S&P, Nasdaq firm on AI rally

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at new records on Monday, April 27, as investors kept bidding up big technology and semiconductor shares before a dense earnings week. (cnbc.com) The S&P 500 added 0.12% to 7,173.91 and the Nasdaq rose 0.20% to 24,887.10. Both indexes also touched intraday highs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.13%. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com) (indexes.nasdaq.com) The immediate spark for the latest leg higher came Friday, when Intel jumped 23.6% after giving a stronger revenue outlook tied to demand for processors used in artificial intelligence systems. The S&P 500 finished that session up 0.8% at 7,165.08 and the Nasdaq gained 1.63% to 24,836.60. (cnbc.com) (money.usnews.com) That move spread across the chip complex. Reuters reported the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 3.2% to a record on April 24 and was headed for an 18th straight daily gain, up more than 47% in 2026. (money.usnews.com) The market’s logic is simple: investors are treating chipmakers, cloud groups and data-center suppliers as the toll roads of the artificial intelligence build-out. Reuters said technology giants’ spending on AI infrastructure has been one of the biggest drivers of semiconductor gains this year. (money.usnews.com) Valuation also helped the trade revive. Reuters reported the S&P 500 information technology sector’s forward price-to-earnings ratio had fallen to about 22 from roughly 31.8 last year, easing some of the pressure around expensive AI stocks. (money.usnews.com) The rally is running into fresh scrutiny on Tuesday, April 28. Charles Schwab said chip shares fell early after the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI missed internal revenue and user targets, raising concerns about whether it can keep funding huge data-center commitments. (schwab.com) (money.usnews.com) Schwab said Arm fell 9%, CoreWeave dropped 7%, Oracle lost almost 7%, Advanced Micro Devices fell nearly 6% and Nvidia was down almost 3% in early Tuesday trading. CNBC separately reported declines of roughly 3% to 5% for Nvidia, Broadcom and AMD. (schwab.com) (cnbc.com) That leaves the market with two competing facts at once. Record index closes on April 27 showed investors were still willing to pay for AI-linked earnings growth, but Tuesday’s selloff showed how quickly that trade can wobble when one core customer’s spending outlook comes into doubt. (cnbc.com) (schwab.com) For now, the records stand: 7,173.91 on the S&P 500 and 24,887.10 on the Nasdaq at Monday’s close. The next test is whether this week’s big-company earnings and capital-spending plans keep the AI rally intact. (cnbc.com)