Falcon’s View – Week ending 24 April 2026
Performance
NASDAQ 100: +2.37%
S&P 500: +0.55%
My portfolio: +4.00%
Market pulse
U.S. equities finished the week ending Apr. 24, 2026 higher but unevenly, with the NASDAQ-100 up 2.37% versus a more modest 0.55% gain for the S&P 500. The decisive positive driver was a renewed AI and semiconductor surge, led by Intel’s much stronger-than-expected outlook and a record 18-session advance in chip stocks, which pulled the tech-heavy Nasdaq complex sharply ahead of the broader market. At the same time, trading was repeatedly whipsawed by U.S.–Iran headlines, the Strait of Hormuz, and oil prices near $100, with ceasefire and peace-talk optimism producing rallies and renewed escalation fears triggering pullbacks. Strong Q1 earnings and resilient U.S. macro data supported risk appetite, but the rally was narrow: software stocks sold off on AI-disruption concerns, Treasury yields edged higher, and Fed succession uncertainty remained a secondary overhang until the DOJ dropped its probe into Jerome Powell late in the week.
Crowd vs. price
The recovery in relative investor interest mentioned the previous week continued.
Holdings & Watchlist Notes
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): +24.94%
AMD surged 24.94% over the week ending Apr. 24, driven mainly by a powerful AI-related reassessment of the server CPU market. The decisive catalyst was Intel’s stronger-than-expected quarter and upbeat outlook, which convinced investors that AI inference and agentic AI workloads are creating much greater demand for CPUs than previously assumed. That read-through directly benefited AMD’s EPYC server CPU franchise and was amplified by aggressive analyst target increases, including Stifel’s move to $320 and D.A. Davidson’s upgrade to Buy with a $375 target. The rally was further supported by AMD’s large AI infrastructure commitments with OpenAI and Meta, a broader semiconductor sector surge, and fading concerns over the return on hyperscaler AI capex. AMD-specific headlines, including its France AI collaboration and new Ryzen launch, added incremental support, but the core driver was the market’s shift from a GPU-only AI narrative to a broader AI compute cycle in which AMD is seen as a major beneficiary.
• Relative crowd interest: Trend: upwards. Momentum: bullish.