NEW YORK, January 2, 2026, 10:18 ET — Regular session
- AMD shares rose about 6% in early Friday trading as semiconductor stocks outpaced the broader tech sector.
- Chip ETFs gained roughly 4%–5% after fresh headlines on China-linked supply chains and AI demand.
- Investors are watching next week’s CES keynotes and U.S. data that could reset rate-cut expectations.
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices rose 6.0% to $227.02 in morning trade on Friday. The stock opened at $219.00 and traded between $217.01 and $227.05, with about 9.5 million shares changing hands.
The move matters now because chip stocks are setting the pace in Wall Street’s first session of 2026 after a choppy year-end. The broader market opened higher as risk appetite improved, a setup that tends to favor growth-heavy technology names.
“The market is looking for direction,” said Matthew Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak. Investors are watching the Jan. 9 jobs report and Jan. 13 consumer price index data, alongside a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his pick for the next Federal Reserve chair. Fourth-quarter earnings season also looms, with major U.S. banks due to report on Jan. 13. Reuters
Chip exchange-traded funds — baskets of stocks that trade like shares — outpaced the broader tech market. The iShares Semiconductor ETF and VanEck Semiconductor ETF were up about 4% to 5%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust was up about 1%.
Other big chip names advanced, with Nvidia up about 3%, Intel up nearly 8%, and Broadcom up almost 4%.
Traders also weighed fresh headlines around U.S. export controls on chipmaking gear. Taiwan Semiconductor said Washington granted it an annual licence to import U.S. chipmaking equipment into its Nanjing plant in China, a move the company said would keep deliveries uninterrupted.
Demand signals from China stayed in focus after sources told Reuters this week that Chinese technology firms had ordered more than 2 million of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips for 2026, far above Nvidia’s inventory. Nvidia has approached TSMC about ramping output, the report said.
AMD’s next company-specific catalyst arrives next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company said Chief Executive Lisa Su will deliver a keynote on Jan. 5 at 9:30 p.m. ET, outlining its vision for AI products spanning cloud, enterprise, edge and devices.
Investors will be listening for updates on AMD’s push in data-centre accelerators, where graphics processing units, or GPUs, do much of the heavy lifting for training and running AI models. AMD also competes with Intel in server and PC processors, while Nvidia remains the dominant supplier of high-end AI GPUs.
After the early jump, momentum traders are likely to watch whether AMD holds above the $220 area and whether the stock can extend beyond Friday’s intraday high. A pullback below the session low would test whether the opening move has staying power.
AMD’s investor relations calendar lists no upcoming events. Some market calendars peg the chipmaker’s fourth-quarter report for Feb. 3 after the closing bell, though the company has not confirmed a date.
For now, AMD’s direction may hinge on whether next week’s CES messaging and early January macro data keep rate-cut expectations intact and AI spending optimism alive.
