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Intel was a $19 stock a year ago. Today it closed at $130, an all-time high, up 232% YTD and 433% over the past 12 months. The Friday catalyst: Apple confirmed a preliminary deal for Intel to manufacture some of its chips.
S&P 500 closed at a record 7,398.93 (+0.8%), Nasdaq at 26,247.08 (+1.7%). Both posted a sixth straight weekly gain, the longest streak since 2024. Dow up 12 points. WTI fell 6.7% on the week to $95.42 despite the Strait of Hormuz still closed. Gas $4.55 at the pump.
THE RUNDOWN
INTEL › THE 232% YEAR › Apple's preliminary chip-manufacturing agreement with Intel landed Friday. INTC hit a $130.57 all-time high, up 232% YTD and 433% over the past 12 months. Intel just posted its best month in 55 years on the Nasdaq. The US government's 10% stake from August 2025 is now worth more than $50B.
AI INFRA › $1.12 TRILLION IN 2027 › Morgan Stanley raised its Mag 5 capex projection to $1.12T for next year. AMD beat earnings with data center revenue +57% YoY to $5.8B. Anthropic signed a $1.8B compute deal with Akamai (Akamai +27% Friday on its print). Anthropic also committed $200B to Google over five years for cloud and chips. NVIDIA announced a 5GW partnership with IREN, investing up to $2.1B. Micron and SanDisk ripped 38% and 31% on the week. Micron crossed $700 a share and an $800B market cap for the first time.
BERKSHIRE › ABEL'S FIRST QUARTER › Greg Abel ran his first earnings cycle as CEO with Berkshire ending Q1 at a record $397.4B in cash. The conglomerate now owns $339.3B of US Treasuries, more than the Fed itself and most foreign central banks. Roughly 5% of the entire Treasury bill market sits in one company. Buffett's "jersey" was retired at the annual meeting.
APPLE › R&D HIT 10% OF REVENUE › Apple's R&D spend crossed 10% of revenue for the first time in at least 30 years. Stock at all-time highs Thursday. Pair that with the Intel partnership and the AI-lag narrative that defined Apple's 2025 is functionally over.
MACRO › JOBS BEAT, OIL DOWN, CEASEFIRE INCOMING › April payrolls hit +115K vs +55K expected. Oil fell more than 6% on the week despite Hormuz still closed. Trump announced a 3-day Russia-Ukraine ceasefire starting tomorrow.
The infrastructure that absorbs $1.12 trillion of capex is where the second-order trade lives.
Seek Weekly Income. Maintain Equity Exposure.
$CLOD: CLOUD COMPUTING
$1.12 trillion of cloud capex doesn't happen on accident. The Themes Cloud Computing ETF ($CLOD) is built on the thesis that the companies powering and benefiting from the global cloud buildout deserve thematic exposure, not single-name guesswork.
For investors who want the AI infrastructure rotation as a theme, not a stockpicking exercise.
Disclosure: Themes ETFs is a WOLF Financial partner. This content is a paid partnership with ThemesETFs. This information is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of capital. Please read the prospectus before investing.
THE PLAY › THE BREADTH QUESTION
Six straight weekly gains. The longest streak since 2024 for both the S&P and Nasdaq.
The body of the market disagrees with the headline.
The rally is concentrated. Technology $XLK +3.46% Friday while Utilities $XLU -0.91%, Health Care $XLV -0.82%, and Financials $XLF -0.58%. Five of eleven sectors finished red on a record-high day.
Cracks under the surface. Cloudflare -24% on the week after laying off 1,100 employees. CoreWeave -11% Friday on raised capex and softer guidance. Expedia -6.8% on Iran travel demand. Michigan consumer sentiment hit 48.2, recessionary territory. Gas $4.55. Q1 earnings growth of +28.2%, the strongest since 2021, is doing the heavy lifting. AMD, Palantir, Akamai, Block all beat this week. Cloudflare and CoreWeave are the offsets.
Tuesday is the test. April CPI lands at 8:30 AM ET with consensus +0.6% MoM. If oil pass-through hits the print, the rate-cut narrative breaks and dispersion gets worse. Watch the 10Y. A spike through 4.50% on a hot CPI hits financials and small caps before any rotation can rescue the index.
Tactical close. CD rates around 4.20% APY for 9-12 month terms, with FDIC insurance up to $250K per depositor, per bank, per ownership category. $10K locked at 4.20% earns about $315 in nine months. For 6-12 month cash that doesn't need daily liquidity, locking that yield before it potentially moves lower is the cleanest move on the table this weekend.
RALLIES RADAR
ChatGPT's portfolio in the Rallies AI Arena is now up almost 50%, having grown from $100K in March to nearly $150K. The model is leading Grok, Claude, and Gemini through the strongest earnings season since 2021.
Monday: a full preview of Tuesday's CPI and what every line of the print means for the rate path.
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DAN IVES JUST DROPPED A METAPHOR ON WHERE WE ARE IN THE AI BUILDOUT
His framing: we are in year 3 of an 8 to 10-year AI buildout. Most people are still treating it like it's late innings.
His exact words:
"This would be like building the Vegas Strip in 1955. We're in the desert, and I'm talking about the concept of it. We're going to build it, and then 6 months later, there's an issue with one of the buildings on the initial construction, and people say 'this Vegas Strip thing is never going to happen.'"
His prediction: "If you have an 8-year-old, they're not going to need a driver's license when they're 16, because autonomous. Like when I think about humanoid robotics, that's real."
On the broader scope: "We're talking about a fourth industrial revolution. As brutal as the environment's been so far this year, I don't let that sway me because of the fundamental views of where everything's going."
Wolf Financial publishes The Wolf Pick for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter constitutes financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
The research and analysis referenced in this edition was prepared by independent third-party sources and shared with Wolf Financial for informational and educational purposes. It does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement by Wolf Financial. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.
Disclosure: This content is a paid partnership with Themes ETFs. This information is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Investing in ETFs involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Themes ETFs is a WOLF Financial