Today’s Market Recap: AI Leadership Shifts and Macro Policy Jitters Drive Market Volatility

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TradingKey - The S&P 500 slipped 0.38% on Thursday to close at 7,337, while the Nasdaq Composite eased 0.13% to finish at 25,806. Within the autonomous vehicle sector, industry peers Alphabet (GOOGL) closed at $397.99 (-0.01%) and Tesla (TSLA) ended at $411.81 (+3.28%), reflecting mixed market sentiment across autonomy-focused companies.

AI bellwethers once again captured headlines. Qualcomm (QCOM) surged by double digits intraday on artificial intelligence enthusiasm before paring gains; a string of positive developments in recent weeks has led some analysts to suggest the stock is nearing a significant chip breakthrough. Conversely, Arm Holdings (ARM) dropped more than 10% due to concerns over smartphone demand. Palantir Technologies (PLTR) rebounded following a post-earnings decline, while quantum computing leader IonQ (IONQ) tumbled despite reporting solid first-quarter results.

Aurora Innovation (AUR), a developer of autonomous driving systems for various vehicle types, closed Thursday at $7.14, down 1.79%. The stock retreated after a multi-day rally fueled by upbeat Q1 results, new trucking deployments, and analyst support. Investors are now focused on the company's ability to execute its 2026 driverless semi-truck and revenue targets.

Fastly (FSLY), a real-time content delivery network provider, closed Thursday at $19.50, a sharp decline of 38.23%. The stock plummeted after record Q1 results and an upward revision to 2026 guidance failed to soothe anxieties regarding slowing growth in core networking services. Trading volume hit 47.1 million shares, approximately 208% above its three-month average of 15.3 million. Since its IPO in 2019, Fastly has fallen 19% from its initial public offering.

Market Headline

Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have escalated as Iran claims the U.S. violated a ceasefire with airstrikes, prompting an Iranian counterattack; meanwhile, the U.S. military reported intercepting "unprovoked attacks" launched by Iran.

The U.S. Court of International Trade has ruled that Donald Trump's 10% global tariff is invalid. The court determined that the tariff, levied under the Trade Act of 1974, lacked a sufficient legal basis. This ruling is seen as a significant setback for the Trump administration's attempt to circumvent a Supreme Court IEEPA tariff decision, further narrowing the legal space for the government to unilaterally impose broad-based tariffs.

U.S. initial jobless claims rose to 200,000 last week, remaining below expectations, while continuing claims hit their lowest level since January 2024. The labor market continues to show resilience; for the week ending May 2, initial claims reached 200,000, lower than the projected 205,000. Analysts suggest that generous severance packages for laid-off tech workers may explain why large-scale layoff announcements have not significantly driven up the volume of unemployment filings.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a bipartisan delegation of U.S. Senators. Wang noted the visit's symbolic importance as the first congressional delegation to visit China since President Trump took office. He emphasized that the China-U.S. relationship is vital to the well-being of both nations and global stability. Wang stated that China’s policy remains consistent, advocating for a path of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation to contribute to world peace.

A new global AI leader has emerged as Anthropic’s valuation surged to 1.2 trillion RMB, surpassing OpenAI for the first time. Anthropic, once considered the "second-place" contender to OpenAI, saw its implied valuation in the on-chain Pre-IPO market jump to $1.2 trillion, roughly 20% higher than OpenAI. The company’s annualized Q1 revenue skyrocketed 80-fold year-over-year, far exceeding its 10-fold target. CEO Dario Amodei remarked on the difficulty of managing such unprecedented, high-speed expansion.

Elon Musk’s xAI is transitioning into a cloud computing provider. With Grok facing market challenges and excess computing power available, Musk’s AI empire is shifting toward a "shovels-and-picks" business model. xAI has begun leasing compute capacity to companies like Cursor and Anthropic, mirroring the strategy of cloud providers like CoreWeave. Furthermore, xAI has been integrated into the SpaceX brand under the new "Orbital Data Center" concept, raising questions about whether this is a genuine strategic pivot or a move to defend its valuation.

CoreWeave (CRWV) reported Q1 revenue of $2.078 billion, a 112% year-over-year increase that beat estimates of $1.965 billion, yet shares fell over 10% after hours due to widening losses and weak Q2 guidance. The company’s order backlog surged 284% to $99.4 billion, with 36% expected to convert to revenue within two years. However, adjusted net loss widened to $589 million, and Q1 capital expenditure reached $6.786 billion. Management’s Q2 revenue guidance of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion fell short of market expectations.

Top 10 Most Traded Stocks

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