Nasdaq Hits Record on Surging AI Chip Stocks
By Reuters | 05 May, 2026

Rising Intel, AMD and other other AI-related stocks rose on strong quarterly earnings and on Washington's assertion that the ceasefire with Iran was intact.

The Nasdaq jumped to a record high on Tuesday, lifted by Intel and other AI-related stocks, as a U.S.-Iran ceasefire held firm and investors focused on strong quarterly earnings.

Washington said on Tuesday its ceasefire with Iran was intact, allaying worries that attempts by both sides to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz would escalate hostilities.

Investors focused on AI-related companies, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index jumping 4.7% to a record high.

Chip designer AMD rallied 4.4% ahead of its quarterly report after the bell.

Intel surged 14% after Bloomberg News reported that Apple had held exploratory discussions about enlisting the company's chipmaking services to produce the main processors for its devices.

EARNINGS IN FOCUS

S&P 500 companies are expected to post aggregate earnings growth of 28% year-over-year for the first quarter, double the expectation of 14% at the start of April, according to LSEG I/B/E/S. Wall Street's AI heavyweights account for much of that optimism.

"Markets are following fundamentals. Earnings are coming in pretty strong, and the expectation is that will carry forward into the rest of the year," said Tom Hainlin, an investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.

"Business spending remains strong, whether it's on AI or other productivity tools, and consumers continue to spend," Hainlin said.

The S&P 500 gained 0.89% to 7,264.87 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.10% to 25,342.82.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62% to 49,243.90 points.

With Tuesday's rally, the Nasdaq is up 9% in 2026.

Brent crude futures fell but still traded at $110 a barrel.

Nine of the 11 main S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by a nearly 2% gain in materials.

Data on Tuesday showed U.S. job openings fell to 6.866 million in March, slightly above the 6.835 million estimate. That reinforced the view that labor market resilience could give the central bank room to keep interest rates higher for longer.

The Institute for Supply Management's Non-Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for April came in at 53.6, narrowly missing the estimate of 53.7, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Grain trader Archer-Daniels-Midland rose 1.2% after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter profit on higher margins.

DuPont gained 7.6% after the industrial materials maker lifted its annual profit forecast.

Shares of Pinterest soared 9.3% after the image-sharing platform forecast second-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.63-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 432 new highs and 77 new lows on the NYSE.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Pooja Desai and Rod Nickel)