S&P 500 closes at 7,165 record

The S&P 500 closed at a record 7,165.08 on Friday, April 24, and the Nasdaq Composite finished at an all-time high 24,836.60 as Intel’s earnings rally pushed technology stocks higher. (cnbc.com) (google.com) The S&P 500 rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq gained 1.63%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 79.61 points to 49,230.71. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also set fresh intraday highs. (cnbc.com) Intel shares jumped 23.6% to $82.54 after the company reported first-quarter revenue of $13.6 billion, up 7% from a year earlier, and projected second-quarter revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion. (intel.com) (finance.yahoo.com) Intel said non-GAAP earnings per share reached $0.29, and Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan said demand for CPUs, wafers and advanced packaging was rising as AI workloads moved from training models to running them for users. (intel.com) The stock move was Intel’s biggest one-day gain since October 1987, according to CNBC, and it capped a turnaround after the shares had already climbed 84% in 2025 and 124% so far in 2026. (cnbc.com) The gains spread across chipmakers. Reuters reported the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index rose 3.2% to a record high, extending its 2026 gain to more than 47%, while Advanced Micro Devices rose 13.7%, Arm climbed 12% and Nvidia added 1.6%. (reuters.com) Reuters also reported that LSEG data pointed to 109.2% first-quarter earnings growth for the semiconductor sub-industry, compared with 48.2% for the broader S&P 500 information technology sector. (reuters.com) The record close came even as the rally stayed narrow. CNBC said the Dow fell on the day, and Reuters said investors were still debating whether AI spending is producing enough near-term revenue and cash flow outside the biggest chip names. (cnbc.com) (reuters.com) For now, Friday’s record in the S&P 500 rested on a familiar trade: semiconductors, AI demand and another earnings report that came in above Wall Street’s expectations. (intel.com) (cnbc.com)