’From Tariff Man to Global Salesman’

Investing.com -- Stock investors have welcomed what Ed Yardeni calls a sharp pivot by U.S. President Donald Trump—from trade protectionism to promoting American semiconductors and aircraft in key international markets.

In his blog post, Yardeni highlighted the positive market response to Trump’s recent state visits across the Middle East, where U.S. companies have secured major deals in both tech and aerospace.

During a stop in Qatar, Trump announced a massive 160-jet order by Qatar Airways from Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), calling it the largest in the company’s history.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang unveiled plans to sell more than 18,000 of the company’s most advanced AI chips to local startup Humain, which also struck deals with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD), and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) AWS during Trump’s regional tour.

“Investors are much happier now that President Donald Trump seems to be pivoting from pushing prohibitive tariffs to pushing American semiconductors and Boeing jets,” Yardeni wrote.

The shift comes as semiconductor stocks stage a powerful recovery. The S&P Semiconductors Select Industry, which dropped 35.1% from its January high to an April low, has since rebounded 43.6%, now just 6.8% below its peak.

Yardeni attributes part of the rebound to easing fears of a datacenter glut and fresh momentum from Middle Eastern AI infrastructure spending.

He also noted that forward earnings for the semiconductor industry have climbed to new record highs, reinforcing his firm’s overweight recommendation on Information Technology—alongside Communication Services, Financials, and Industrials.

With global chip sales trending at record levels and new demand emerging from countries like Saudi Arabia, Yardeni sees the sector’s outlook as solid.

“Fears that a glut of datacenters would depress semiconductor sales are abating,” he wrote, “especially now that Saudi Arabia is building more datacenters.”