Powell Stays on Fed Board After 8-4 Hold | Apple $111B Beat, Ternus Next CEO | GOOGL +10% on $110B Beat | META -9% on AI Capex | Lilly +14%, Mounjaro +125% | BTC Holds $77K | XRP ETF Inflows Cross $1.44B | Sun Pharma Buys Organon $11.75B

The week in markets: April 26 to May 2, 2026. The most consequential trading week of the spring delivered exactly what the calendar promised. Five of the Magnificent Seven printed Q1 earnings, the Federal Reserve held rates and lost four governors to dissent, the European Central Bank held but openly debated a hike, Apple replaced Tim Cook on the same evening it posted a $111 billion quarter, the Strait of Hormuz stayed shut for a ninth straight week, and the crypto complex absorbed a record dissent print at the Fed without breaking the April range. This is the week-in-review for traders who want the structural read, not the price recap. For the day-by-day price coverage see the daily morning analysis posts linked through the week.

Top Stock Stories of the Week

1. Mag 7 Earnings Superweek: AI Monetization Wins, Capex Spend Punished

Five of the seven mega-cap tech names reported Q1 2026 earnings between Wednesday and Thursday, and the tape sorted the names with surgical precision. Alphabet (GOOGL) printed adjusted EPS of $2.62 (a penny short) on revenue of $110 billion that beat by $2.7 billion, with Search reaccelerating; the stock climbed roughly 10% on the week, the cleanest reaction in the group. Apple (AAPL) posted Q2 FY2026 revenue of $111.2 billion (+17% year over year) with iPhone $57.0B (+22%), Services a record $31.0B, and Greater China up 28% YoY answering the soft-China narrative; AAPL added roughly 3% in after-hours Friday on the beat. Microsoft (MSFT) beat on adjusted EPS of $4.27 versus $4.06 expected but the stock fell almost 4% on the week as the market discounted higher AI capex guidance and Azure margin pressure. Meta (META) beat on $7.31 EPS versus $6.79 and revenue of $56.3B but cratered roughly 9% after raising 2026 capital expenditure guidance again. Amazon (AMZN) finished essentially flat (+0.7%) as AWS held but margins came in light.

The structural read across all five prints was identical: revenue beats are now table stakes, and the variable that decides the after-hours reaction is the size of the AI capex line. Names that turned AI spend into measurable revenue (GOOGL Search, AAPL Services) re-rated higher; names that asked the market for another year of patience on monetization (META, MSFT) got compressed. Combined 2026 AI infrastructure commitments across the four hyperscalers now exceed $700 billion, with every one of them raising the line on this week's calls.

2. Apple Names John Ternus as Next CEO, Tim Cook to Executive Chairman

Apple stapled a full leadership transition onto its Q2 print. Tim Cook will become executive chairman of the Board on September 1, 2026, and John Ternus, currently SVP of Hardware Engineering, will become CEO the same day. The transition was approved unanimously by the Board following what Apple described as a long-running succession planning process. Cook stays as CEO through the summer to work with Ternus on the handover and will continue engaging with policymakers as chairman. Arthur Levinson, non-executive chairman for 15 years, becomes lead independent director on September 1.

Ternus, 50, joined Apple in 2001 and was named SVP of Hardware Engineering in 2021, where he led the M-series silicon transition that defined Mac, iPad and the Vision Pro hardware roadmap. The market reaction was constructive on a fundamental signal: the cleanest Mag 7 print of the week paired with a structural succession the Street had been pricing as a 2027 to 2028 event. This is the first chief executive change at Apple since 2011.

3. Eli Lilly Q1 Beat, Mounjaro +125% and Zepbound +80%

The cleanest non-Mag-7 print of the week was Eli Lilly. LLY posted Q1 2026 revenue of $19.80 billion (+56% YoY) and adjusted EPS of $8.55 versus $7.06 consensus. Mounjaro worldwide revenue rose 125% to $8.66 billion, with Zepbound contributing $4.16 billion in U.S. sales (+80%). Management raised 2026 revenue guidance to $82 to $85 billion from $80 to $83 billion, and full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $35.50 to $37.00. The stock climbed roughly 14% across the week and acted as the single largest healthcare-bid offset to the energy-driven inflation drag that compressed broad-market multiples.

Top Crypto Stories of the Week

1. Bitcoin Holds the $75K to $80K April Range Through the FOMC

Bitcoin spent the week defending the same range it has held all of April. BTC closed Friday near $77,042 after testing $76,000 mid-week on the 1.35 billion dollar sell wave that flushed Binance on April 27. The April spot ETF flow data closed strongly: $2.44 billion of net inflows for the month, the strongest monthly print since October 2025, taking cumulative inflows since the January 2024 launch to $58.5 billion. The single negative print was meaningful but contained: April 29 saw $89 million of net outflows from BlackRock's IBIT, the largest single-day sell since launch, ending a nine-day inflow streak. Bitcoin did not break $75K on the print, which is the structural read worth noting heading into May.

2. XRP ETF Cumulative Inflows Cross $1.44B, SEC Approves Fast-Tracked Trust Shares

XRP had a busy regulatory week. The SEC published a notice on April 27 allowing XRP inclusion in fast-tracked Commodity-Based Trust Shares, building on the March CFTC-SEC joint classification of XRP as a digital commodity. Cumulative XRP ETF inflows now exceed $1.44 billion, with April contributing roughly $81.6 million. The XRP Las Vegas conference opened May 1 with the reserve-currency narrative front and centre. Despite the catalyst stack, XRP traded down roughly 3 to 4 percent on the week as the broader crypto complex absorbed the equity-side risk-off and the IBIT outflow print.

3. Solana Wrestles With $285M Drift Exploit, Q1 Network Activity Crosses $1.1T

Solana's week was a split picture. The on-chain headline was the $285 million Drift protocol exploit, which forced one of the larger Solana DeFi names to wind down operations and reignited the perennial question about smart-contract audit standards across the L1. The fundamental headline was the opposite: Solana's Q1 2026 economic activity crossed $1.1 trillion, the first trillion-dollar quarter in network history and up roughly 29% from $850 billion in Q4 2025. SOL traded down 2 to 3 percent on the week as the exploit news weighed on the front end while the structural data set the medium-term frame.

4. CLARITY Act Markup Slips From April to Mid-May

The Senate Banking Committee did not run its April markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, despite the White House compromise on stablecoin yield language earlier in the month. Senator Lummis said the earliest possible markup is the week of May 11, while Senator Tillis told reporters on April 29 he is now encouraging Chairman Scott to move forward. The stablecoin yield deal in the bill prohibits passive yield from holding USDT or USDC but permits rewards tied to payments and platform activity. Separately, the FDIC's GENIUS Act stablecoin issuer rules continue to advance, with proposed standards covering capital, liquidity and custody for FDIC-supervised depository institutions issuing stablecoins through subsidiaries. The regulatory pipeline is intact, the timing slipped a month.

M&A, Partnerships, Deals

The deal tape was uneven but the prints that landed were large. Sun Pharma agreed to buy U.S. healthcare firm Organon for $11.75 billion on April 26, the largest cross-border pharma deal of the spring. Forvia sold its auto interiors business to Apollo Funds for $2.1 billion on April 27. Pernod Ricard and Brown-Forman ended merger discussions without an agreement on April 28, removing one of the largest spirits-sector consolidation trades from the boards. On the regulatory side, China's antitrust authority blocked Meta's $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus on April 27, an unrelated overhang on META heading into Wednesday's print and a fresh data point on the U.S.-China tech-deal review pipeline.

Regulatory and Macro

The week's macro stack was the heaviest of the quarter. The FOMC held the federal funds target at 3.50 to 3.75% on April 29 in an 8-4 dissent, the most divided print since October 1992. Stephen Miran preferred a 25 bp cut; Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari and Lorie Logan supported the hold but objected to the inclusion of an easing bias in the statement. The biggest structural surprise came in Powell's press conference: Chair Powell announced he intends to remain on the Federal Reserve Board after his chair term ends May 15, citing the Trump administration's investigations of the Fed and stating "Trump's legal attacks have left me no choice." Kevin Warsh's confirmation continues through the Senate; Powell denied the Trump administration a vacancy by holding his Board seat.

Across the Atlantic, the European Central Bank kept the deposit rate at 2.00% on April 30, but Christine Lagarde told the press conference that the Governing Council "debated options at length, including a rate hike," the most hawkish ECB framing of the cycle. Eurozone April flash CPI lifted to 3.0% on energy pass-through, against Q1 GDP of 0.1%. The June 4 ECB meeting becomes the watch event, with some sell-side desks already penciling a 25 bp hike to 2.25%. On the data side, Q1 advance GDP printed 2.0% annualized (below 2.3% consensus, the softest Q1 of the cycle) and March core PCE accelerated to 3.2% YoY from 3.0%, the cleanest stagflation print of the cycle. Energy-driven supply pressure is the lever; the strip compressed June cut odds and pushed the bulk of the easing probability into September.

Week Ahead: What to Watch

• Friday May 8: April nonfarm payrolls and unemployment rate. The first major post-FOMC labor read; consensus is for moderation toward 145K to 155K from March's 228K, with unemployment held at 4.2%. A soft print could reprice June cut odds higher, a hot print extends the September lean.
• Week of May 11: earliest possible Senate Banking Committee markup window for the CLARITY Act per Senator Lummis. Watch the calendar for confirmation; a confirmed markup is the structural catalyst the crypto complex has been pricing.
• Tuesday May 13: April CPI release. The first inflation read after the March core PCE acceleration to 3.2% and the most direct test of whether the energy pass-through is a one-month spike or the start of a new trend.
• Thursday May 15: Powell's term as Fed Chair officially ends; Kevin Warsh's Senate confirmation vote pacing into the date determines whether there is a clean handover or an interim chair.
• Tuesday May 20: Nvidia Q1 FY27 earnings (quarter ended April 26). The single Mag-7 name still to print and the most direct read on whether the $700B-plus 2026 hyperscaler capex guides translate into actual GPU shipments.
• Ongoing: Strait of Hormuz status. Week 9 of the closure with WTI consolidating $105-$107 and Brent $114-$116. A confirmed reopen is the single largest disinflationary catalyst on the board; it has been faded for nine weeks.

For the day-by-day price coverage that fed into this roundup, see the daily morning analysis posts: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday FOMC day, Thursday and Friday. The full economic calendar for the week ahead is at /calendar; the daily structural reads continue in the market insights feed.

Nothing in this roundup is investment advice or a personal recommendation. ThriveInMarkets is a news and commentary publisher based in Cyprus, not a licensed investment adviser. The framework is the framework: structural reference points and macro context for traders who already understand position sizing and risk management.