Tech Weekly: Robust Earnings Propel Indexes to Record Highs

This week's tech sector performance

Earnings from major tech companies acted as a stabilizing force in the market this week, helping to offset persistent geopolitical uncertainties stemming from the ongoing conflict in Iran.

Stocks ended lower on Monday (May 4) after Iran said that foreign military forces would be targeted if they tried to approach or cross the Strait of Hormuz. The move came after US President Donald Trump said the American Navy would escort stranded ships under a “Project Freedom” effort.

The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) and Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) notched record-high closes on Tuesday (May 5) and Wednesday (May 6), along with the PHLX Semiconductor Sector (INDEXNASDAQ,SQX), which was lifted by strong earnings from a handful of artificial intelligence (AI) and chipmaking stocks.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX), however, ended lower on Tuesday after Shopify (TSX:SHOP,NASDAQ:SHOP) saw a large decline in its share price following its earnings report.

Stocks fell and closed lower on Thursday (May 7) ahead of US and Canadian jobs data on Friday (May 8).

US jobs growth topped expectations, while the unemployment rate was steady. Meanwhile, Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a six month high as ⁠the economy lost a net 17,700 jobs.

This week’s Milken Institute Global Conference reinforced market optimism about AI, with sessions centered on the AI imperative, private markets and how capital is being rerouted toward AI infrastructure and enterprise deployment.

At the same time, Yale University's Budget Lab added a more sober fiscal angle: its most recent model, published on Wednesday, suggests AI could improve the US debt path only if productivity gains are sustained and the labor market absorbs displaced workers. Weaker laborforce outcomes or heavier government support could push the debt-to-GDP ratio to about 108 percent by 2035, or to 112 percent in a more generous support scenario.

Also on Friday, US and Iranian forces engaged in a naval exchange in the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters and other news outlets say Iran fired on US warships transiting the strait, and US forces struck Iranian targets in response.

The United Arab Emirates also said its air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles and three drones from Iran.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US is expecting a response from Iran on a peace proposal on Friday.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite capped the week with all-time high closes again on Friday, finishing at 7,398.93 and 26,247.08, respectively. The S&P gained 2.34 percent on the week, while the Nasdaq gained 4.2 percent.

3 tech stocks moving markets this week

This week's top movers, according to TradingView data, were:

1. Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK)

Sandisk saw a 47.53 percent increase in its share price.

2. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Micron Technology finished the week up 45.92 percent.

3. Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG)

Datadog ended the week 44.52 percent higher.

After an upward revision of its annual sales and profit projections significantly beat market forecasts, security platform Datadog saw its share price climb at its fastest rate in more than six years.

The software firm now anticipates revenue between US$4.3 billion and US$4.34 billion, surpassing the consensus analyst estimate of US$4.09 billion. Furthermore, Datadog increased its adjusted earnings outlook to a maximum of US$2.44 per share, up from its previous high-end estimate of US$2.16.

Top tech news of the week

• Anthropic unveiled 10 financial AI agents and integrations at its Briefing: Financial Services event on Tuesday, sparking selloffs in FactSet Research Systems (NYSE:FDS), Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN) and peers. The company separately announced a US$1.5 billion AI venture with Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and others; it also committed US$200 billion to Google Cloud over five years as per the Information, and struck a deal for compute capacity with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. At the event, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon endorsed the AI CAPEX boom, telling attendees that “the technology is so powerful, it’s worth the trillion-dollar investment."

• Blackstone and KKR (NYSE:KRR) are reportedly in talks with Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to give their portfolio companies access to Google’s AI tools.

• Google, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and xAI granted the US government pre-release access to their AI models. The government plans to test the capabilities and security of the models.

• A Bloomberg report that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has held exploratory discussions about enlisting Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) chipmaking services to produce the main processors for its devices helped boost shares on Monday. Later, sources for the news outlet said Apple is preparing a feature that will let users choose from rival AI models in iOS 27, according to sources for Bloomberg. Sources also say that the company is in the late stages of testing new AirPods with built-in cameras.

• Google launched its Fitbit Air, a US$100 screenless wearable device equipped with Google Health Coach, a Gemini-powered health assistant.

• Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) introduced Amazon Supply Chain Services on Monday, opening its logistics network to other businesses. Shares of FedEx (NYSE:FDX) and United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) fell more than 2 percent following the announcement. Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), 3M (NYSE:MMM) and American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) have already joined as partners.

• Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is reportedly building a consumer variant of its open-source personal AI agent, OpenClaw, code-named Hatch, as well as a new agentic shopping tool, according to sources for the Information on Tuesday. This news follows earlier reports of the company’s acquisition of AI startup Assured Robot Intelligence, which develops models for robots.

• Shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) fell on Thursday after reports that a custom AI chip deal between OpenAI and Broadcom, codenamed Project Nexus, stalled after Broadcom told OpenAI that it will only finance the first US$18 billion production phase if Microsoft commits to purchasing approximately 40 percent of the chips. The chips were slated for deployment in Q2.

• AI startup Pit launched with US$16 million in funding led by a16z on Thursday. The company's platform builds custom, AI-native software to replace fragmented enterprise systems, highlighting the so-called "Saspocalypse" trend toward replacing rigid SaaS tools.

• NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) struck two deals aimed at expanding AI infrastructure this week, agreeing to invest as much as US$2.1 billion in data center developer IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) on Thursday, just a day after it took a US$500 million equity stake in fiber optic cable maker Corning (NYSE:GLW). The company is also collaborating with Span, a California-based startup offering smart electrical panels, to install fractional data centers, called XFRA units, in new homes.

• Hive Digital (TSXV:HIVE,NASDAQ:HIVE) has received final approval to uplist from the TSX Venture Exchange to the Toronto Stock Exchange, with trading set to begin May 12 under the same HIVE ticker.

Latest tech stock earnings

• CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) reported that its revenue doubled in Q1 compared to the previous year, coming in at US$2 billion. The gain came alongside higher CAPEX spending that drove a US$4.7 billion cash burn. It is guiding 2026 fiscal year revenue of US$12 billion to US$13 billion, and CAPEX of US$31 billion to US$35 billion. CoreWeave finished the quarter with US$24.8 billion in debt and about US$3 billion of cash, two-thirds of which came from an equity investment by NVIDIA.

• Shopify’s quarterly earnings report was mixed, showing revenue of about US$3.17 billion alongside a loss of US$581 million, causing the stock to fall.

• Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) shares rose after the company reported strong earnings for Q1 and projected that CPU demand for AGI will drive US$2 billion in sales over the next two years.

• Shares of Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI) surged in extended trading after the firm reported strong quarterly revenue on Tuesday; however, the company gave back some gains after investors weighed its hefty CAPEX, cash burn and sales that missed Wall Street estimates.

• Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) delivered its Q1 earnings report, with revenue at US$1.63 billion, up 85 percent year-on-year. The company raised its full-year guidance to around US$7.65 billion, while guiding Q2 revenue of between US$1.797 billion and US$1.801 billion.

Tech ETF performance

Tech exchange-traded funds (ETFs) track baskets of major tech stocks, meaning their performance helps investors gauge the overall performance of the niches they cover.

This week, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) increased by 11.07 percent, while the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXQ) gained 10.34 percent.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) increased by 10.55 percent.

Tech news to watch next week

Looking forward to next week, heightened volatility around the Middle East conflict and energy market dynamics could spill into AI‑enabled hardware, cloud and semiconductor names as tech and AI-adjacent firms continue to report results that will test the market’s appetite for high spending.

Also next week, the Investing News Network will be on the ground at the Web Summit conference in Vancouver, BC, to report on the latest tech investment trends, capital flows into AI‑infrastructure and how venture‑style risk capital is reshaping the broader tech stock landscape.