Nasdaq Composite Rises on Cautious Optimism on Tech Tailwinds but Iran Soars

• Intel ( INTC ) rose 28% to market earnings on non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 compared to consensus of $0.01, driven by Data Center revenue that rose 22% and a new Google partnership.

• MaxLinear (MXL) gained 43% after posting 43% revenue growth and an infrastructure segment that rose 136%, signaling AI capex is expanding beyond GPUs to optical data center equipment.

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I Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) trading in the green on Friday’s open, with the index leading the major averages as Intel’s legacy earnings report reignited the AI ​​infrastructure trade. Nasdaq is drawing momentum from mega-cap tech and one stock’s dramatic moves, even as traders keep an eye on the Strait of Hormuz. During the week, i Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slightly up, making its YTD return around 5.5%.

The big background is unstable. “Markets enter the final day of the trading week in a cautious mood as US-Iran tensions show signs of easing while the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed,” said Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank. WTI crude is sitting around $91 a barrel, up from an April 7 near $115, and the VIX is near 19, comfortably within a normal range after jumping above 31 in late March.

Below the index’s movement, a mixed bag of headlines kept investors in awe. Meta Platform (Nasdaq: META) is deepening its Amazon Web Services (AWS) relationship, using tens of millions of Graviton cores to power CPU-intensive agentic AI workloads such as inference, search, and multi-step orchestration, cementing it as one of AWS’s largest Graviton customers. Yet the drumbeat of cost-cutting continued: Nike (NYSE: NKE ) it is reportedly cutting 1,400 jobs, mostly in its technology division, while Meta is also cutting headcount. Meanwhile, Beijing moved to restrict American investment in key domestic technology sectors, adding another geopolitical overhang. It all kept the fear/greed needle moving, as the wide tape rose.

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Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is the news of the morning, with shares up nearly 28% of the market and on track for levels not seen since the dot-com era. The chip maker reported non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 on revenue of $13.58 billion, against the consensus of about a cent, marking the sixth consecutive quarter that beat expectations. Data center and AI revenue increased 22% and Intel Foundry increased 16%. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the shift to agent AI is a thing “significantly increasing demand for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings.” Q2 revenue guidance of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion and Google’s new multi-year partnership, as well as the Intel Xeon 6 of choice for NVIDIA’s DGX Rubin NVL8, moved the tape up again.

Among mega-caps, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 1.2% after confirming voluntary retirement buyouts for about 8,750 US workers, and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) rose 0.6% after telling employees it would cut about 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) the stock is moving near recent highs.

The AI ​​infrastructure chain goes deeper than Intel. MaxLinear (NASDAQ:MXL) rose 43% after posting 43% revenue growth with its infrastructure segment up 136% in data center lines of sight to hyperscalers.

Today’s message is that wage earners do hard work. Intel’s CPU resurgence and MaxLinear’s optical ramp suggest AI capex is expanding beyond GPUs, while megacap layoffs suggest technology is reallocating payrolls to fund infrastructure. Oil to watch, any headlines of the renewed US-Iran talks, and whether today’s Nasdaq’s strength is stuck in the end or fading with geopolitical tape.

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