Stock market today: S&P 500, Nasdaq close at record highs as Nvidia retakes $5 trillion mark, Intel finally tops 2000 peak

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US stocks diverged on Friday as semiconductor stocks powered to new highs and the Department of Justice dropped its criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed 1.6% to a fresh record as the semiconductor index (^SOX) extended gains for the 18th day in a row.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.8% to close at a record. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped 0.2% following a losing day for Wall Street stocks.

Tech equities surged as shares of Intel (INTC) jumped to a record high, surpassing their level from the year 2000. The chip giant’s strong outlook and first quarter profit beat was a sign of renewed optimism around the AI trade. Nvidia (NVDA) also closed at a record, re-taking the $5 trillion market cap crown.

Stocks also gained after the DOJ announced it would drop its criminal probe into Chair Powell, potentially clearing the way for the confirmation of President Trump’s pick to lead the Fed, Kevin Warsh.

Meanwhile, the White House indicated President Trump will send special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan this weekend for peace talks.

Oil prices edged lower as concerns about a supply squeeze persisted, as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz remain high. Brent crude (BZ=F) futures dipped below $100 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate futures (CL=F) slipped to $95 a barrel.

On the economic data, consumer sentiment improved in April but remained at record lows.

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The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) hit record highs on Friday on the heels of Intel’s (INTC) blockbuster quarter and earnings guidance, giving renewed optimism to the AI trade.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose for its 18th day in a row, with Nvidia (NVDA) hitting the $5 trillion market cap. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) declined 0.2%.

A DOJ investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell was dropped on Friday, raising the odds that President Trump’s nominee for the position, Kevin Warsh, will be cleared by Congress.

Markets also rose amid hopes that the US and Iran would restart talks.
Semiconductors have been the driver of all-time highs in the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, with an impressive run.

Bespoke Investments noted on Friday that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) has risen for 18 sessions in a row, since March 30th.

It hasn’t had a down day all month.

“Using the tradable VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) as a proxy, the group is now up right around 40% since then, which is a record 18-day rally since its inception,” said the note.

Given that the S&P 500 is market-cap weighted, semis are the single-largest weight in any industry group. In fact, the group accounts for 15.5% of the S&P 500 weight.

“So with a combination of massive outperformance and a massively large weight, the semiconductors are to thank for 4.9 percentage points of the index’s 12.8% rally since March 30th, meaning they’ve accounted for roughly 40% of the gain,” said the note.
Software’s comeback bid just got a lot less convincing.

Over the past five days, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is down under 1% while the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is up more than 11%, a sharp reversal from the broader tech-breadth story that had started to build.

Software vs Semiconductors Chart — 5 Days

That doesn’t kill the software comeback thesis. But it does weaken it.

With the broader market ripping higher, bulls really wanted to see IGV press to fresh highs for April this week. Instead, the group pulled back and handed leadership right back to chips.

The good news is that IGV did hold where it needed to, finding buyers at the confluence of its 50-day moving average and the 50% retracement of the move from its April 10 low to Wednesday’s high.

The leadership inside semis is still broad, with some notable standouts.

Nvidia (NVDA) cleared $5 trillion in market cap again this week. Intel (INTC) is up over 22% today — having its best day since 1987 — after clearing its dot-com highs post-earnings. And on Thursday, Texas Instruments (TXN) had its best day since 2000.

Weekly leaders Arm (ARM) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are up 40% and 25%, respectively. Meanwhile, Synopsys (SNPS), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), Qualcomm (QCOM), and KLA (KLAC) are all up 8% to 11% this week.

Semiconductor Stocks Heat Map — 5 Days

Software is looking much more selective.

SAP (SAP) is up about 6% today but down 4% on the week, while Synopsys (SNPS) is gaining over 10% for the second straight week. But GitLab (GTLB) just hit an all-time low, while Cognizant (CTSH) and Fair Isaac (FICO) made fresh multiyear lows this week.

That leaves software in a very different place than semis: still alive above support, but no longer proving leadership.
Nvidia (NVDA) retook the $5 trillion market cap crown on Friday, according to Yahoo Finance data, as a powerful rally in chip stocks encouraged by Intel (INTC) earnings and a nuclear power deal with Oklo (OKLO) boosted shares.

The stock gained 5.2% in afternoon trading, adding $260 billion in value. It now has $1 trillion more in market cap than the second-largest company, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), at $4.1 trillion.

If the afternoon’s gains hold, Nvidia is on track to close at a record high. At $209 per share, the stock is just off its all-time intraday high of $212.19, reached on Oct. 29, 2025.

The stock has really come to life in recent weeks, rising 20% over the past month after a lackluster start to the year.

Read more here.
Seems every day, a chip stock or index tears up the history books with another milestone.

Today, Intel (INTC) is still holding firmly above its old dot-com-era highs after a stunning post-earnings surge that is marking its best day since Oct. 29, 1987 — eight days after the infamous Black Monday market crash.

The backdrop is not purely technical.

Intel’s latest quarter also came with better-than-expected revenue, a sharp gross-margin beat, and signs of improving execution, which help explain why buyers have defended the breakout so aggressively.

But for short- to medium-term traders, the chart still comes first.

It is normal for a stock to come back and test an old breakout level, and for Intel, that new floor now sits around $75 to $76 — the area of its prior record highs.

Hold above that zone, and bulls stay in control. A break below $65 would be a much bigger problem, flipping this from a healthy retest into a failed move that likely needs a longer reset.
The kind of portfolio built for peace of mind, not bragging rights, is suddenly crushing it.

The old-school 25/25/25/25 mix — split evenly across stocks, bonds, cash, and commodities — is tracking a 26% gain this year, which would mark its best annual return since 1933, according to a chart shared by financial writer and trader, Mike Zaccardi.

A portfolio tracking stocks, bonds, cash and commodities is having its best year since 1933: BofA · BofA Global Research, Michael Hartnett

That’s a striking result for a portfolio built to do the opposite of chasing the market. Instead of loading up on one hot trade, it spreads the bet across growth, defense, liquidity, and hard assets — and in this tape, all four have helped.

The bigger takeaway is that diversification is working again. After years when concentrated equity bets often looked smarter, 2026 is shaping up to be a reminder that boring can suddenly look brilliant when the macro backdrop starts rewarding more than one asset type at a time.
US consumer sentiment showed some improvement amid a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, but it’s still at record lows, according to new data from the University of Michigan.

The Index of Consumer Sentiment showed consumer sentiment ended April with a final reading of 49.8, above the 48.5 reading economists expected but marking the lowest level on record, below readings taken during the financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and when inflation spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Overall, consumer sentiment fell 6.6% from last month and 4.6% from a year ago.

Read more here.
Federal prosecutors have decided to drop their criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the remodeling of the central bank’s headquarters.

“As a result, I have instructed my office to close our investigation while the inspector general conducts this review,” US Attorney Jeanine Pirro wrote on X. “However, I will not hesitate to reopen a criminal case if the facts justify it.”

The end of the probe removes a major obstacle to confirming President Trump’s nominee, Kevin Warsh, to be the next Fed Chair.

Read more here.
Procter & Gamble (PG), known for household brands like Tide detergent, reported first quarter earnings that beat expectations, defying a slowdown in the face of increased costs from the war in Iran.

Analysts expect headwinds for P&G to build in the coming quarters, as higher oil prices stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz affect everything from packaging to shipping costs. On top of that, persistent inflation could become a drag on consumer spending.

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi caught up with P&G’s CFO Andre Schulten to discuss the results.

“The consumer is relatively stable,” P&G CFO Andre Schulten told Yahoo Finance. “We see the bifurcation that we’ve been mentioning before, so you have some consumers looking for value in larger pack sizes. They shop in clubs, they shop online and at the big box retailers. And then you have some level of consumers that are looking for value in smaller pack sizes. They’re looking for smaller cash outlays and promotions. That dynamic continues.”

P&G stock rose 3% in early trading. Read more here.
What’s happening in semiconductors is blowing away nearly every historical benchmark this industry has to offer. I’ll be waiting for an analyst to pull the records from the US railroad boom of the mid-to-late 1800s.

If the PHLX Semiconductor Index (^SOX) closes higher today, its winning streak — along with that of related ETFs like the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) — will stretch to 18 straight sessions. Given the roughly 4% jump at the open, that’s looking like a strong possibility.

Here are this morning’s intraday record highs:

Indexes: Nasdaq 100 (^NDX)

Dow Jones Sectors/Industries: General Retailers, Heavy Construction, Industrial Trans, Retailers, Railroads, Semiconductors, Tech Hardware & Equipment

Large-cap sector ETFs: Technology (XLK)

Small-cap sector ETFs: Small-cap tech (PSCT)

Industry/Style/Country ETFs: Taiwan (EWT), Momentum (MTUM), Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), Semiconductors (SOXX), High Beta (SPHB), Value (VLUE)

Utilities stocks: NextEra Energy (NEE)

Financial stocks: Globe Life (GL), Principal Financial (PFG)

Industrial stocks: Eaton (ETN), Comfort Systems (FIX), Jabil (JBL), Norfolk Southern (NSC), Quanta Services (PWR)

Real estate stocks: Equinix (EQIX)

Tech stocks: Applied Materials (AMAT), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Amkor (AMKR), Arm (ARM), ASE Technology (ASX), Cirrus Logic (CRUS), FormFactor (FORM), Ichor (ICHR), Intel (INTC), Keysight (KEYS), KLA (KLAC), Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC), nLIGHT (LASR), Lam Research (LRCX), Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC), MKS Instruments (MKSI), Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR), Marvell Technology (MRVL), MACOM (MTSI), Micron (MU), Onto Innovation (ONTO), Photronics (PLAB), Qorvo (QRVO), Rambus (RMBS), Silicon Motion (SIMO), SiTime (SITM), Teradyne (TER), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), Texas Instruments (TXN), Ultra Clean (UCTT), Veeco (VECO)
Stocks were mixed as they began the conclusion to a jam-packed week of earnings, ongoing war tensions, and a Federal Reserve hearing.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led stocks higher, gaining 0.7% at the open, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) advanced 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) limped 0.3% lower.

Oil prices subsided on Friday morning, though not by much. Brent (BZ=F) futures, the international benchmark, dipped below the $100 a barrel mark.

The 10-year Treasury yield was flat at 4.32% ahead of next week’s Fed meeting. Gold (GC=F) edged lower to $4,712 an ounce, and bitcoin (BTC-USD) drifted up to $78,188 per token.

With the exception of double-digit gains in shares of chip names Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD), and Qualcomm (QCOM), a pretty muted start to the trading day.
Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:

AMD (AMD) stock soared 10% to new highs in premarket trading on Friday.

D.A. Davidson upgraded shares of the chipmaker to a Buy rating from Neutral following rival Intel’s (INTC) strong quarterly results and outlook.

Intel’s results highlight the pivotal role central processing units (CPUs) play amid growing demand for AI agents, or bots that act on users’ behalf.

“CPU is reinserting itself as an indispensable foundation of the AI era, and the once sleepy CPU market has taken off as agentic workloads shift compute needs beyond GPUs,” analyst Gil Luria wrote in a note on Friday. “We view Intel’s results as a precursor for a huge step-up for AMD’s CPU franchise,” he added.

Read more here.
Kevin Warsh told lawmakers this week that inflation should be viewed through a different framework.

President Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve also said that the Fed’s own analysis of price changes needs to be reformed. Its preferred PCE index offers only a rough take on inflation, he said.

Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger digs into the changes Warsh is eyeing:

Warsh favors using “trimmed averages” of inflation, he told Senate lawmakers during his confirmation hearing this week. The trimmed mean and median remove outliers. Both the Dallas Fed and the Cleveland Fed release a trimmed average inflation gauge that excludes outlier data — both high and low — to provide a clearer picture of prices.

Warsh at his Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing. (Tom Williams/via Getty Images) · Tom Williams via Getty Images

… Any adjustment to the way the Fed measures inflation is sure to spark a market reaction.

“The analytical question is whether in citing these alternative metrics, Warsh is shifting the goalposts or making a reasonable economic argument,” said Krishna Guha, head of economics and global central banking for Evercore ISI.

“He would not be the first Fed chair to pick metrics that suit his case. But shopping around on inflation when the generally used indicator is not behaving is risky.”

Read more here.
Intel (INTC) stock rocketed more than 25% in early trading Friday following a first quarter earnings report that beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines and provided better-than-anticipated Q2 guidance on strong data center sales.

Yahoo Finance’s Daniel Howley reports:

“The next wave of AI will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic. This shift is significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement.

“With a solid foundation in place, we are addressing this opportunity by listening to our customers and driving their success with our technical expertise and differentiated IP,” he said. “This deliberate reset to how we operate drove a sixth consecutive quarter of revenue above our expectations, as well as new and deepened relationships with strategic partners.”

Read more here.
Reuters reports:

Weekly inflows into global equity funds surged to a more than 17-month high in the week through ‌April 22, fuelled by optimism over demand for artificial intelligence ‌and robust first-quarter earnings from some major U.S. banks.

According to LSEG Lipper data, global equity funds attracted net weekly investments of $48.72 billion, the largest sum for a week since November 13, 2024.

Shares of TSMC (TSM), the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced AI chips, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip supplier SK ‌Hynix (000660.KS) hit record highs ⁠this week, bolstered by upbeat earnings.

US equity funds drew $27.98 billion, the most in four weeks, while European and ⁠Asian funds saw net inflows of $18.41 billion and $157 million, respectively.

Read more here.
Bloomberg reports:

Oil climbed for a fifth day, its longest string of gains since January, as uncertainty over talks between the US and Iran threatened to further delay flows from the Persian Gulf.

Brent (BZ=F) rose above $106 a barrel, headed for a weekly gain of about 17%, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) traded near $97. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts — as well as his decision to continue with a naval blockade of Iranian ports — have been detrimental to negotiations through mediators such as Pakistan, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.

The war has rattled energy markets since it started at the end of February, with the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz causing a sharp drop in flows from major oil and gas producers in the Persian Gulf. Fresh concerns that peace talks have stalled, an amping up of rhetoric, and increasing military threats are adding to the geopolitical premium in oil prices.

Read more here.

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