Your Evening Briefing

May 08, 2026

Stocks close at new records, led by chip stocks, as April jobs report surprises to upside

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 closed at new record highs (the third new record this week) while the Russell 2000 also gained.

April payrolls surprised to the upside, continuing to diminish lingering fears about risks to the economy and labor market, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%.

Information technology was the best-performing sector (and the only sector to outperform the S&P 500) as chip stocks rallied. Bitcoin briefly dipped under the key $80,000 level, but reclaimed it shortly after, once again trading in a tight range.

Moving higher:

Intel surged on a report it has reached a preliminary agreement with Apple on chip-making, a potentially transformative deal for its struggling foundry business.
Dell climbed after President Trump told attendees at a White House Mother's Day event to “go out and buy a Dell.”
Rocket Lab skyrocketed after reporting better-than-expected Q1 sales and strong Q2 guidance.
IREN rose after Nvidia announced yesterday that it will invest up to $2.1B in a partnership to deploy as much as 5 GW of AI infrastructure.
Akamai skyrocketed to the highest level since 2000 on reports of a $1.8B cloud infrastructure deal with Anthropic.
Fluence Energy continued to surge as Wall Street hiked price targets following its supply agreements with hyperscalers.
Innodata soared after boosting 2026 revenue guidance to growth of at least 40%, up from 35%.

Moving lower:

Despite posting better-than-expected Q1 sales, SoundHound AI fell as the beat wasn't enough to satisfy investors.
Hubspot cratered after soft guidance reignited AI fears, overshadowing its Q1 beat.
Cloudflare dropped after soft Q2 guidance and layoffs overshadowed a solid Q1 beat.
CoreWeave sank after offering weak Q2 sales guidance.
Nintendo fell after announcing it will hike Switch 2 prices amid a memory crunch.
Opendoor Technologies slipped despite delivering better-than-expected Q1 results while proclaiming that it achieved a key profitability milestone in yesterday’s post-market earnings report.
The Trade Desk dropped after the adtech company posted lower-than-expected Q1 earnings and issued weak Q2 guidance.
Applied Optoelectronics traded lower after the connectivity company reported lower-than-expected Q1 sales and underwhelming revenue guidance after the bell yesterday.
Nuscale dipped on a disappointing drop in Q1 sales.
TeraWulf, the bitcoin mining company transitioning into data-center development, ticked lower after its Q1 earnings slightly missed estimates.

What happens to Tesla stock when SpaceX goes public?

Will one of retail’s favorite stocks take a back seat when a trendier, hipper Elon Musk company storms the market? Read more.

Higher prices, lower sales: Video game giants forecast the impact of the memory crunch

Video game console makers addressed the memory pricing surge this quarter.

Read more.

Apple may not have a frontier AI model or a fully functional AI assistant, but that won’t stop the company from throwing its weight around in the “AI revolution,” according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. That’s enough for Ives to raise his price target for Apple shares to $400 from $350. Read more.

“Retail-driven momentum and short squeeze dynamics remain a dominant force in the market today,” says Citadel Securities
Retail has flipped from aggressive put buying to call buying, per Citadel Securities.
Emails show Microsoft wasn’t impressed by OpenAI’s early work, but wanted to keep it from Amazon
OpenAI wanted further Azure computing discounts, but Microsoft didn’t think it was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Duolingo’s business was supposed to soar with AI — now it’s getting its wings clipped
The language-learning app’s shares have plunged almost 80% in the past year.
South Korea surges past Canada to become the 7th-largest stock market in the world amid AI boom
The country’s two chip giants have seen their shares more than double this year.
Ahead of Mother’s Day, Google searches for “same day flower delivery” have ticked up a little earlier this year
This year, the search interest in April is actually exceeding the spike seen around Valentine’s Day.

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