Nasdaq Composite Posts Best Month In 6 Years As AI Boom Powers Tech Surge — Alphabet, Intel Stocks Power The Super Rally

• Alphabet’s Class A shares surged nearly 34% last month, adding nearly $1.17 trillion to its market capitalization and making it the second most valuable company in the world.
• Intel shares surged to a new all-time high as well during the last month, with Wedbush’s Dan Ives comparing the chipmaker’s comeback to Rocky Balboa.
• Analysts at Schwab Center for Financial Research stated that the blended earnings growth rate for the information technology sector was high at 46.3% during the quarter.

The Nasdaq Composite index gained more than 15% in April 2026, registering its best month since April 2020, while the S&P 500 index ended the month with gains of 10%, its best since November 2020.

Here’s how major U.S. indexes fared in April 2026:

GOOGL, INTC Rally On Blowout Earnings

Technology stocks drove most of the gains during the month, with heavyweights such as Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL), Intel Corp. (INTC), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) among the major contributors.

Alphabet’s Class A shares surged nearly 34% last month, adding nearly $1.17 trillion to its market capitalization and making it the second most valuable company in the world.

Aiding the stock’s rally during April 2026 was Alphabet’s blowout first-quarter (Q1) performance, with the company reporting earnings per share (EPS) of $5.11 on revenue of $109.9 billion. According to Fiscal.ai data, Wall Street expected an EPS of $2.63 on revenue of $107.03 billion.

Intel shares surged to a new all-time high as well during the last month, with Wedbush’s Dan Ives comparing the chipmaker’s comeback to Rocky Balboa. Like Alphabet, Intel’s Q1 results also blew past Wall Street expectations. The company reported EPS of $0.29 on revenue of $13.6 billion, compared with estimates of $0.01 on $12.36 billion in revenue.

Semiconductor Stocks Make Bank On AI Spending

Analysts at Schwab Center for Financial Research stated that the blended earnings growth rate for the information technology sector was high at 46.3% during the quarter. Blended refers to earnings that have been reported already, as well as estimates for those yet to report.

“Investors appear to be viewing this industry as the safest way to participate in the AI trade and avoid AI disruption in software or overspending in hyperscalers,” said Nathan Peterson, director of derivatives research and strategy at the SCFR.

The surge in tech stocks also reflected in the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLK) 20% gains during April 2026, its best month since October 2002. The PHLX Semiconductor Index also soared, gaining nearly 40% during the month.

The firm stated that more than 90% of the S&P 500 companies surpassed Wall Street estimates in calendar Q1, according to FactSet data as of April 24, 2026.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities were mixed in Friday morning’s trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, rose 0.48%; the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) gained 0.92%; and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) fell 0.12%. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits regarding the S&P 500 ETF was in the ‘bullish’ territory.

Also See: SOUN Stock Has Barely Managed To Nudge Its 200-DMA In 2026 Just Once — Will Q1 Earnings Take It There?

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