Record Highs in Chips, a Real Comeback Quarter, and a Copper Warning Sign

One semiconductor leader just picked up a fresh flow-driven tailwind on top of already strong fundamentals. Another chipmaker finally gave the market a quarter that supports the turnaround, while a major copper producer reminded investors that an earnings beat does not matter much when production slips. We’ll show you where to buy strength, where the breakout still works, and where to stay out.

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Futures are leaning higher after another ceasefire extension gave traders a reason to keep nibbling at risk. The mood is still headline-sensitive, though, with chip stocks doing most of the heavy lifting while the broader market struggles to keep up.

Earnings (Premarket):
• Procter & Gamble Company (The) [PG]
• HCA Healthcare, Inc. [HCA]
• SLB Limited [SLB]
• Norfolk Southern Corporation [NSC]
• Charter Communications, Inc. [CHTR]
• Nomura Holdings Inc ADR [NMR]
• Moog Inc. [MOG.A]

Earnings (Time Not Supplied):
• Southern Copper Corporation [SCCO]
• Woori Bank [WF]

Economic Reports:
• Consumer sentiment (final) (April): 10:00 am

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.

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Co Ltd (NYSE: TSM) did not need much help, but it just got some anyway. Shares pushed to another record after Taiwan’s regulator loosened the cap on how much domestic equity funds and active ETFs can allocate to a single stock.

That matters because TSM already dominates the local market, and the old 10% cap had become a real constraint. Under the new framework, some Taiwan-focused funds can now allocate up to 25% to a stock that carries a weighting above 10% on the exchange.

This is landing on top of a business that was already firing. Last week, TSM reported a 58% jump in first-quarter profit, marking a fourth straight quarter of record earnings, and the company remains one of the clearest beneficiaries of AI chip demand. It still sits at the center of the supply chain for names like Apple and Nvidia, and that kind of demand is not cooling.

TSM closed at $382.66 and was already trading near highs before this policy move. Now you have strong fundamentals and a fresh technical tailwind from fund inflows. That is a powerful mix, even if it does not make the stock cheap.

My Take For You: This is not just momentum. It is a high-quality semiconductor leader getting stronger fundamentals and a better ownership setup at the same time.

My Verdict: Buy this. The risk is that crowded positioning near the highs leads to a sharp pullback even while the long-term story stays intact.

Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC) gave the market the kind of print it has been waiting for. Adjusted EPS came in at $0.29 versus $0.01 expected, revenue reached $13.58 billion against a $12.42 billion consensus, and second-quarter guidance also came in ahead of expectations.

Revenue rose 7.2% year over year, while data-center revenue jumped 22% to $5.1 billion, a sign that Intel is finally finding real traction again.

The bigger point is that this quarter supports the idea that Intel’s recovery is no longer just political backing and hope. The company is benefiting from stronger CPU demand tied to AI workloads, improved foundry momentum, and a packaging business that management now believes can drive billions of dollars per customer.

The stock’s nearly 24% premarket jump reflects a market that was under-positioned for a quarter this strong.

Intel is still not clean. Net loss widened to $4.28 billion, yields on newer process nodes remain a question, and winning outside foundry customers is still the hard part. But this was the first report in a while that felt like a business turning, not just a story being sold.

My Take For You: This is the most convincing Intel quarter in a long time because the strength showed up in both the numbers and the outlook. The market finally has something real to work with.

My Verdict: Buy the breakout. The risk is that manufacturing yields or outside foundry adoption lag enough to slow the rerating.

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Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) beat the quarter on the surface, posting adjusted EPS of $0.57 on $6.23 billion in revenue versus expectations for $0.47 and $5.73 billion. But the market cared far more about the production cut.

The company lowered its 2026 copper forecast from 3.4 billion pounds to 3.1 billion, and its gold forecast from 800,000 ounces to 650,000, driven by ongoing issues at Grasberg after the fatal September 2025 mud rush disruption.

Those are not small revisions. Copper sales dropped to 657 million pounds from 872 million a year earlier, and management still is not giving investors a clean timeline for a full normalization. When the flagship asset stays impaired longer than expected, the entire bull case has to adjust.

That does not mean Freeport is broken. It is still one of the most important public copper names in the market, and long-term copper demand tied to electrification and AI power infrastructure remains strong. But right now, the market is telling you operational execution matters more than the macro story.

My Take For You: The long-term copper case is intact, but this stock has lost the benefit of the doubt until Grasberg stabilizes. A company can beat earnings and still be the wrong trade when the core asset is off track.

My Verdict: Avoid this. The risk is that another delay turns today’s forecast cut into a larger reset in expectations.

MaxLinear is exploding higher because this quarter changed the story. Q1 revenue rose to $137.2 million, infrastructure revenue jumped roughly 136% year over year, and Q2 guidance of $160 million to $170 million came in miles above what Wall Street was looking for. The AI data-center angle is no longer a side note. It is now the main event.

Yes, the stock has already had a huge run. That does not make this move wrong. It makes it a stock with real momentum and real numbers behind it.

AMD is moving because the Street keeps leaning harder into the AI case ahead of earnings. Stifel lifted its price target to $320 from $280 and kept its Buy rating, pointing to stronger-than-expected AI compute demand and major commitments from Meta and OpenAI. With earnings due May 5, the market is betting the company has more good news to show.

The stock is not cheap and the bar is higher now. But this is what leadership looks like in a hot chip tape: rising targets, rising expectations, and buyers still showing up.

StoneCo is getting hit, and the filing alone does not explain a drop this sharp. The company did file its 2025 Form 20-F on April 23, but that is routine. At roughly 8x earnings, this already looked like a low-expectation stock, so a selloff of this size tells you sentiment is weak and buyers are not stepping in yet.

That can create value later, but not every cheap stock is ready today. When a name breaks this hard without a clean operating catalyst, the right move is to respect the weakness first and get interested later.

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 all for today. Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback, please reply to this email.

Best Regards,

— Adam Garcia
Elite Trade Club

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