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“Too good to miss” or “why can’t anything else rally” might be the pithiest summations of the current status, with the at record highs but driven largely by a cohort of tech stocks that have left their rivals in the dust since the Iran war started in late February. The benchmark has gained more than 8.5% this year, powered by a 16.8% rally since the last days of March, amid a stunning comeback for tech and chip stocks that has carried U.S. markets to record highs. “What started as an AI/semiconductor conversation, however, should now be shifting to the rest of the market,” said Jonathan Krinsky, managing director and chief market technician at BTIG.
The start of May hasn’t done anything to cool down the Nasdaq's rally, but the rest of the market was struggling to keep up with tech. The Nasdaq was up 1%, on track to end the week with a closing high. The Dow was actually more representative of how most stocks were doing: The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, or RSP, was also down 0.2%.
On a recent Animal Spirits Podcast episode, co-host Ben Carlson summed up the AI capex worry plainly: “If there’s one obvious risk that’s going to cause excesses to happen in a big downturn, like AI has to be it.” The setup was a Wall Street Journal report flagged by his co-host Michael Batnick: OpenAI raised ... OpenAI’s $122 Billion Burn Rate Sparks Debate on AI Spending Excesses
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each set intraday records on Friday, but a majority of stocks were actually falling. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% after setting an intraday record at 7164.45. The Nasdaq was up 1.5% after hitting an intraday record of 24,824.52.
The stock market is in risk-off mode, at least based on what trades are working Thursday morning. The Invesco S&P 500 Pure Value ETF was up 0.5%, leading many other ETFs focused on particular stock characteristics.
Financial pros have long urged investors to hold diversified portfolios—and the risk posed by stock indexes’ persistently heavy tech stock concentration has amplified those calls. Over that period, investors diversified into bond and international stock exchange-traded funds amid an uptick in inflation expectations, skepticism over companies’ spending on artificial-intelligence buildouts, and heightened geopolitical concerns. One ETF hoovering assets suggests that some investors are also diversifying by flirting with non-capitalization-weighting strategies.
<p>The S&P 500 is now up around 2% on a year-to-date basis.</p>
With the VIX sitting near 19 after a sharp pullback from a March spike above 31, and the Fed holding rates steady at 3.75% after cutting 75 basis points over the prior year, the equity market backdrop in April 2026 sits in ambiguous territory. That makes the question of where to put $1,000 more interesting ... Energy and International ETFs Offer the Diversification Your $1,000 Deserves in 2026