Alain’s Holdings
| Symbol | Name | Price | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VOO | Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | 678.00* | -1.52* | -0.22%* |
| QQQ | Invesco QQQ Trust | 706.23* | -7.06* | -0.99%* |
| XIU.TO | iShares S&P/TSX 60 ETF | 50.26 | +0.20 | +0.40% |
| VRT | Vertiv Holdings Co. | 367.76* | -0.16* | -0.04%* |
The Record Streak Ends. CPI Runs Hot. Chips Get Crushed. Warsh Takes the Fed.
Seven straight record sessions came to an abrupt halt Tuesday. The April CPI report landed hotter than expected, oil bounced back above $100, Iran talks collapsed further, and the chip stocks that have carried this entire rally took their worst single-day beating in weeks. The seven-week winning streak is officially under threat.
The Nasdaq Composite led losses, tumbling roughly 1%, while the S&P 500 shed 0.4% after the two indexes had notched record closing highs just the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which includes fewer tech names, rose 0.1%. TheStreet
🌡️ The Big Story: CPI Runs the Hottest Since May 2023
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 0.6% in April, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.8% over the last 12 months — the largest annual increase since May 2023. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.4% month-over-month and 2.8% year-over-year. CNBC
Both the headline and core readings came in above Wall Street’s expectations. Consumer inflation continued its rapid ascent amid the Strait of Hormuz blockade, which pressured global fuel and energy prices. Gasoline was the single largest contributor — a direct consequence of the Iran war now in its tenth week. TheStreet
April’s hotter-than-expected inflation data is likely to put the Federal Reserve on guard for creeping consumer prices and potentially leave the door open for interest rate hikes later this year. According to CME FedWatch, markets were pricing in a nearly 98% chance that the Fed will hold rates steady at its next meeting in June and through most of 2026. But looking out to December, there’s now a nearly 30% chance of a rate hike. TheStreet
The 10-year Treasury yield hit a one-year high of 4.46% following the report. Zacks
🏦 Kevin Warsh Confirmed as Fed Chair
The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as a Federal Reserve governor in a 51-45 vote on Tuesday, clearing the path for him to be named Chair on Wednesday. Warsh succeeds Jerome Powell, who exits Friday as inflation hits a three-year high driven by the Iran war and new tariffs. While Warsh has advocated for “regime change” and signaled that interest rates could be lower, he takes the helm of the central bank during a period of intense price pressure. Though Powell will remain on the board until 2028 to oversee an internal probe, Warsh’s leadership represents a potential pivot in monetary policy. Zacks
The irony is sharp: the man who campaigned on lower rates inherits a 3.8% CPI and a market pricing in a 30% chance of a rate hike by year-end.
💻 Chips: What Goes Up Fastest Comes Down Hardest
Qualcomm stock fell 12% and was having its worst day since 2020. Intel, which is up around 430% over the past year, declined 9% on the day. Chip stocks were a sea of red on Tuesday. Investors were likely taking some profits after a significant run-up. The downturn has only made a small dent in the index’s 2026 gains: the SOX remains up 4% over the past five days, 29% over the past month, and 60% since the beginning of the year. TheStreet
The semiconductor stocks that surged hardest over the past month are absorbing the steepest losses today — a reminder that high-momentum stocks carry high-reversal risk. Zacks
🛢️ Iran: Ceasefire on “Massive Life Support”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the truce was on “massive life support” while deriding the Iranian response to his proposal to end the 10-week war. Brent crude traded above $104 a barrel after advancing 2.9% in the previous session, while West Texas Intermediate was near $98. Yahoo Finance
With no deal in sight and oil rebounding sharply, the brief peace-trade rally of last Wednesday is now fully reversed.
🔭 The Dot-Com Debate Gets Louder
Wall Street is flashing signs of a stock market melt-up, leading some strategists to draw uncomfortable parallels to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. But strategist Emanuel and his team point out that enthusiasm in 2026 is built on a firmer foundation than the dot-com era. In 1999, “dot-com darlings” traded at a median price-to-earnings multiple of around 152 times. Today’s “AI Class of 2026” trades at roughly 39 times earnings. “Valuations are high, but not Y2K extremes,” Emanuel wrote. Yahoo Finance
🏆 Today’s Notable Winners
- 🟢 Quantum Computing (QUBT) +27% — Revenue surged from $39,000 a year ago to $3.69 million in Q1; investors cheered the growth trajectory despite ongoing losses TheStreet
- 🟢 Plug Power (PLUG) +11% — Strong revenue growth and progress toward profitability by Q4 2026 sparked a relief rally in the beaten-down hydrogen stock TheStreet
- 🟢 Coca-Cola (KO) +1.82% and Microsoft (MSFT) +1.21% — Rate-sensitive dividend names caught a bid as investors rotated out of high-momentum chips and into defensives ahead of Warsh’s confirmation Zacks
- 🟢 Dow Jones (+0.1%) — The only major index to finish in the green, propped up by defensive consumer and healthcare names
📉 Today’s Notable Losers
- 🔴 Qualcomm (QCOM) -12% — Worst single day since 2020; profit-taking after a massive run TheStreet
- 🔴 Intel (INTC) -9% — Gives back some of its stunning two-week, 20%+ gain TheStreet
- 🔴 Micron (MU) -4%+ — AI memory trade reverses as yields spike and inflation fears mount Zacks
- 🔴 Hims & Hers (HIMS) -14% — Surprise Q1 loss as the telehealth company pivots away from cheaper GLP-1 copycat drugs toward name-brand versions, squeezing margins TheStreet
- 🔴 Nasdaq Composite -1% — The record streak is over; seven consecutive all-time highs officially snapped
🔭 What’s Next
Wednesday brings Cisco and Alibaba earnings — key reads on enterprise AI networking spend and Chinese tech health. Thursday delivers Applied Materials results and PPI data — another inflation reading that could compound today’s CPI shock. Kevin Warsh will hold his first press conference as Fed Chair this week, and every word will be parsed for signals on whether he pivots hawkish to fight inflation or holds the line on his rate-cut preferences. Equityclock
The record streak is over. The question now is whether this is a healthy digestion of extraordinary gains — or the beginning of something more serious.
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