The Chips Are Up. A raft of earnings reports knocked the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite off of yesterday’s closing highs, even as chip stocks continued to surge.

The Nasdaq fell 0.9%, while the S&P dropped 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 180 points, or 0.4%.

With Wall Street waiting for a substantial update on efforts between the U.S. and Iran to negotiate a peace deal, earnings season drove the market on Thursday.

Tesla kicked off Magnificent Seven earnings season with a mixed report that sent shares 3.6% lower. Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft, which are set to report results next week, all fell. Apple, which also reports next week, rose 0.1%. Nvidia, which reports in May, fell 1.4%.

Combined, the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF dropped 1.7%.

It wasn’t just Tesla weighing on the Mag 7. Disappointing numbers from International Business Machines and ServiceNow sent shares of other firms with software businesses reeling. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF fell 5.8% to $83.57 to erase about a week of consecutive daily gains.

Meta also announced plans to cut 10% of its staff.

On the other end was Texas Instruments, which surged 19% on earnings. It led a chip stock rally that pushed the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index 1.7% higher to another fresh closing high. The SOX, as it’s better known, is riding a 17-day winning streak, which is its longest stretch of consecutive gains on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data

The Nasdaq can’t rally every day. Chip stocks on the other hand…

The Hot Stock: United Rentals +22.9%
The Biggest Loser: ServiceNow -17.8%

Best Sector: Utilities +2.8%
Worst Sector: Technology -1.5%

The semiconductor rally may well continue on Friday, if Intel has any say, at least.

The CPU giant reported a blowout quarter. In after-hours trading, the shares surged past their Aug. 31, 2000 closing high. Barron’s has its best Adams on the case.

My colleagues Adam Levine and Adam Clark write that adjusted earnings of 29 cents a share handily beat expectations from analysts of 2 cents a share. Revenue of $13.6 billion also topped estimates for $12.4 billion. They write:

Not to pat ourselves on the back, but Barron’s made the case for Intel just last week, even after the stock rallied 220%.

With Intel on pace to top a record that’s stood since 2000, it’s just the latest example of markets overcoming milestones not seen since the dot-com bubble. Bespoke Investment Group co-founder Paul Hickey pointed out yesterday that 15-day winning streaks for the SOX, for example, were way more common between 1998 and the dot-com bubble’s burst.

“Since then, the only two others were coming out of Covid and the tariff-tantrum,” he writes. “What has also been uncommon is for these moves to cap off rallies to all-time highs. That only occurred in late 1999 and early 2000. Gulp.”

Charter Communications, HCA Healthcare, Norfolk Southern, Procter & Gamble, and SLB release earnings tomorrow.

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