Stocks opened higher Wednesday, looking to build on recent momentum. With a relatively quiet economic calendar and little fresh news on the tariff front, market participants turned to the equities market where Big Tech continued to bounce.
One of the most talked about stocks today was Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which jumped 4.7% after the chipmaker said its board of directors approved a new $6 billion stock buyback program.
When added to the balance from its remaining share repurchase plan, AMD now has $10 billion to use toward buying back its stock. This translates to a little over 5% of its current market cap.
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The stock buyback announcement follows Tuesday's news that the company agreed to a $10 billion artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure collaboration with Humain, a Saudi Arabian AI company. Nvidia (NVDA, +4.2%) also announced a deal with Humain for AI chips.
The agreements are "important sovereign wins," says BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya. "Sovereign AI nicely complements commercial cloud investments with a focus on training and inference of LLMs in local culture, language and needs," Arya notes.
He adds that sovereign AI could result in an annual $50 billion global opportunity over the long term.
"Sovereign AI could also help address limited power availability for data centers in the U.S., plus offset headwinds from restrictions on U.S. companies shipping to China," Arya says.
AMD and NVDA shares have both gained more than 20% this month.
Boeing inks big air deal with Qatar
Boeing (BA) was another notable gainer Wednesday, rising 0.6% after President Donald Trump said Qatar Airways has agreed to buy up to 210 planes from the aircraft maker.
The announcement came during Trump's trip to the Middle East, where a number of big deals have been unveiled – including the ones with AMD, Nvidia and Humain.
Susquehanna International Group analyst Charles Minervino recently lifted his price target on the blue chip stock to $240 from $205 amid higher demand for Boeing's commercial planes.
BA has already climbed 50% off its early April highs, and Minervino's new price target represents implied upside of more than 17% from current levels.
eToro makes red-hot debut
All eyes were on eToro (ETOR) Wednesday as the cryptocurrency platform made its trading debut. The market for initial public offerings (IPOs) has been quiet in recent weeks despite hopes for a strong showing in 2025.
"Much of the recent chill stems from renewed global trade tensions – specifically, President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs that were announced on April 2, which sparked retaliatory moves and reignited fears of a broader trade war," writes Kiplinger contributor Tom Taulli in his feature, "Why Has the IPO Market Gone Cold?".
And this uncertainty, he adds, has been "coupled with a sell-off in tech stocks and increasing market volatility, [that] has made pricing new offerings a major challenge."
But eToro proved skeptics wrong today. After pricing its offering last night at $52 per share, ETOR stock opened today at $69.69. Shares hit an intraday high of $74.28, and closed at $67.
As for the main indexes, the S&P 500 gained 0.1% to 5,892 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.7% to 19,146. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to 42,051 – its second straight loss – on weakness in health care stocks Merck (MRK, -4.1%) and Amgen (AMGN, -3.0%).
Walmart earnings, retail sales, Powell on tap
Looking ahead to Thursday, there's plenty to hold investors' attention. Earnings from Walmart (WMT) and April retail sales data – both due out ahead of the open – will give Wall Street a closer look at how the Trump administration's policies are impacting consumer spending.
Additionally, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to deliver opening remarks at the Second Thomas Laubach Research Conference in Washington, D.C.
If Powell mentions anything about monetary policy, it's unlikely he'll stray from his recent "wait-and-see" messaging.
"The economy appears to be growing at a solid pace," and the labor market appears to be in a good place, Powell said after last week's Fed meeting, which allows the central bank to stand pat on interest rates for the time being.
Still, Wall Street will be hanging on to Powell's every word, hoping for clues as to when that next rate cut could arrive.
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