The Nasdaq Composite surged 1.91% on Thursday, closing at a record 26,517.93, up 496.28 points, as a blockbuster semiconductor partnership announcement and easing Middle East tensions combined to power one of the tech-heavy index’s strongest single-day rallies in recent weeks heading into the three-day Juneteenth holiday weekend.

U.S. equities closed higher on Thursday, as tech strength and optimism over the U.S.-Iran deal offset concerns over a hawkish Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 advanced 1% and the Nasdaq 100 gained 1.9%, while the Dow rose by 72 points.

Intel’s Surprise Apple Partnership Drives the Rally

The single most significant catalyst behind Thursday’s tech-sector surge was a surprise announcement involving two of the most closely watched names in American semiconductor and consumer electronics manufacturing. Intel surged 10.6% after President Trump announced that the semiconductor giant would produce chips for Apple in the U.S.

The announcement sent ripples across the entire chip sector, lifting a broad swath of semiconductor names that had struggled earlier in the month. The news lifted the broader chip sector, with Nvidia up 2.8% and Micron Technology climbing 8.5%.

AI powerhouse Nvidia continued its upward trajectory, gaining 1.77% to reach $225.01 on news of increased infrastructure spending. The stock’s continued strength reflected ongoing investor enthusiasm for companies positioned at the center of the artificial intelligence buildout, even amid broader market uncertainty tied to monetary policy.

Easing Middle East Tensions Add Further Support

Beyond the chip sector catalyst, broader market sentiment continued to benefit from the formal signing of an interim peace agreement between the United States and Iran, which has helped calm fears of sustained volatility in global energy markets. The interim peace agreement signed by the U.S. and Iran, which includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, raised hopes for an end to the conflict and eased concerns about volatile energy prices.

That improved geopolitical outlook extended its benefits beyond the technology sector and into other parts of the market sensitive to energy costs and global stability. Airlines also saw strong gains, with American Airlines rising 3.3%.

The Hawkish Fed Backdrop That Preceded the Rally

Thursday’s gains came as markets continued working through the implications of a notably hawkish signal delivered by the Federal Reserve just one day earlier. The Federal Reserve kept rates steady, with half of officials signaling that at least one rate increase may be warranted this year.

That hawkish dot plot had triggered a sharp selloff in the prior session, making Thursday’s recovery all the more notable. Equity indexes rose and yields were flat Thursday ahead of the open as investors recovered some of the ground lost after the Federal Reserve, in Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as chair, indicated the possibility of a rate hike this year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost more than 500 points Wednesday and the S&P 500 slumped 1.2% as hopes for a more dovish Fed were quickly dashed, with all 11 of its sectors closing in the red.

Volatility Eases Sharply

The combination of the Intel-Apple announcement and the formalized Iran peace deal appeared to substantially calm investor anxiety that had built up earlier in the week. The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street’s fear gauge, fell sharply by 11.06% to 16.40, a notable decline that reflected renewed confidence among traders heading into the long holiday weekend.

Strength Extended Across Major Indexes

Thursday’s rally was not confined to the Nasdaq alone, with virtually every major U.S. benchmark posting solid gains during the session. The S&P 500 closed up 1.08% at 7,500.58, while the Russell 2000 Index, which tracks smaller companies, gained 2.12%.

Dow Futures also trended higher throughout the session, rising 95.00, or 0.18%, to reach 52,039.00, signaling continued optimism among traders looking ahead to the next full trading session.

International Markets Largely Joined the Advance

The positive sentiment driving U.S. markets Thursday extended to several major international exchanges as well, though the response was not uniform across every region. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 1.65%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.37%, and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.44%.

Not every overseas market participated in the rally, however. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.59%, and London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.04%, illustrating that the optimism driving U.S. trading was not universally shared across global markets, with some regions continuing to grapple with their own distinct sets of economic and geopolitical pressures.

A Narrow but Powerful Rally

Despite the strength of Thursday’s headline numbers, market analysts noted that the rally’s underlying composition was relatively concentrated rather than broad-based. The primary narrative driving the market on Thursday was the resilience of industrial manufacturing and AI-driven hardware, which managed to offset broader weakness in enterprise software and consumer retail. While the index reached new heights, the narrow breadth of the rally suggested selective investor sentiment as the market digested new economic data.

That narrow breadth was reflected in the mixed performance among individual technology and consumer names even as the overall index surged. Software giant Salesforce fell 1.64% to $168.45 during the session, demonstrating that not every corner of the technology sector shared in the day’s broader enthusiasm, even as semiconductor and AI infrastructure names led the charge higher.

Markets Now Closed for the Juneteenth Holiday

With Thursday’s record-setting session now complete, U.S. markets will remain closed for the remainder of the week in observance of a federal holiday. The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq will be closed for trading on June 19, 2026, in observance of the federal holiday of Juneteenth. Both major stock exchanges first closed for the holiday in 2022, after Juneteenth was designated as a federal holiday in 2021.

The stock and bond markets will reopen Monday, June 22, and it will be business as usual on Wall Street for a few days, with the next scheduled market closure coming Friday, July 3, in observance of Independence Day.

Heading into the long holiday weekend, Thursday’s powerful close leaves the Nasdaq at a fresh record high, with investors set to return Monday to assess whether the combination of strong AI and semiconductor momentum, improving geopolitical conditions in the Middle East, and lingering uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s rate path can sustain the index’s recent upward trajectory. Given the narrow, hardware-and-chip-concentrated nature of Thursday’s advance, market watchers will be closely monitoring whether sectors like enterprise software and consumer retail — which lagged notably during the session — can join the rally once trading resumes next week, or whether Thursday’s gains prove to be a more selective, short-lived response to a single high-profile corporate announcement.

Stock markets, most banks, and the United States Postal Service are closed Friday in observance of Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, while private shipping carriers like FedEx and UPS continue operating on their normal schedules.

Juneteenth’s Status as a Federal Holiday

Juneteenth is specified by law to be a federal holiday for federal employees in the U.S., according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Juneteenth was officially recognized as a federal holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021, making it one of the newest additions to the official federal holiday calendar.

The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when news of the abolition of slavery finally reached enslaved people in Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. The date has been celebrated informally within Black communities across the country for generations, long before its formal federal recognition five years ago.

Stock Markets Are Closed

The stock markets on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are closed for trading on Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, 2026. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association also recommended bond markets close for the holiday.

This marks the fifth year that Wall Street has formally observed the holiday with a full market closure, following its initial federal recognition in 2021. Trading is scheduled to resume as normal on Monday, June 22, when both major exchanges reopen for regular business hours.

Most Banks Will Be Closed

Most banks will be closed on Juneteenth, or Friday, June 19, 2026, according to the Federal Reserve. That closure affects the vast majority of major financial institutions across the country, meaning customers seeking in-person banking services, loan processing, or other branch-based transactions should expect delays until the next business day.

Customers needing to perform basic transactions can typically still access ATM services during the holiday, though any deposits or withdrawals made on Friday generally will not post to accounts until the following business day at the earliest.

No Mail Delivery From USPS

The United States Postal Service will be closed, and mail will not be delivered on Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, 2026. As a federal agency, USPS observes all official federal holidays with a full closure of post office locations and a pause in regular mail delivery routes. Customers expecting mail deliveries on Friday should anticipate that service resuming once normal operations restart following the holiday.

FedEx Remains Open

In contrast to the Postal Service, FedEx will be open on Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, 2026, with all delivery options expected to operate as normal. As a private shipping company rather than a federal agency, FedEx is not required to observe federal holidays in the same manner as government entities, and the company has continued normal operations on Juneteenth since its federal designation in 2021.

UPS Also Operating Normally

The UPS Store is open, and UPS delivery and pickup services are available on Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, 2026. Like FedEx, UPS operates as a private company and has maintained regular service schedules on the holiday, giving customers continued access to shipping, package pickup, and delivery services without disruption.

A Patchwork of State-Level Recognition

While Juneteenth carries the same status as other established federal holidays at the national government level, its recognition varies considerably from state to state, creating a patchwork of observance across the country. While a federal holiday, Juneteenth is not recognized as a state holiday in Indiana, meaning state government offices and operations within that state may continue functioning normally even as federal offices, the stock market, and the Postal Service observe the closure nationwide.

That variation between federal and state-level recognition has remained a point of ongoing discussion since Juneteenth’s elevation to federal holiday status, with some states formally adopting it as an official state holiday with corresponding government office closures, while others, including Indiana, have not extended that same level of recognition at the state government level.

What This Means for Planning Around the Holiday

For anyone navigating Friday’s holiday schedule, the basic pattern follows a familiar structure seen across other federal holidays throughout the year: government-run institutions and federally regulated markets close, while privately operated shipping and retail businesses largely continue normal operations.

Specifically, that means anyone with banking needs, mail to send or receive, or stock trades to execute should plan around Friday’s closures and expect those services to resume Monday. Meanwhile, anyone needing to ship a package through FedEx or UPS, or simply needing to run errands at most retail stores and restaurants, should encounter business largely as usual.

Looking Ahead to the Next Holiday Closure

With Friday’s Juneteenth closures now in effect, the next scheduled disruption to the federal holiday calendar and corresponding market closures will not arrive until Independence Day. Markets, banks, and the Postal Service are scheduled to observe their next federal holiday closure on Friday, July 3, 2026, in recognition of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

In the meantime, Monday, June 22, will mark a full return to normal operations across financial markets, banking services, and postal delivery, bringing the brief three-day holiday weekend disruption to a close as the new trading week begins.

American Express has agreed to buy TheFork, the restaurant booking app owned by Tripadvisor, for $700 million, in a move that hands the card giant one of Europe’s largest dining platforms and a firmer foothold in its fastest-growing market.

The all-cash deal, announced by American Express, will lift the group’s bookable dining network to 75,000 venues and reinforce an international business that has outpaced the rest of the company for years. The transaction is expected to complete by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

For Amex, dining has become far more than a perk. Rafa Marquez, president of international card services, said owning TheFork would strengthen the group’s ability to put its members in front of the restaurants they want. “Dining is one of the most important ways people engage with our brand,” he said. “TheFork has built a successful platform across Europe with strong relationships throughout the restaurant industry that would complement our existing capabilities.”

The purchase is the latest step in a dining strategy that Amex has been building for the best part of a decade. It bought the reservations platform Resy in 2019, which now offers cardholders early notifications and access to hard-to-get tables, and two years ago completed a $400 million acquisition of Tock, a booking business first launched in 2014. The group has also been broadening its small-business proposition and, through its restaurant grant programme, has positioned itself as a backer of independent operators at a difficult moment for the sector.

Founded in Paris in 2007, TheFork lets diners find and book tables online and works with more than 50,000 restaurants across 11 European countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Almir Ambeskovic, its chief executive, said the company was created “to help restaurants thrive and to make it easier for diners to discover and enjoy great restaurants”. He added: “American Express shares our commitment to innovation, service and hospitality. Together, we have a unique opportunity to accelerate our mission, bringing even more value to restaurants while creating richer and more seamless experiences for millions of diners across Europe.”

The sale comes after sustained pressure on Tripadvisor, which has struggled to shake off pandemic-era disruption and competition from rivals such as Booking Holdings and Airbnb, as well as newer entrants reshaping the online booking market, including Google’s AI-powered reservation tool. The activist investor Starboard Value had pushed the company to sell TheFork, which it has owned since 2014. Jeff Smith, Starboard’s chief executive, argued last October that TheFork was the least-integrated and easiest part of the business to break off, before the hedge fund grew more agitated in February, criticising the pace of Tripadvisor’s strategic review and urging management to explore a sale of the whole company.

Stephen Squeri, chairman and chief executive of American Express, said he was “excited about the opportunity to deepen our relationship with Tripadvisor”, adding that the two firms could “create even greater value for customers and partners” across dining, travel and experiences. Matt Goldberg, Tripadvisor’s chief executive, said the deal reflected “the tangible value” across the group’s portfolio.

The market reaction was positive on both sides. Tripadvisor shares, which have fallen more than 65 per cent over five years, closed up 1.2 per cent in New York on Monday night, while American Express shares ended the day 3.1 per cent higher.

Mark Dixon, one of Britain’s most enduring entrepreneurs, is to step aside as chief executive of International Workplace Group nearly four decades after he founded the company.

Christian Schmitz, a former McKinsey partner and onetime director at the private equity firm KKR, will succeed Dixon in the top job, IWG confirmed in a statement to the stock market. Schmitz joined the group last year as chief transformation officer before being promoted to global head of all regions.

Dixon, 66, will move up to executive chairman, a role in which he will “continue to provide strategic guidance to the board and act as an advisor to the CEO”, the company said. He still owns just over a quarter of the shares in IWG, and the board framed his new position as a way to “maintain Mark Dixon’s unrivalled industry knowledge, experience and long-term strategic perspective through an orderly CEO transition process”.

IWG is the world’s largest provider of flexible workspace and sits behind a stable of brands including Regus, Spaces and Signature. The group operates more than 4,000 locations across some 120 countries, a footprint that has expanded sharply as employers have embraced hybrid working. The shift has been good for business: demand for flexible space recently drove IWG’s revenues to a record £3.3 billion.

Dixon founded the business in Brussels in 1989, at the age of 29. The idea came to him after watching businesspeople hold meetings in coffee shops and concluding that the traditional office was overdue for a rethink. That hunch has since reshaped how millions of people work, and the rise of serviced offices built for hybrid working has kept the model firmly in fashion.

He is one of the few people in Britain to have built a business worth more than £1 billion, and one of the longest-serving chief executives across the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, of which IWG is a constituent. The company is valued at about £1.8 billion on the stock market. Dixon’s stake leaves him with a personal fortune of £931 million, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

His route to the top was anything but conventional. Dixon left school at 16 to start a business, and by the time he launched IWG, then called Regus, he had already tried his hand at selling sandwiches and running a bakery.

The company he created has weathered more than one storm. After rapid growth through the 1990s, it was badly hit by the dotcom crash in the early 2000s, when many of the start-ups renting its desks went bust. Its US arm entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Dixon was forced to sell a stake in the UK business, though he later regained control and bought the operations back. More recently he has trimmed his holding, selling £68.5 million of shares to repay a bank loan.

Dixon cast the leadership change as a long-term bet on the company’s future rather than a retreat. “This is an investment in the future. I am a very significant investor in the business and I want to get the right management to take it forward to the next stage,” he said. “It’s about succession planning, doing the right thing for the company and for the company’s future. We are doing very well. There is lots of opportunity, but you need the right management team and the right leadership to take it to the next level.”

He praised Schmitz for his “superb leadership skills and lots of experience”.

Asked what had been the key to building IWG, Dixon returned to a single word: perseverance. “You’ve got to persevere. If you look at the history of the company, it’s the management of capital and perseverance from the beginning,” he said. “It’s also about hiring the right people. That’s what we’re doing here with the investment in Christian. It’s not a one-man activity, it’s always about people.”

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

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LONDON — A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 3-year-old boy ended up in a crocodile enclosure at an English zoo Thursday afternoon, leaving the child with serious injuries and critically but stably hospitalized.

The “distressing incident” occurred Thursday afternoon at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a family-run farm and zoo located in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, police said. Cambridgeshire Police said officers were called to the zoo at 1:24 p.m. to reports of an incident involving a three-year-old boy, during which he ended up in the crocodile enclosure.

The Boy’s Condition

The boy “ended up in the crocodile enclosure” and was taken to a local hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition, Cambridgeshire police said. The child has been taken to the hospital with serious injuries and is in critical but stable condition, police said, adding that specially trained officers are supporting the boy and his family.

The Arrest

A 30-year-old man from Norfolk was arrested, and police say they do not believe he and the child are known to each other, and an investigation is underway. A 30-year-old man who is an apparent stranger to the child has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the incident, police said.

Detective Inspector Verity McCann, leading the investigation, described the early stages of the inquiry. “At this stage we are speaking to people who were at the zoo at the time of this distressing incident to understand more about the circumstances,” said Detective Inspector Verity McCann.

A Possible Rescue Attempt

Local accounts have suggested that a member of the zoo’s ownership family may have intervened during the incident in an effort to help the child. A villager who did not want to be named told the Press Association that the zoo owner’s wife, Tracey Johnson, jumped in to try to save the child. That detail has not been independently confirmed by Cambridgeshire Police in their official statements on the incident.

The Zoo’s Response

Johnsons of Old Hurst issued a statement on social media following the incident, expressing condolences to the boy and his family. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the boy and his family following the incident that occurred today,” Johnsons of Old Hurst said in a statement on social media Thursday.

The zoo also announced a decision to close part of its facility in the wake of the incident. Johnsons of Old Hurst said its tropical house, which is home to multiple species of crocodiles and other reptiles, will remain closed until further notice “out of respect to the family.”

An Active and Ongoing Investigation

Police have emphasized that the investigation remains in its early stages, with officers working to gather witness accounts and establish a clearer picture of exactly how the incident unfolded. This is a developing story and will be updated with the latest information as soon as it becomes available, according to one local outlet covering the case as details continue to emerge.

Cambridgeshire Police have not yet released additional details about the specific circumstances that led to the boy ending up inside the enclosure, nor have they elaborated further on the nature of the relationship — or lack thereof — between the arrested man and the child’s family beyond confirming they do not believe the two are known to each other.

A Family-Run Attraction in Rural Cambridgeshire

Johnsons of Old Hurst operates as a family-run farm and zoo in the village of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. The facility’s tropical house, now closed indefinitely following Thursday’s incident, houses a collection of crocodiles and other reptile species as one of its featured attractions for visitors.

The zoo’s decision to voluntarily close that section of the facility reflects both the gravity of the incident and an apparent effort by management to allow space for the investigation to proceed and for the affected family to process what police have described as a deeply distressing event.

What Happens Next

With the 30-year-old suspect now in custody on suspicion of attempted murder and the boy remaining hospitalized in critical but stable condition, the investigation is expected to continue in the coming days as Cambridgeshire Police work to interview additional witnesses who were present at the zoo at the time of the incident. Detective Inspector McCann’s comments suggest investigators are still working to establish a complete account of what occurred before any further details about specific charges or the circumstances of the incident are likely to be released publicly.

Authorities have not indicated when additional information about the case might be made available, and no further updates regarding either the boy’s medical condition or the status of the criminal investigation had been released as of the most recent police statement.