The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) is trading in the green at Friday’s open, with the index leading the major averages as legacy chipmaker Intel’s blowout earnings report reignites the AI-infrastructure trade. The Nasdaq is drawing strength from mega-cap tech and dramatic single-stock moves, even as traders monitor the Strait of Hormuz. For the week, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) is up fractionally, buoying its YTD returns to about 5.5%.
The macro backdrop is unsettled. “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 sitting at roughly $91 a barrel, off an April 7 peak near $115, and the VIX is near 19, comfortably inside the normal range after spiking above 31 in late March.
Beneath the index’s moves, a mixed bag of headlines kept investors on edge. Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) is deepening its Amazon Web Services (AWS) partnership, deploying tens of millions of Graviton cores to power CPU-intensive agentic AI workloads like reasoning, search, and multi-step task orchestration, cementing it as one of AWS’s largest Graviton customers. Yet the cost-cutting drumbeat continued: Nike (NYSE: NKE) is reportedly slashing 1,400 jobs, largely from its technology division, while Meta is once again trimming headcount. Meanwhile, Beijing moved to restrict American investment in key domestic tech sectors, adding another geopolitical overhang. All of it kept the fear/greed needle twitchy, even as the broader tape held up.
Intel Breaks A Quarter-Century Ceiling
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC | INTC Price Prediction) is the story of the morning, with shares up roughly 28% premarket and on track for levels not seen since the dot-com era. The chipmaker reported non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 on revenue of $13.58 billion, against consensus of roughly a penny, marking a sixth consecutive quarter above expectations. Data Center and AI revenue climbed 22% and Intel Foundry rose 16%. CEO Lip-Bu Tan argued that the shift toward agentic AI is “significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings.” Guidance for Q2 revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion and a new multiyear Google partnership, plus Intel Xeon 6 being selected for NVIDIA’s DGX Rubin NVL8, gave the tape another lift.
What Else Is Moving The Tape
Among mega-caps, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is up 1.2% after confirming voluntary retirement buyouts for about 8,750 U.S. employees, and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is up 0.6% after telling staff it will cut roughly 8,000 employees, or 10% of its workforce.
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) stock is hovering near fresh all-time high levels.
The AI-infrastructure thread runs deeper than Intel. MaxLinear (NASDAQ:MXL) is up 43% after posting 43% revenue growth with its infrastructure segment rising 136% on optical data center ramps at hyperscalers.
What To Watch Next
Today’s message is that earnings are doing the heavy lifting. Intel’s CPU resurgence and MaxLinear’s optical ramp suggest AI capex is broadening beyond GPUs, while megacap layoffs hint that tech is rebalancing payrolls to fund infrastructure. Watch oil, any headlines on renewed U.S.-Iran talks, and whether today’s Nasdaq strength holds into the close or fades with the geopolitical tape.
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