Today’s Market Recap: Tech-Led Rally Drives Record Highs as Trump Arrives in Beijing
AI Podcast
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reached record highs driven by AI enthusiasm, boosting megacap tech and semiconductor stocks like Nvidia and Micron. Ford surged on its new energy division, while Vnet Group gained on a strategic share purchase. U.S. PPI rose sharply in April, increasing rate hike expectations. Cisco's shares rallied on strong guidance, despite planned job cuts for AI realignment. Alibaba reported cloud revenue growth and disclosed AI product scale. Cerebras Systems' IPO demand exceeded expectations, with its offering price potentially reaching $185 per share.
Track the Market Trend
TradingKey - The S&P 500 climbed 0.58% to 7,444.25 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.20% to 26,402.34 as a tech-driven rally propelled both indices to fresh record highs. Conversely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.14% to end the session at 49,693.19.
Nvidia (NVDA) reached another all-time high and Micron (MU) rebounded nearly 5% as sustained artificial intelligence (AI) enthusiasm lifted megacap technology and semiconductor stocks. Akamai Technologies advanced almost 8% following an analyst upgrade, while Ford Motor surged on optimism surrounding its energy division. In contrast, Constellation Energy declined as investors assessed mounting pressures within the utility sector.
Ford (F) shares finished the day at $13.57, up 13.18%. The stock rallied after the automaker launched Ford Energy, a new battery-storage subsidiary. A bullish note from Morgan Stanley further boosted sentiment, highlighting significant profit and partnership potential that has captured investor attention.
Vnet Group (VNET), a Chinese data center and hosting services provider, closed Wednesday at $11.28, marking a 25.06% gain. The stock surged following the announcement of a strategic share purchase agreement with investors affiliated with PJ Millennium and Contemporary Amperex Technology. Market participants are monitoring how this new 38.1% stake will influence corporate governance and the company's AI data center expansion.
Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE), a provider of zinc-based energy storage solutions, closed at $8.28, up 2.22%. The stock initially spiked 20% following a first-quarter earnings beat, reaffirmed revenue guidance for 2026, and the announcement of the Frontier Power USA venture backed by Cerberus. However, the equity retraced most of those early gains as the market continued to digest the broader implications of the news.
Market Headline
U.S. President Donald Trump has arrived in Beijing for a face-to-face meeting with China’s top leadership. This marks the first summit between the two heads of state since their encounter in Busan last October and the first visit to China by a U.S. president in nine years. Before landing, Trump posted on Truth Social, stating, "It is my honor to travel to the Great China with so many outstanding people." Notably, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia — the world's leading AI chipmaker by market capitalization — joined the delegation at the last moment, boarding Air Force One in Alaska.
U.S. PPI surged in April to its highest level since 2022, with energy costs jumping 7.8% in a single month, fueling bets on further interest rate hikes. The April PPI rose 6% year-over-year and 1.4% month-over-month, both marking the fastest growth rates since 2022 and the eighth consecutive month of increases. Rising energy and transportation costs, alongside service-sector inflation at a four-year high, have led markets to price in a roughly 50% probability of an interest rate hike in 2026.
Cisco (CSCO) shares surged by double digits in after-hours trading following fiscal third-quarter results and full-year guidance that significantly exceeded expectations. While revenue and EPS for the previous quarter slightly beat forecasts, Cisco’s guidance for the current quarter was approximately 6% and 8% above analyst estimates, respectively. For fiscal year 2026, revenue guidance was raised by over 2%, with orders from hyperscale cloud providers now expected to reach $9 billion — an 80% increase from previous forecasts. To realign for the AI era, Cisco will cut approximately 4,000 jobs, incurring an estimated $1 billion in pre-tax charges.
Alibaba Group (BABA) reported slight revenue growth for the first quarter, highlighted by a 38% year-over-year increase in cloud revenue and the first disclosure of AI product scale. First-quarter revenue reached 243.38 billion RMB, up 3%, though adjusted EBITA fell 84% to 5.10 billion RMB. AI-related product revenue reached 8.97 billion RMB, marking the eleventh consecutive quarter of triple-digit growth, with annualized recurring revenue (ARR) surpassing 35.8 billion RMB. Management noted during the earnings call that AI ARR is expected to exceed 30 billion RMB by year-end, emphasizing that its server infrastructure is operating at full capacity with capital expenditures set to exceed 380 billion RMB.
The IPO demand for Cerebras Systems has exceeded expectations, with the final offering price potentially reaching $185 per share — well above the initial range of $150 to $160. The offering is oversubscribed by more than 20 times, which would raise approximately $5.55 billion and bring the company's market capitalization to about $40 billion. When accounting for restricted stock units, employee options, and warrants, the fully diluted valuation is estimated at approximately $49 billion.
Top 10 Most Traded Stocks
The chart below lists the ten most actively traded stocks in the market last Friday. Bolstered by massive trading volume and exceptional liquidity, these assets have become key benchmarks for tracking global market dynamics.
Recommended Articles
Comments (0)
Click the $ button, enter the symbol, and select to link a stock, ETF, or other ticker.