Live Nasdaq Composite: Tech Sentiment Buoyed by Intel’s Super Gains and Iran Negotiation Hopes

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. 

The Nasdaq Composite opened Friday in positive territory, pacing the major averages as Intel’s blowout quarterly report breathed new life into the AI-infrastructure trade. Mega-cap tech and a handful of explosive single-stock moves are doing the heavy lifting, even with traders keeping one eye on the Strait of Hormuz. On a weekly basis, the Nasdaq is clinging to modest gains, nudging its year-to-date advance to around 5.5%.

The broader environment is anything but calm. “Markets are entering the final day of the trading week in a cautious mood as U.S.-Iran tensions show no signs of easing while the Strait of Hormuz remains essentially closed,” said Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid. WTI crude is changing hands near $91 a barrel, a far cry from the April 7 spike toward $115, and the VIX has settled back to around 19 after briefly surging past 31 in late March.

On the economic front, the University of Michigan’s final April sentiment reading landed at 49.8, a slight improvement from the early print but still the lowest level in data stretching back to 1978, highlighting how deeply the Iran conflict and its economic ripple effects are weighing on consumers. Inflation expectations offered little comfort: the one-year outlook held at 4.7%, just under the 4.8% forecast, while the five-to-ten year measure edged above expectations at 3.5%.

Here’s a look at where things stand as of morning trading:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 49,178 Down 0.27%
Nasdaq Composite: 24,588 Up 0.61%
S&P 500: 7,122 Up 0.22%

Market Movers

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) owns the tape this morning, with the stock vaulting nearly 28% in premarket action and threatening price levels unseen since the height of the dot-com boom. The Santa Clara giant delivered non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 on $13.58 billion in revenue, torching a consensus estimate of roughly a penny and extending its streak of upside surprises to six consecutive quarters. Data Center and AI revenue grew 22%, with Intel Foundry adding another 16%. CEO Lip-Bu Tan pointed to agentic AI as a structural demand driver, arguing the shift is “significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings.”

Intel isn’t the only name lighting up the screen. MaxLinear (NASDAQ: MXL) is surging 43% after reporting revenue growth of the same magnitude, with its infrastructure division more than doubling on the back of optical data center buildouts at major hyperscalers.

The mega-cap complex is broadly constructive. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is adding 1.2% following word that it is offering voluntary retirement packages to roughly 8,750 domestic employees. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is up 0.6% after announcing cost-cutting plans involving the elimination of round 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its global headcount. Separately, Meta is expanding its footprint on Amazon Web Services through a large-scale Graviton deployment aimed at agentic AI workloads. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is knocking on the door of fresh record highs.

A handful of crosscurrents kept sentiment from running too hot. Nike (NYSE: NKE) is said to be cutting 1,400 positions, with its technology unit bearing the brunt. China’s move to curb U.S. investment in strategically sensitive domestic tech companies injected another layer of geopolitical uncertainty.