Wall Street gains $8T as April delivers six-year high

US stocks went ballistic all through April and gave Wall Street its strongest month since 2020, with investors piling back into tech while oil, inflation, and the Iran war kept the macro side messy.

The S&P 500 ended the month at a record close after gaining 14.2% from its March 30 low. That rebound added about $8.1 trillion in market value across 23 trading days, which is the kind of number that makes even crypto traders blink twice.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 15.29% in April, its best monthly run since April 2020, when markets were bouncing from the early Covid crash.

The tech trade got help from earnings, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) all beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations and showing stronger cloud numbers.

Big Tech carries stocks as AI demand pushes traders back into growth names

Alphabet (GOOGL) jumped 10% after its earnings report and finished April up 34%. That was its strongest month since October 2004, the same year it went public.

Amazon (AMZN) gained 27% for the month, helped by its cloud performance and the wider rush into AI-linked tech. Meta Platforms (META) had a rough Thursday, falling 9% after saying it would spend more on capital projects, but the stock still ended April higher by nearly 7%.

Chip stocks had an even wilder month because data center demand is still pulling serious money into the sector. Broadcom (AVGO) gained 35% in April.

Qualcomm (QCOM) jumped close to 40% for the month after having its strongest session since last year on Thursday. Micron Technology (MU) climbed 53%, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) surged 74%. Nvidia (NVDA) rose about 14%, giving the AI chipmaker its strongest month since June.

Intel (INTC) had the loudest rebound in the group. Its shares doubled in April, giving the company its best month in 55 years. 

Intel is still trying to fix years of late launches and weak production results that allowed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) and Nvidia (NVDA) to pull ahead in AI hardware. Traders are now paying attention to Intel’s 18A chips, which are coming out of its new Arizona factory.

Another reason Intel got attention is the return of demand for central processing units as agentic AI spreads. Bank of America (BAC) expects the CPU market to more than double by 2030.

Oil, inflation, Fed cuts, and Asia keep pressure around the stock rally

April’s rally in stocks came even as energy prices turned ugly. Brent crude climbed above $125 a barrel on Thursday, sending gasoline to about $4 per gallon across the US.

That matters because expensive fuel can keep inflation hot, squeeze consumers, and make the Federal Reserve less willing to cut interest rates.

Citi (C) lifted its rating on US stock markets to overweight versus other regions in April. Beata Manthey, Citi’s head of global equities strategy, said “tech is carrying the weight” of the wider market. The data backed that up. Tech stocks were flying, but the economy did not look clean.

The US economy grew at a 2% annualized rate in the first quarter, when economists had expected 2.2%. Investors then cut back their bets on Fed rate cuts for this year because oil and gas prices raised the risk of another inflation problem.

Meanwhile, trading in Asia was thin because the May Day holiday shut several large markets. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (.AXJO) rose 0.74% to 8,729.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) fell 1.28% to 25,776.53. South Korea’s KOSPI (.KS11) dropped 1.38% to 6,598.87. India’s Nifty 50 (.NSEI) lost 0.74% to 23,997.55. China’s Shanghai Composite (.SSEC) added 0.11% to 4,112.159.

Japan traded higher. The Nikkei 225 (.N225) rose 0.38% to 59,513.12. The Topix recovered from earlier losses and ended up 0.04% at 3,728.73.

The yen also firmed a little against the dollar on Friday after reports said Tokyo stepped into the market on Thursday to support the currency. The yen was last at 156.56 per dollar after crossing 160 earlier in the week and touching 160.72, its weakest level in two years.

If you want a calmer entry point into DeFi crypto without the usual hype, start with this free video.