DailyBrief: April 25

Markets & Economics

S&P 500 and Nasdaq Close at Record Highs as Chip Earnings Power Tech Rally
US equities ended Friday at fresh record highs after a wave of strong technology earnings reignited the AI trade. The S&P 500 rose 0.80% to 7,165.08 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.63% to 24,836.60, with both indexes setting new records. The Dow Industrials slipped 0.16% to 49,230.71 as cyclicals lagged. Mega cap leaders including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta extended gains, and Nvidia briefly retook the $5 trillion market capitalization threshold in late trading. Source: CNBC
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DOJ Drops Investigation Into Fed Chair Powell, Smoothing Path for Warsh Confirmation
The Department of Justice closed its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday, removing a significant political overhang from the central bank just days before the next FOMC meeting. Markets welcomed the news, viewing it as easing the way for Kevin Warsh, the administration's nominee to succeed Powell, whose confirmation hearing had been complicated by the probe. The development helped support risk sentiment heading into a packed week of earnings and policy events. Source: CNBC
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Brent Crude Holds Near $106 as Strait of Hormuz Disruption Persists
Oil prices remained elevated on Friday, with Brent crude trading near $106 per barrel and WTI hovering around $95, after what the IEA describes as the largest disruption to global oil supply on record. Global oil supply plunged by 10.1 million barrels per day to 97 million barrels in March amid attacks on Middle East energy infrastructure and tanker restrictions through the Strait of Hormuz. Renewed Iran diplomacy has so far prevented a breakout above $110, but elevated prices continue to feed firmer inflation expectations and tighter financial conditions worldwide. Source: IEA, Trading Economics
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Fed Set to Hold Rates at 3.50 to 3.75% as Inflation Risks Reemerge
The Federal Reserve is overwhelmingly expected to keep its policy rate unchanged at 3.50 to 3.75% at the conclusion of its April 28-29 meeting. Money markets continue to price in roughly one additional 25 basis point cut by year end, most likely at the September or November meetings, as policymakers weigh the inflationary impact of higher energy prices against signs of labor market softening. Initial jobless claims rose 6,000 to 214,000 in the week ending April 18, while the 10-year Treasury yield finished Friday at 4.31%. Source: CNBC
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Tech & AI

Google to Invest Up to $40 Billion in Anthropic in Largest AI Bet Yet
Alphabet's Google announced plans to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic, with $10 billion deployed immediately at a $380 billion valuation and the remaining $30 billion contingent on performance milestones. The deal, disclosed Friday, underscores how Big Tech is doubling down on the AI race, just weeks after Anthropic released its most powerful model to date, codenamed Mythos, to a limited group of partners. Anthropic's annualized revenue has crossed $30 billion as enterprise demand for its Claude models accelerates, and the company has cited mounting infrastructure strain as a key driver of the deal. Source: CNBC, TechCrunch
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Intel Soars 24% on Blowout Q1 as Data Center Demand Surges
Intel shares surged roughly 24% on Friday after the company reported first quarter revenue of $13.6 billion, well above the $12.36 billion consensus, with adjusted EPS of $0.29. The data center segment grew 22% year over year to $5.1 billion as agentic AI workloads drove fresh demand for CPUs alongside Nvidia GPUs. Intel guided to second quarter revenue of $13.8 to $14.8 billion and EPS of $0.20, materially above Street estimates, sending semiconductor stocks broadly higher and helping power the Nasdaq to a new record. Source: CNBC, Yahoo Finance
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