By Hannah Erin Lang
A better-than-expected jobs report and a blistering chip-stock rally powered the S&P 500 to a record on Friday, with the index notching its sixth straight week of gains.
The S&P 500 rose 2.3% for the week. The Nasdaq climbed 4.5% to a fresh high, notching its largest six-week percentage gain since 2009. The Dow industrials edged up 0.2% for the week, or 110 points.
Chip stocks including Intel, Micron and Sandisk continued their hot streak, juiced by a crop of blockbuster tech earnings reports and receding fears about the artificial-intelligence trade. Shares of once-beleaguered semiconductor company Intel surged 14% Friday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company had struck a deal with Apple to make some of the chips that power its devices.
Intel's climb has been practically vertical in recent weeks: The company is nearing a $630 billion market cap, compared with roughly $92 billion a year ago.
Standout profits at semiconductor companies and other tech firms have reignited investor enthusiasm for artificial-intelligence plays. Shares of Akamai Technologies rocketed 27% higher Friday after the company said it had signed a $1.8 billion deal with a "leading frontier model provider" to provide cloud-infrastructure services. The stock was the best-performing in the S&P 500.
An exchange-traded fund that tracks the Magnificent Seven tech stocks closed at a new high, its first since October.
For the year, the S&P 500 is up 8.1%.
Just a little over a month ago, stocks were beaten down by a weekslong war with Iran and the prospect that the resulting climb in oil prices would lift costs, slow growth and ultimately drag on the global economy.
Five weeks later, that dour mood feels like the distant past on Wall Street. Though markets were momentarily on edge Monday after fighting flared for the first time in weeks, investors quickly bounced back to send stocks to multiple new records this week.
"Investors have proven once again that it's earnings that drive the stock market," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Investment Management. "AI fears are fading fast, and the fundamentals are back in focus."
Oil prices dropped this week, with Brent crude futures falling 6.4% to settle around $101 a barrel. U.S. forces on Friday struck two empty Iranian-flagged oil tankers attempting to circumvent the American naval blockade.
The economic consequences that traders feared would result from the conflict haven't clearly materialized. Friday's jobs report shows that the U.S. labor market blew past expectations again in April, adding 115,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%.
And the advent of artificial intelligence is starting to power more than just stock-market gains. A report from the Commerce Department showed that U.S. economic growth rebounded in the first quarter, boosted in part by increased business spending on AI efforts.
"As long as we see evidence of that demand and that investment, you get growth," said Bob Savage, head of markets macro strategy at BNY.
Write to Hannah Erin Lang at hannaherin.lang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 08, 2026 16:50 ET (20:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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