Latest US stock market news on April 17, 2026:

The S&P 500 rose 0.26% today to 7,041.28 points, once again hitting a new all-time high. It has only seen one daily decline this month, with a cumulative gain of over 7%. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.36% to 24,102.70 points, achieving 12 consecutive days of gains, matching the longest winning streak since July 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.24% to 48,578.72 points.

Sector performance was clearly divided, with semiconductors, satellite communications, lithium mining, and energy leading the gains. Consumer electronics, auto manufacturing, and some internet giants saw profit-taking. The logic behind capital flows is clear: easing tensions in the Middle East boosted risk appetite, coupled with the continued explosion in demand for AI computing power, accelerating capital inflows into the semiconductor industry chain with the strongest earnings certainty and high-growth niche segments.

The biggest winner today was AMD, which surged 7.80% in a single day, also achieving 12 consecutive gains and reaching a new all-time high. Its EPYC "Turin" processors, based on a chiplet architecture, are in short supply, making it the biggest beneficiary of this round of CPU demand explosion. Multiple institutions have raised their full-year performance expectations. Intel also closed up 5.48%, with its stock price reaching a new closing high since the dot-com bubble era following the release of its Core 300 processors.

The semiconductor sector as a whole remained strong. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed up 1.02%, setting new all-time highs for seven consecutive trading days. ON Semiconductor rose nearly 10%, Qualcomm rose 1.07%, and semiconductor test equipment maker Aehr Test Systems received a record order from a leading cloud computing customer, surging 10.42% in a single day. Although TSMC reported better-than-expected earnings, it fell 3.13%, primarily due to market concerns that its advanced process capacity expansion cannot keep up with the explosive demand for AI chips.

Large-cap tech stocks showed mixed performance. Microsoft closed up 2.20%, Meta rose 0.79%, and Amazon rose 0.48%. Apple fell 1.14%, Tesla fell 0.78%, NVIDIA dipped 0.26%, and Google-A fell 0.33%. Tesla saw a slight pullback after surging 7.62% yesterday on news of its AI5 chip. The market awaits its earnings report after the close on April 22nd, focusing on the progress of FSD rollout and Cybertruck sales.

Among other hot spots, satellite communications became the top-gaining sector of the day. Iridium Communications surged 14.25%, and Viasat rose 8.67%. The lithium mining sector surged across the board, with Albemarle up over 16% and Sigma Lithium up over 12%.

The market opened higher today but then plunged, showing strong support. The S&P 500 support level of 7000-7010 points we previously provided proved accurate, with the index quickly rebounding after hitting a low of 7008.52 points. It closed higher with volatility in the final session, driven by AMD and Microsoft. The next key resistance level above is in the 7080-7100 range.

Next week's intensive release of earnings reports from tech giants will be a core market catalyst. The actual revenue contribution from the first-quarter AI businesses of companies like Tesla, Microsoft, Google, and Meta will be key to testing the quality of this round of the tech stock rally.$NVIDIA(NVDA.US)

$Tesla(TSLA.US)

$Alphabet(GOOGL.US)