Midday pulse, April 24, 2026: Nasdaq +1.21% to 24,734 as Intel surges 23% on earnings beat

NEW YORK, April 24, 2026 — U.S. equities traded firmly higher at midday, with the Nasdaq Composite up 1.21% to 24,734.24, the S&P 500 gaining 0.51% to 7,144.39, and the Russell 2000 adding 0.65%, as a blockbuster earnings report from Intel ignited a broad semiconductor rally that overwhelmed lingering macro headwinds. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood as the sole major index in the red, down 0.37% to 49,127.05, weighed by healthcare, industrials, and utilities names that found no shelter in the chip-driven euphoria. All four benchmarks opened higher following Thursday’s mixed close — the S&P 500 had shed 0.41% to 7,108.40 and the Nasdaq had dropped 0.89% to 24,438.50 — with the Nasdaq extending its gains from the open by approximately 1.5 percentage points as Intel-related momentum compounded through the session.

What is driving the tape

The dominant catalyst of the session is unambiguously Intel. The chipmaker reported a first-quarter profit beat and issued upbeat guidance that caught the market firmly offside after months of scepticism about the company’s turnaround. Intel shares were up 23.2% at midday, having surged more than 19% in after-hours trading overnight before extending those gains at the open. The move has reverberated across the entire semiconductor complex, with AMD climbing 13.9%, Qualcomm advancing 10.3%, and Taiwan Semiconductor surging 5% to a record high.

The breadth of the semiconductor rally is striking by any historical measure. As detailed in the opening bell report this morning, Intel’s earnings-per-share result represented a 1,350% beat against consensus expectations — a figure that rendered short-term valuation arguments largely moot for traders chasing directional momentum. The PHLX Semiconductor Index has now risen for 17 consecutive sessions and is up more than 50% over the past six months, a run that is drawing comparisons to prior supercycles in chip demand.

A secondary but meaningful catalyst emerged late in the morning when the Department of Justice announced it would drop its criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move that reduced an acute source of institutional uncertainty around monetary policy governance. Markets interpreted the development as potentially clearing a path for the confirmation of President Trump’s reported preferred successor, Kevin Warsh, though the timing and process of any Fed leadership transition remain unclear. The 10-year Treasury yield was flat at 4.32% ahead of next week’s Fed meeting, suggesting bond markets remain in a holding pattern rather than pricing a material policy shift.

Geopolitical developments provided a third, more muted tailwind. Reuters reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is expected in Islamabad, with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner set to depart for Pakistan on Saturday to participate in nuclear talks intermediated by Pakistani officials. Oil prices eased modestly on the diplomatic progress, though Brent crude remained elevated, trading around $105.71 per barrel for the June contract, as pre-market coverage had flagged the Iran dynamic as a key watch item.

Counterbalancing the positive catalysts, the University of Michigan’s final April consumer sentiment reading of 49.8 — marginally above the preliminary 47.6 and slightly ahead of the Dow Jones consensus of 48.6 — nonetheless marked the lowest consumer confidence reading on record, representing a 6.6% decline from March and a 4.6% decrease year-over-year. The data reinforced the growing divergence between financial market performance and underlying consumer psychology, a tension that analysts expect to surface more acutely in second-quarter corporate guidance. Further context on the sentiment data is available in PreMarket Daily’s dedicated UMich sentiment analysis.

Data Visual

Midday sector performance April 24

Shows which sectors are leading and lagging at midday, helping traders identify rotation opportunities into the close.

Values in %

Standout midday movers

Top gainer: Intel (INTC) +23.2%

Intel is the uncontested standout of the session. The stock was last trading up 23.2% at midday following a first-quarter earnings report that delivered both a profit beat and guidance that exceeded analyst expectations on multiple metrics. The result validated a recovery thesis that had remained deeply contested since Intel’s 2024 and early 2025 stumbles, and it triggered an immediate reassessment of competitive dynamics across the chip sector. Nvidia edged up 1.4%, a comparatively modest move that reflects its already-elevated valuation rather than any negative read-across. Taiwan Semiconductor’s 5% advance to a record high suggests the demand signal Intel’s results imply for the broader semiconductor supply chain is being taken seriously by institutional participants.

Top loser: HCA Healthcare (HCA) -8.2%

At the opposite end of the ledger, HCA Healthcare tumbled 8.2% after the hospital operator warned that 2026 profits are expected to land at the low end of its prior forecast range, citing storm-related disruptions and lost revenue caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The guidance reduction highlights the operational vulnerability of large hospital networks to discrete weather events and comes at a moment when the broader healthcare sector is already under pressure, down 1.36% as a group at midday. HCA’s move dragged peers and contributed to the Dow’s underperformance, given the index’s exposure to healthcare-adjacent names.

Data Visual

Key semiconductor movers midday

Tracks the percentage gains in major chip stocks at midday, illustrating the breadth of the Intel-led semiconductor rally.

Values in %

Sector rotation check

The sector picture at midday reflects a pronounced bifurcation between technology and energy on one side, and nearly every other sector on the other. Technology leads all sectors, up 2.30%, followed by Energy at +2.08% — the latter benefiting from elevated Brent crude prices near $105.71 per barrel despite mild diplomatic optimism on Iran. Consumer Defensive is essentially flat at -0.01%, suggesting defensive positioning has not been aggressively unwound despite the risk-on tone in tech.

The laggards are numerous and spread across traditional defensive and cyclical categories alike. Utilities are the worst-performing sector, down 2.69%, followed by Real Estate at -1.95% and Basic Materials at -1.54%. Industrials fell 1.24%, Healthcare dropped 1.36%, and Communication Services lost 1.16%. Financials shed 0.76% and Consumer Cyclical gave back 0.72%. The advance/decline ratio of 45.6% of U.S. issues advancing at midday confirms that market breadth is narrower than headline index moves suggest — the Nasdaq’s gain is substantially a function of a handful of mega-cap chip names rather than broad participation.

This rotation pattern — technology and energy leading while utilities, real estate, and materials lag — is consistent with a risk-on, moderately reflationary tape, though the weak breadth reading introduces a note of caution about the durability of the afternoon move. As noted in Thursday’s market close report, the prior session’s weakness was concentrated in software, suggesting yesterday’s laggards have not uniformly recovered today.

What to watch into the close

With approximately two hours remaining in the regular session, several dynamics will determine whether the Nasdaq can hold above 24,700 and whether the S&P 500 can press toward the 7,150 level into the bell.

Bitcoin was last trading at $78,188, drifting modestly higher in a pattern consistent with a moderate risk-on environment. No major domestic economic data releases are scheduled for the remainder of Friday’s session, leaving market direction primarily at the mercy of headline flow from the Iran diplomatic track and any late-day commentary from Fed officials ahead of the pre-meeting blackout period.

Traders will also be monitoring whether the semiconductor rally sustains into the final hour or whether profit-taking materialises given the magnitude of single-session moves in Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Friday afternoon positioning dynamics — including options expiration-related flows — add a layer of technical complexity to the close. The setup into the weekend is shaped by optimism around Iran negotiations; any breakdown in those talks before markets close could quickly reverse the geopolitical tailwind that has underpinned energy and risk assets through the week, as Thursday’s midday pulse illustrated when Hormuz tensions drove Brent above $103.

At 1:30 PM ET, the tape reflects a market that is processing genuinely positive earnings information through a lens of elevated macro uncertainty — consumer confidence at record lows, geopolitical risk only partially resolved, and Fed policy in a transitional moment. The afternoon setup is constructive for technology and energy, cautious for everything else, and acutely sensitive to any Iran-related headline before the 4:00 PM bell.