Powell investigation ends and the Fed story gets cleaner
U.S. stocks split on Friday after the Department of Justice dropped its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, removing one of the bigger political overhangs hanging over the central bank story.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% and the S&P 500 added 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%. The move suggested investors were more willing to bid up growth and technology names once the Powell investigation risk came off the table, even if broader macro and geopolitical concerns still kept the overall market from moving in one direction.
The end of the probe also matters because it potentially clears part of the path for Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s pick to lead the Fed, making the central bank transition story more relevant again.
Intel’s earnings breakout gave the chip trade fresh momentum
A major part of Friday’s strength came from Intel (INTC), which surged after posting a strong quarter and better outlook.
The move mattered for more than just one stock. It reinforced the idea that the AI buildout is not only helping the usual hyperscaler and GPU names. It may also be reviving parts of the older semiconductor complex, especially where CPUs still play a critical role in supporting broader AI infrastructure and enterprise workloads.
That is why the reaction spilled into the wider chip group. Investors appeared to take Intel’s results as another sign that the AI capex cycle is broad enough to lift even companies once seen as slower, more legacy-facing names.
AMD caught a sympathy bid as investors re-rated CPU exposure
The source also pointed to strength in AMD, which jumped after an analyst upgrade tied directly to Intel’s results.
The basic read-through is that the market may be rethinking the role of CPUs in the AI era. For a long stretch, the focus stayed heavily on GPUs, but Intel’s report appears to have reminded investors that AI workloads still need a broader compute stack.
That shift matters because if the market starts assigning more value to CPU franchises again, the upside may not be limited to Intel. It could also help names like AMD that are positioned around the same part of the infrastructure story.
In practical terms, Friday’s chip rally looked like more than a one-stock squeeze. It looked like a broader re-rating inside semiconductors.
A longer Israel-Lebanon truce helped, but the region still looks unstable
Markets were also watching the Middle East, where President Trump announced a three-week extension to the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire.
That helped at the margin because it gave investors one more reason to believe the broader regional conflict may not spiral immediately. But it did not fully calm the tape. The source notes that Trump’s own social media rhetoric was still being seen as a complicating factor for diplomacy, while tensions around the blockaded Strait of Hormuz remained elevated.
That left markets in a familiar place: encouraged by a temporary extension, but not convinced the wider diplomatic path is secure.
Oil eased, but the market did not treat the energy risk as solved
Oil prices moved slightly lower, with Brent slipping below $100 a barrel and WTI falling to around $95.
That pullback helped support equities, especially after weeks in which higher crude repeatedly threatened to revive inflation concerns. But the decline was modest enough to show that traders are still carrying meaningful supply-risk assumptions around Hormuz and the broader region.
That matters because stocks can benefit from a little oil relief without fully escaping the macro problem. If the ceasefire weakens or maritime tensions worsen again, crude could quickly move back into a more threatening zone for inflation and market sentiment.
Consumer sentiment improved, but the reading still looked historically weak
Friday’s macro backdrop also included fresh consumer sentiment data.
The final University of Michigan reading for April came in at 49.8, better than expected but still at an extremely weak level. According to the source, that remained lower than readings seen during the financial crisis, the COVID pandemic, and the post-Ukraine inflation spike.
That is important because it shows how damaged household confidence still is, even with a temporary reduction in war risk. Consumers may be feeling a little less panic than expected, but the underlying mood still looks fragile.
For investors, that means the economy can still have a spending base that holds up in the short term while confidence remains deeply impaired underneath.
The market is still balancing politics, AI, and energy at the same time
Friday’s mixed tape makes more sense when you look at all the moving parts together.
Investors were processing:
- a cleaner immediate outlook for Powell
- stronger confidence in parts of the chip trade
- a somewhat improved ceasefire backdrop
- still-high oil
- and deeply weak consumer sentiment
That is not a simple one-theme market. It is a market where good news in one area is still being checked by unresolved risk in another.
The reason the Nasdaq held up better than the Dow is that the strongest fresh catalyst on the day came from technology, especially semis, while the bigger macro and geopolitical issues remained messy enough to keep the broader market from fully breaking higher.
WSA Take
Friday’s session was another reminder that the market still wants to buy AI and chip exposure whenever it gets an excuse. The end of the Powell investigation helped remove one political overhang, but Intel’s earnings were the more important driver for risk appetite.
For investors, the main takeaway is that leadership is still concentrated in the parts of the market tied most directly to AI infrastructure, while the broader macro backdrop remains shaky. As long as oil, consumer confidence, and Middle East headlines stay unsettled, the market may keep rewarding selective winners rather than lifting everything at once.
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