New York, May 6, 2026, 19:02 EDT
Record finishes for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Wednesday, with investors piling into artificial intelligence shares following a bullish outlook from Advanced Micro Devices. Oil prices slid as optimism around a potential U.S.-Iran agreement gained traction. The Dow moved higher as well, sending all three major U.S. indexes up by the close.
This shift is notable—Wall Street’s current rally rides on both accelerating profit growth and a breather from sliding energy prices. Brent crude dropped 7.83% to close at $101.27 a barrel. U.S. crude slipped roughly 7%, finishing at $95.08. That’s knocked out some inflation pressure, despite turmoil in the Middle East still hanging over the market.
After the bell, Arm turned into another high-profile AI sentiment check. The chip designer put out a first-quarter revenue forecast of $1.26 billion—just topping LSEG’s estimate—but the stock’s initial 12% jump didn’t last. Shares swung down 5.49% as execs talked up supply constraints on a new chip and analysts zeroed in on the cost impact of scaling up chipmaking.
AMD jumped nearly 19% to a record close, fueled by an upbeat outlook for quarterly revenue as data-center chip demand heats up. Intel advanced 4.5%. The PHLX chip index, tracking key semiconductor names, also climbed 4.5%, boosting its 2026 gain to 62%.
AMD’s surge wasn’t just about taking on Nvidia, analysts say. “Success invites competition,” noted Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading. Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, described AMD as a “broader compute opportunity” now that AI demand is reaching beyond graphics processors and into CPUs—the core server chips. Reuters
The S&P 500 climbed 1.46% to finish at 7,365.09. The Nasdaq added 2.03% to 25,838.94, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average pushed 1.24% higher, landing at 49,910.59. Industrials and information technology led gains as nine of 11 S&P sectors moved up. Trading volume on U.S. exchanges topped recent averages.
Earnings gave buyers a reason to step up. S&P 500 firms are pacing for 28.2% first-quarter profit growth—the best showing since late 2021, LSEG numbers cited by Reuters show. “Earnings” fueled the rally as worst-case Iran-war talk faded, according to Chris Fasciano, chief market strategist at Commonwealth Financial Network. Take Deutsche Bank’s Binky Chadha: excluding special items, he argues this profit growth is “arguably the strongest in two decades.” Reuters
Action wasn’t limited to chips, but tech continued to lead. Disney climbed, outperforming quarterly targets as CEO Josh D’Amaro mapped out a strategy focused on streaming, sports, parks, and cruises. Uber advanced, too, after its outlook for second-quarter gross bookings—representing total ride and delivery order value before payouts—topped Wall Street’s calls.
AI infrastructure stocks kept drawing attention. Hut 8 landed a $9.8 billion, 15-year lease for its Beacon Point data center in Texas—a facility tailored for Nvidia’s latest hardware, with support from American Electric Power, Vertiv, and Jacobs. Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot described the deal to Reuters as backed by what he called a “high-investment-grade counterparty.” Reuters
The risk: that war relief trades unwind, or sticky inflation ties the Fed’s hands. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee isn’t calling stagflation yet—sluggish growth and high inflation—but describes what’s hit so far as “just an inflationary shock.” St. Louis Fed’s Alberto Musalem, for his part, says rates may have to stay where they are “for some time,” and possibly climb. Reuters
The labor market barely budged the needle. ADP reported U.S. private payrolls climbed by 109,000 in April—the strongest rise in 15 months. Even so, economists flagged risks from oil prices, global conflict, and policy uncertainty, saying those factors keep the outlook shaky going into Friday’s official payrolls release.
