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The Pentagon isn't flipping out about the rumor.

Even better, it's 30% off on Amazon — and can be at your home before Mother's Day.

Even better, it's 30% off on Amazon — and can be at your home before Mother's Day.

The fashion statements didn't stop on the museum steps.

The fashion statements didn't stop on the museum steps.

US Services Surveys Disappoint In April Amid Stench Of Stagflation

Despite Manufacturing surveys solid (and US factory orders surging), expectations are for the Services sector surveys today to show stagflationary signals (weak growth, surging prices).

S&P Global's Services PMI disappointed in April (final), falling from its flash print of 51.3 to 51.0, but still up from multi-year lows below 50 in March, showing just marginal activity growth despite weak drop in sales volumes.

ISM Services PMI also disappointed in April, falling from 54.0 to 53.6 (vs 53.7 exp) amid tumbling new orders and high prices.

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood it was not a pretty picture at all with new orders slowing dramatically, Prices Paid holding near cycle highs, and employment contracting for the second month in a row...

“Although business activity returned to growth after a small decline in March, it’s clear the pace of growth has kicked down a couple of gears since the start of the year," said Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The survey data are indicative of GDP growing at a modest 1% annualized rate.

“Growth may weaken further," warns Williamson, as service providers are reporting lower inflows of new business for the first time in two years, reflecting an intensifying hit to demand from the war in the Middle East.

“The direct impact of the war has been most evident in consumer-facing services, as high prices have led to a pull-back in discretionary spending on activities such as holidays and recreation, though transport has also been curbed by high fuel prices and travel disruptions." 

However, a secondary additional driver of renewed weakness is a drop in demand for financial services, in part linked to heightened uncertainty about market outlooks but also reflecting expectations of higher inflation and interest rates, which has hit real estate and lending activity.

But it's not just weak growth/orders, prices are surging too... broadly.

“A further increase in input cost inflation reflected not just higher fuel prices but a widening spread of goods and services rising in price, as well as higher wages, which will feed through to consumer price inflation in the coming months."

The scale of the price rises will put pressure on the Fed to prevent higher inflation becoming entrenched, but the smell of stagflation remains in the air - central bankers' arch-nemesis.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/05/2026 - 10:05

It's time for Mary Bennet to finally get her flowers.

Fortune's new book "Our Perfect Storm" is on sale now.

Fortune's new book "Our Perfect Storm" is on sale now.

Access $200 in bonus bets for Yankees vs. Rangers with the bet365 bonus code.

The Belgian golfer was “ready to retire” if LIV Golf closed up shop last month after reports questioning the league’s future popped up.

"It was the best story ever."

Run straight to the deal.

After 18 months of bare-knuckle brawling, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal saga ended with a whimper.

After we told you about a condition called "Blue Dot Fever" that's spreading to music acts and planned big summer tours -- the Pussycat Dolls are the latest group to come down with a bad case.

After we told you about a condition called "Blue Dot Fever" that's spreading to music acts and planned big summer tours -- the Pussycat Dolls are the latest group to come down with a bad case.

A special education teacher got a sweetheart deal while admitting to having drugged-up sex with a 16-year-old student at her parents’ home at least a dozen times.  Michelle Mercogliano, 36, was sentenced Friday to just 15 months in a Pennsylvania state prison after pleading guilty to institutional sexual assault and corruption of minors, the Chester...

Starting May 19, Delta Air Lines will no longer offer food and beverage service on 450 daily flights.

Shaquille Taylor, 32, was slapped with a 38-year prison sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to firing the stray bullet that killed Belmont University freshman, Jillian Ludwig, as she was jogging near the Nashville campus in 2023.

Shale Giant Diamondback Is Boosting Oil Output "Immediately" On Soaring Prices

With oil prices soaring to multi-year highs, it was only a matter of time: Diamondback Energy, one of the largest shale oil producers, announced it is boosting crude output in response to rising prices caused by the Iran war.

The company that operates in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is pumping more than 520,000 barrels a day, 3% more than its original full-year guidance, and plans to sustains those levels, Chief Executive Officer Kaes Van’t Hof wrote in a letter to shareholders on Monday.

“We believe there is a legitimate supply-demand imbalance and that the associated price signal is the catalyst to begin to grow production,” he wrote. “Because of our positioning, our preparation and this price signal, we are bringing incremental barrels to the market immediately.”

Van’t Hof’s comments come just days after supermajors Exxon Mobil and Chevron told investors they wouldn’t significantly alter production plans in response to the unprecedented war-drive disruption to Persian Gulf energy supplies. Exxon’s plan to raise Permian Basin output by 12% this year pre-dated the Iran war, while Chevron is sticking to plans to keep production from the region essentially flat. 

Diamondback CEO Kaes Van’t Hof

However, now that one company has broken the seal, expect a rush to hike output across the US E&P sector.

As Bloomberg notes, Diamondback isn’t the first shale specialist to see the Middle East conflict as an opportunity to bolster production. Billionaire Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources made a similar pledge last month. And who can blame them: crude futures are up by more than 50% since the war in Iran began in late February, and after all, when it comes to commodities, the age-old saying is that "the cure for high prices is high prices."

Of course, with more output comes more capex: Diamondback is also is raising spending guidance by 4% this year to about $3.9 billion, with plans to add as many as three additional drilling rigs and run a handful of frack crews for the rest of this year, Van’t Hof wrote.

Diamondback's CEO made waves exactly one year ago when he warned markets that the US is "at a tipping point" saying the US shale output has peaked, and slashed his capex. What a difference a year makes. 

The company is also working through its backlog of ready-made wells that have already been drilled and await fracking as a way to unleash more oil more quickly.

After using a stoplight analogy in investor letters over the past year to describe his thinking on whether to accelerate or hit the brakes on output, Van’t Hof said Monday that “the light has turned green, and Diamondback is well-positioned to respond to the current macro environment.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/05/2026 - 09:30