe six hundred up half a percent, and both the DAX and CAC forty gaining zero point six and zero point four percent respectively in early tr