This week’s stock shocks as on 24th April, 2026

Tracking US tech giants meant watching product keynotes and earnings call transcripts. Not anymore. Tim Cook’s exit ends what is widely regarded as one of the most commercially successful CEO runs in Silicon Valley history. Intel has gone from a $20 stock to a $70+ comeback story. And the software sector just got a reality check about where AI-driven revenue actually lands.

That’s why we built Winvesta Crisps—to decode every shift, reshaping the companies you own, in plain language, before the consensus catches up. 60,000+ investors from across India are already in. What about you?

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The week began with the Nasdaq snapping a 13-session winning streak—one of the longest runs in decades—as fresh Iran war tensions hit Monday’s open. By Wednesday, President Trump’s ceasefire extension sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new records, fully erasing all losses from the Iran war. Then, on Thursday, the software sector delivered a wipeout—ServiceNow and IBM both cratered on guidance disappointment, pulling Microsoft, Palantir, and Oracle down with them. But after the Thursday bell, Intel changed the narrative entirely: a blowout quarter that sent the stock surging approximately 15-19% in after-hours trade. Heading into Friday’s close, the semiconductor sector was primed for its 18th consecutive session of gains. The week, in aggregate, was roughly flat for the major indexes—but the path there was anything but calm.

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Market recap 📊

The S&P 500 spent the week broadly in the mid-7,000s, while the Nasdaq moved between approximately 24,260 and 24,658—the latter a fresh all-time high close, per Morningstar. The Dow broadly tracked the same mood swings, per CNBC.

Monday opened cautiously lower as weekend news of escalating US-Iran tensions, including reports that the Navy had seized an Iranian-flagged vessel, weighed on risk appetite. The Nasdaq snapped a 13-day winning streak—one of its longest runs in decades, per CNBC. The S&P 500 shed roughly a quarter of a per cent while the Dow barely moved. The Russell 2000, however, scored a new all-time closing record—a rare sign of broadening participation.

Tuesday turned more anxious as hopes for a peace deal faded. Senior US officials’ planned talks in Pakistan were reported to be delayed due to a lack of commitment from Tehran, per The New York Times and Axios. The ceasefire was set to expire on Wednesday evening. The S&P 500 fell roughly 0.6%, the Nasdaq around the same, while oil climbed back above the high-$80s. Amazon, however, popped roughly 3% after announcing it would invest up to tens of billions of dollars in Anthropic over several years as part of an expanded AI infrastructure deal, according to media reports.

Wednesday was the week’s defining session. Shortly after Tuesday’s close, President Trump extended the ceasefire indefinitely, citing Iran’s government being “seriously fractured.” Markets surged: the S&P 500 jumped around 1% to close in the high-7,100s, and the Nasdaq added roughly 1.64% to settle at 24,657.57—both recording new all-time highs, per CNBC and Morningstar. The Dow gained approximately 340 points. GE Vernova soared roughly 8-13% on a strong earnings beat and raised guidance, Boeing added around 3% on a better-than-expected quarterly loss, and chip names broadly surged, with Broadcom, AMD, and Micron each gaining somewhere between 5% and 8%, per Reuters.

Thursday pulled back sharply from those records. Oil pushed into the mid-$90s per barrel on WTI after reports that Iran’s parliament speaker resigned from the US negotiating team, per Bloomberg. Software stocks bore the brunt: ServiceNow fell about 17%, and IBM dropped about 9% after their earnings calls disappointed investors, dragging Microsoft, Palantir, Oracle, and the broader iShares Tech-Software ETF (IGV) down significantly, per CNBC. The S&P 500 closed down roughly 0.41% to 7,108.4,0 and the Nasdaq fell approximately 0.89% to 24,438.50, per CNBC. After the bell, Intel posted its most stunning quarterly result in years—and the tone for Friday was set.

Friday saw the semiconductor rally take over, with Intel’s blowout after-hours result from Thursday carrying through to the open. Heading into the close, the major indexes were on track for a modestly positive finish on the day, with the week ending in roughly the same neighbourhood where it started—but via an extraordinarily volatile detour.

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Sentiment watch 😶‍🌫️

The VIX closed Thursday near the high teens—elevated by war uncertainty,nty but nowhere near the panic levels one might expect given oil spiking toward $96 and a near-record software selloff in the same session. That contained VIX reading tells an important story: the market largely treats the Iran war as a negotiated outcome waiting to happen, not an existential threat to equity valuations.

The more pronounced shift in sentiment data was the divergence between mega-cap tech and the rest of the market. The Nasdaq’s 13-day win streak was built overwhelmingly on AI infrastructure names and semiconductor momentum. The Thursday session, where fewer than a third of NYSE and Nasdaq issues advanced even as indexes hit intraday all-time highs earlier in the day, confirmed that breadth is thinner than the headline numbers suggest. The market is not running broadly—it’s running on a relatively narrow engine of chips and AI compute.

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Best performers of the week 🏆