Intel Hits a 25-Year High, Semis Take Control, and Charter Faces a Reckoning

Intel just posted the kind of earnings that remind everyone why fundamentals still matter, and the chip sector ran with it. Meanwhile, backchannel talks between Iran and the U.S. quietly pulled oil off the ledge, giving dip buyers the green light they had been waiting for.

The full picture — winners, losers, and what is driving it all — is right below.

Washington has introduced a change that could affect how retirement investors think about portfolio diversification.

As interest in gold continues to grow, many Americans are asking whether physical precious metals can play a role inside an eligible retirement account.

The answer may be yes — and for some investors, that option may already be available today.

Our free guide explains how physical gold may be purchased through certain retirement accounts, including eligible 401(k)s and IRAs.

Click here to get the free guide.

Two directors at a newly public biotech bought a combined $159.4 million worth of stock just days after its debut, even as another insider at a semiconductor name sold $247.1 million in one shot.

These executives know something you don’t - but our Insider readers do. The full breakdown is inside today's Insider section.

Every day, insiders and institutions move millions before the market catches on. We surface the data behind those moves before the rest of the market sees it.

A subscription gets you:

$25/mo or $250/yr. 30-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime. Founding member pricing: lock in $25/mo before we raise it.

U.S. equities pushed higher on a report that the Iranian Foreign Minister was heading to Islamabad for backchannel talks with U.S. mediators. Oil pulled back sharply, with WTI futures trading near $93 after briefly surging above $105 earlier in the week.

Intel’s blowout earnings sent the chip sector into its 18th straight positive session, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) up more than 4% and pacing for a 10% weekly gain.

Consumer sentiment hit the lowest reading in the survey’s 50-year history at 49.8, though markets largely looked through it.

The DOJ ended its probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, clearing the path for Kevin Warsh’s confirmation, with betting markets now pricing a 98% chance he is confirmed by June 1.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is investing $10 billion immediately into Anthropic at a $350 billion valuation, with another $30 billion to follow if performance targets are met.

Google built its own AI. It also built Gemini, DeepMind, and decades of research leadership. And it is still writing a $40 billion check to someone else.

Why Google Pays When It Already Builds

Google has more AI talent, more data, and more infrastructure than almost any company alive. Investing $40 billion in an outside AI lab raises an obvious question. If Google's own AI is good enough, why does it need Anthropic?

The answer is strategic insurance. The AI race is moving so fast that even Google cannot afford to rely entirely on its own models.

Backing Anthropic guarantees access to a second frontier AI system, regardless of which approach wins long-term.

You step back from the headline number, and what emerges is a company hedging against the possibility that its own technology is not the only one that matters.

The Biggest Bet Google Has Ever Made Outside Its Own Walls

Google typically builds internally. Search, Android, YouTube, Cloud, Waymo. All homegrown. Committing $40 billion to an external company breaks that pattern completely.

You have to ask what Google sees in Anthropic that it cannot replicate on its own. Whatever the answer is, it is worth $40 billion, and that number alone reshapes how seriously the world takes both companies going forward.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) just warned that surging oil prices from the Iran conflict will hit its profits by roughly $1 billion in the fiscal year starting July.

Oil jumped from $60 a barrel before the war to around $100 today. That increases ripples through everything P&G makes. Plastic packaging. Paper products. Transportation costs. All of it just got significantly more expensive.

Oil Is in Everything You Buy

P&G does not sell fuel. But oil sits inside nearly every step of its supply chain. The plastic in a Tide bottle. The packaging around Pampers.

The trucks that deliver Olay to store shelves. When crude doubles in price, a company spending over $40 billion a year on production costs absorbs the impact everywhere at once.

Some suppliers have already declared force majeure, meaning they physically cannot deliver materials. You hear "oil prices" and think about gas stations.

P&G hears it and recalculates the cost of making everything in your bathroom cabinet.

The Biggest Cost Warning Outside Airlines

P&G's billion-dollar warning is among the largest from any non-airline company since the conflict began. P&G says it is well-positioned to manage through it, but the scale of the headwind is hard to understate.

You use P&G products every single day without thinking about it.

This warning is a reminder that behind every bottle and box sits a supply chain now under extraordinary pressure, and the cost of that pressure eventually lands on the shelf right in front of you.

First users could have already grown their money dramatically every single year this AI has been running, based on the average winning trades it uncovers – WITHOUT following market news, WITHOUT watching central banks, and WITHOUT the stress most traders deal with daily.

For a limited time, you can try this AI yourself, completely free – no email, no credit card needed.

Compass Pathways (NASDAQ: CMPS) just received rolling review status from the FDA for COMP360, its synthetic psilocybin treatment for depression that has not responded to existing medications.

The FDA also selected it for a priority voucher program that shortens review timelines and provides enhanced communication with the agency.

Two fast-track designations in one announcement. The FDA is telling Compass to move faster, not slower.

From Fringe Science to FDA Priority

Psilocybin was dismissed for decades as a recreational substance with no medical value. Compass Pathways spent years building the clinical evidence to change that perception.

The FDA granting priority review status validates that effort in the most concrete way possible.

This is no longer fringe science. Your understanding of what a depression treatment looks like is being rewritten by a company that bet everything on proving the regulators wrong about psychedelics.

What Happens Next Defines the Company

Rolling review means Compass can submit sections of its application as they are completed rather than waiting to file everything at once. That accelerates the path to potential approval significantly.

You follow this company from here, and the next milestone is the completed filing.

If COMP360 gets approved, Compass Pathways goes from a small biotech to the company that brought psychedelic medicine into the mainstream. That is a transformation worth paying attention to.

MaxLinear [MXL] $59.97 (+76.12%)

MaxLinear designs chips for optical networking and broadband infrastructure, and it is the direct beneficiary of Intel’s earnings blowout, which confirmed that AI data center connectivity demand is accelerating. Volume came in at 6.17x average with a Buy consensus.

The stock is riding the semi sector’s 18-session winning streak, and today the tide lifted it further than almost anyone else.

Organon [OGN] $11.07 (+30.93%)

Organon is a women’s health and biosimilars company that moved 28.66% today on 1.65x relative volume, its biggest single-session gain in recent memory.

The stock was already on analyst radar with a P/E of 15.4x and positive EPS of $0.72. The move looks like a short squeeze layered on top of a sector rotation into beaten-down health names.

Intel [INTC] $79.94 (+23.64%)

Intel posted Q1 EPS of $0.29 against a $0.01 estimate and revenue of $13.58B against a $12.42B forecast, then guided Q2 well above Wall Street’s expectations. That is not a beat – that is a statement.

The stock is now up 260% since it was removed from the Dow in November 2024, on pace to break a share price record dating back to the dot-com era.

Skillz [SKLZ] $7.91 (-36.47%)

Skillz dropped 38.88% on 2.15x average volume with no major news catalyst, which in small-cap tech usually means one thing: a key level broke, institutional holders exited, and momentum traders followed.

The stock carries a Buy consensus, but at negative $4.42 EPS, the fundamentals left buyers with little reason to step in.

Liberty Broadband [LBRDA] $41.89 (-25.74%)

Liberty Broadband is Charter’s largest shareholder, which means when Charter bleeds, Liberty floods. The 23.56% drop is almost perfectly correlated to Charter’s subscriber loss story. This one is pure collateral damage.

Charter Communications [CHTR] $180.13 (-25.50%)

Charter reported a 120,000 quarter-over-quarter decline in internet subscribers. A number that hit the market like a gut punch. Deutsche Bank was downgraded to Hold, and analysts questioned whether the business can return to sustainable revenue growth.

The stock dropped 23.66% on 3.77x average volume, its worst day in years.

Oil has moved above $100 a barrel as tensions in the Middle East continue to reshape expectations across global energy markets.

While daily headlines can drive sharp swings, the bigger story may be what higher crude prices mean for select energy companies with strong cash flow and operating leverage.

Zacks has outlined three oil stocks that may be well positioned if elevated prices persist.

Read the report.

That's it for today! Please, write us back, and let us know what you think of the Closing Bell Roundup. We're always eager to hear feedback!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you at the next open! 

Best Regards,
— Adam G.
Elite Trade Club

Click here to get our daily newsletter straight to your cell for free.

P.S. Just like this newsletter, it's 100% free*, and you can stop at any time by replying STOP.