NEW YORK, January 9, 2026, 10:44 EST — Regular session
- AMD shares up about 0.5% in morning trade as rate-cut bets hold after U.S. jobs data
- Tariff ruling uncertainty lingers, while CES chip roadmaps keep AI demand in focus
- Next catalysts: U.S. CPI on Jan. 13 and AMD results after the close on Feb. 3
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) stock rose about 0.5% to $205.75 in morning trade on Friday, after moving between $203.95 and $206.81 earlier in the session. The shares ended Thursday at $204.68.
The move followed a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report that helped keep hopes for lower interest rates alive, a tailwind for richly valued chipmakers. Nonfarm payrolls rose 50,000 in December and the unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, while Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, said it was “difficult to argue that the labour market is collapsing.” Futures markets still price about 54 basis points of easing in 2026, LSEG data showed. (Reuters)
Traders also kept one eye on Washington, where the U.S. Supreme Court did not issue a ruling on Friday in a case testing the legality of President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs. The outcome has been watched for potential spillover into supply chains and pricing for multinationals.
On the company front, AMD has used this week’s CES show in Las Vegas to press its case as an alternative supplier in AI hardware. CEO Lisa Su showcased the MI455 AI processors and the MI440X for on‑premise deployments — equipment that runs inside a company’s own data center — and previewed a next-generation MI500 line targeted for 2027, Reuters reported. Nvidia and Intel also used CES to unveil new platforms. (Reuters)
AMD, in its own CES release, said its “Helios” rack-scale blueprint would deliver up to 3 AI exaflops — a measure of compute speed — in a single rack using MI455X GPUs and EPYC “Venice” CPUs. It also said Ryzen AI 400 and Ryzen AI PRO 400 laptop chips would deliver a 60 TOPS NPU (trillion operations per second), with first systems shipping in January and broader OEM availability in the first quarter.
Whether “AI PCs” turn into a real upgrade cycle is still debated on the show floor and in trading desks. “I think the general consumer is still not aware of what an AI PC really means,” Ben Bajarin, CEO of tech consultancy Creative Strategies, told Reuters. (Reuters)
The risk is that investors keep trimming positions in AI-linked names if spending or monetization falls short of expectations. “While AI is still hot, there are going to be winners and losers,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. (Reuters)
The next macro test comes on Tuesday, Jan. 13, when the Labor Department is scheduled to publish December’s consumer price index at 8:30 a.m. ET. Inflation surprises can shift bond yields quickly, and semiconductors tend to track those moves.
For AMD, the next company-specific catalyst is Feb. 3, when it reports fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results after the market close, followed by a 5 p.m. EST conference call, the company said. Investors will be listening for details on data-center accelerator momentum, client PC demand and what guidance says about the first months of the AI-PC push. (Amd)
