Israel-Iran attacks and the 2 other things that drove the stock market this week
What was shaping up to be a relatively calm week quickly got volatile on Friday, following Israel's overnight strike on Iran. Here is a closer look at the three biggest themes that defined the market this week. 1. Geopolitics: The attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure rippled through financial markets on Friday. U.S. stocks sold off on the increased tensions overseas. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.13% and 1.3% on Friday, respectively. Meanwhile, Brent crude futures and West Texas Intermediate crude futures added around 7% and 7.5%, respectively. Gold rose to a two-month high, as well, as investors see it as a safe haven from all the volatility. Prior to the attack, stock benchmark were on track to close the week in the positive. Instead, the S & P 500 and Nasdaq lost 0.4% and 0.6% over that stretch, snapping back-to-back weekly wining streaks. Despite a modest gain Friday, part of the safe-haven trade, the U.S. dollar index had a tough week. On Thursday, we wrote about how long-term fundamental investors should view the weaker dollar. Another big geopolitical event for investors was an announcement by U.S. and Chinese delegations that the two sides agreed on a trade-deal framework, particularly focused on rare-earth minerals. 2. Economic data: Investors received good news on the inflation front on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, the c onsumer price index, a measure of goods and services inflation across the U.S. economy, showed that core prices rose less that expected last month. The May producer price index , a gauge of wholesale inflation in the country, came in lower than expected Thursday, too. The labor market continued to show it was softening but not breaking. Weekly jobless claims for the week ending June 7 were unchanged, while continuing claims were still at multiyear highs. On the whole, the batch of economic data was encouraging as the rate of inflation subsides and unemployment remains low, providing the consumer with more buying power. 3. AI updates: It was also a week chock full of company specific news and events within the generative artificial intelligence race. AI remains one of the most important, if not the most important, drivers for financial markets. On Monday, we heard from Apple, when the company hosted its annual worldwide developer conference. Though expectations were about as muted as we've ever seen, the event still managed to disappoint due to the lack of AI updates. Meta Platforms, on the other hand, got investors excited this week when news broke that the company took a large investment in Scale AI and will bring the startup's CEO on board to help start a new "superintelligence" unit within the company with the goal of achieving artificial general intelligence. Early Wednesday morning, we heard from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who spoke at the company's GTC event in Paris. While there weren't many new updates, Huang reaffirmed that there is still a lot more accelerated compute capacity that needs to be built out, highlighting demand from hyperscale customers and sovereign entities alike. Europe, he argued, is likely to 10 times its compute capacity over the next two years. Outside the portfolio, Oracle and Advanced Micro Devices made news on AI, too. Oracle stock jumped Thursday after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results the prior evening. Impressively, the stock soared again Friday, despite the broader market sell-off, en route to its best week since 2021 . BMO Capital also upgraded Oracle to a buy rating. Oracle CEO Safra Catz's comments on its cloud infrastructure business confirmed that there's growing demand for AI computing power. Indeed, Oracle said revenues from that business should surge 70% year over year in its fiscal 2026. Elsewhere, Advanced Micro Devices unveiled its new AI server chip for 2026 at a company event Thursday, part of its attempt to rival Nvidia's market-leading offering. AMD also announced that it's landed a new high-profile customer OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT and Club holding Microsoft's AI partner. The chip isn't expected to launch until 2026, though. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AAPL, META, NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
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But the momentum faded in March and April, with the funds trailing the market as top holdings—especially Tesla, her biggest position—slid amid growing concerns over the macroeconomy and trade policies. Now, the fund is regaining momentum. As of June 13, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF () is up 8% year-to-date, outpacing the S&P 500's 1.6% gain. Wood had a remarkable gain of 153% in 2020, which helped build her reputation and attract loyal investors. Still, her long-term performance has made many others skeptical of her aggressive style. As of June 13, Ark Innovation ETF, with $5.5 billion under management, has delivered a five-year annualized return of 0.4%. In comparison, the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 16.2% over the same period. Wood's investment strategy is straightforward: Her Ark ETFs typically buy shares in emerging high-tech companies in fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. Wood says these companies have the potential to reshape industries, but their volatility leads to major fluctuations in Ark funds' Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth over the 10 years ending in 2024, according to an analysis by Morningstar's analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott's ranking. Wood recently said the U.S. is coming out of a three-year 'rolling recession' and heading into a productivity-led recovery that could trigger a broader bull market. In a letter to investors published in late April, she dismissed predictions of a recession dragging into 2026, as she expects "more clarity on tariffs, taxes, regulations, and interest rates over the next three to six months." "If the current tariff turmoil results in freer trade, as tariffs and non-tariff barriers come down in tandem with declines in other taxes, regulations, and interest rates, then real GDP growth and productivity should surprise on the high side of expectations at some point during the second half of this year," she wrote. She also struck an optimistic tone for tech stocks. "During the current turbulent transition in the US, we think consumers and businesses are likely to accelerate the shift to technologically enabled innovation platforms including artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology, and multiomics sequencing," she said. Investor confidence has wavered. Over the past year, the Ark Innovation ETF saw $2 billion in net outflows, as some investors grew wary of volatility and underperformance. But in a potential sign of renewed interest, the fund brought in $250 million in fresh capital between June 7 and June 12, according to ETF research firm VettaFi. On June 11, Wood's Ark funds sold 55,829 shares of Palantir Technologies () . That chunk of stock was valued at roughly $7.6 million. Palantir is known for providing AI-driven data analytics software to the U.S. government, military, and commercial clients company reported stronger first-quarter revenue in May and raised its full-year outlook as demand for AI tools increased. 'We are delivering the operating system for the modern enterprise in the era of AI,' CEO Alex Karp many tech stocks have struggled this year, Palantir has stood out. Its shares are up 81.7% in 2025 and just hit a record close of $137.40 on June 13. Much of the recent momentum comes from its government work. Back in May 2024, Palantir won a $480 million, five-year U.S. Army contract to build its Maven Smart System, which is a battlefield AI prototype. Last month, the Defense Department modified the contract, increasing the licensing ceiling from $480 million to $1.275 billion. Palantir's Foundry platform has been adopted by at least four federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a New York Times report published May 30. Fannie Mae also announced a partnership with Palantir in May to work on AI-based fraud detection. Palantir remains a core position for Wood even after recent sales. The stock is now the 8th largest holding in the ARK Innovation ETF, accounting for 4.7%. Wood said in February that she's moving away from hardware and infrastructure and doubling down on software, with Palantir as one of her top picks. 'Palantir is a very expensive stock, but there's nothing like it in the software space,' Wood said in a CNBC interview. 'It is, we believe, going to dominate the biggest part of the tech stack when it comes to AI. And that's the platform as a service part of the stack.' Another big trade Wood made on June 11 was selling 12,728 shares of CoreWeave Inc. () , valued at roughly $1.9 million. CoreWeave is a cloud infrastructure company specializing in GPU-accelerated computing for artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. The company has delivered explosive growth and won support from Nvidia and March 28, CoreWeave launched its initial public offering, which was one of the largest AI-related listings since 2021. Since then, the stock is up more than 277%. That company is now Nvidia's largest holding, making up more than 78% of its disclosed portfolio. In the first quarter this year, Nvidia bought 24,182,460 shares after the IPO, according to data from WhaleWisdom based on 13F filings. On May 14, CoreWeave reported better-than-expected revenue on Wednesday in the company's first earnings release since going public. CoreWeave reported a 420% year-over-year revenue increase to $981.6 million for the first quarter. Despite this growth, the company's net loss widened to $314.6 million from $129.2 million a year earlier, partly driven by $177 million in stock-based compensation linked to its IPO. Bloomberg reporter Ryan Vlastelica commented that CoreWeave and Palantir are drawing comparisons to meme stocks after sharp rallies. But unlike GameStop, both are backed by strong demand. Still, valuations are a concern. Palantir trades at 71 times estimated sales, the highest in the S&P 500. CoreWeave, despite a $315 million loss last quarter, is valued at 10 times projected sales, well above the S&P 500's average of 3, Bloomberg reported. CoreWeave is not in Ark Innovation's top 10 holdings. Wood's recent trades also include buying shares of GitLab () , selling Kratos Defense () and Roblox () .Cathie Wood sells $9.5 million of popular AI stocks after big rally first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 15, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
