New York, Jan 21, 2026, 13:55 EST — Regular session
Intel (INTC.O) surged nearly 9%, finishing at $52.92 Wednesday afternoon, leading the pack among AI-focused stocks. Nvidia (NVDA.O) ticked up about 1.4%, while AMD (AMD.O) gained close to 6%. Broadcom (AVGO.O) fell 1.7%, with Microsoft (MSFT.O) slipping roughly 3.2%.
The rebound comes after Wall Street’s steepest fall in three months, sparked by fresh tariff threats tied to President Donald Trump’s Greenland plans. “One of the reasons why the market is bouncing back is Trump stressed that he does not intend to use force,” noted Damian McIntyre, head of multi-asset solutions at Federated Hermes. 1
Timing matters for AI stocks. They’ve powered a large share of index gains, yet this earnings season, strong guidance rather than hype will be the real test.
In Washington, the House Foreign Affairs Committee prepared to debate a bill that would give Congress power to review—and potentially block—export licenses for cutting-edge AI chips. This follows Trump’s greenlight for shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, Reuters reported. At Davos, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that sending these chips “would be a big mistake.” 2
Policy risk has always hovered over chip makers, yet attitudes are changing. When demand spikes, investors often dismiss export headlines as background static. But that stance unravels fast when jitters set in.
In Europe, SAP (SAPG.DE) hit its lowest level since August 2024, extending a selloff that has wiped out about $130 billion from its market cap since last year’s high. Angelo Meda, portfolio manager at Banor SIM, highlighted worries among investors that AI could make it easier to replicate certain enterprise software, putting pressure on service pricing. 3
Still, the rally faces risks. Any sign of margin pressure or softening demand from chipmakers could drag these stocks down. And if Washington steps up restrictions on AI processor exports, losses could come quickly.
Intel will report its Q4 earnings after markets close on Thursday, Jan. 22. Investors are watching closely for evidence that CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s turnaround is picking up steam, as demand for server CPUs grows thanks to data-center expansions. Analysts predict the data center division will surge more than 30% to $4.43 billion, with the PC business expected to rise slightly by 2.5% to $8.21 billion. Gross margin is forecast to slip to about 36.5%. “It’s the most optimistic, I think, people have felt about the company in a long time,” said Ryuta Makino, an analyst at Gabelli Funds. 4
