Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) led chip names lower Monday, falling 5.3% to $341.54 ahead of Tuesday's first-quarter earnings report, while Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) surged 4.9% after Wedbush Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $225 price target backed by a $553 billion AI and cloud contract backlog. The S&P 500 slipped 0.41% to 7,200.75 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.19% to 25,067.80 as Middle East tensions escalated, with the United Arab Emirates confirming it had intercepted Iranian missiles, pushing West Texas Intermediate crude 4.4% higher to $106.42 a barrel. The PHLX Semiconductor Sector ETF (SOXX) fell 0.79% to $462.06, trimming a 34% one-month gain.
Today's biggest movers
| Ticker | Close | Day | 1mo | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $ORCL | $180.29 | +4.92% | +23.88% | -7.88% |
| $DDOG | $146.69 | +4.38% | +25.91% | +9.66% |
| $NET | $224.17 | +3.07% | +5.85% | +14.36% |
| $SMCI | $27.92 | +3.06% | +26.62% | -9.82% |
| $CRWD | $469.24 | +2.98% | +17.72% | +3.45% |
| $AMD | $341.54 | -5.27% | +55.12% | +52.83% |
| $INTC | $95.78 | -3.85% | +88.62% | +143.22% |
| $ARM | $203.26 | -3.75% | +36.63% | +77.16% |
| $ASML | $1,386.21 | -2.86% | +6.30% | +19.11% |
| $AVGO | $416.50 | -1.13% | +32.46% | +19.81% |
AMD falls 5% as HSBC flags earnings risk ahead of Tuesday report
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) dropped 5.3% to $341.54 in the heaviest-volume chip selloff of the session, with 41.5 million shares changing hands. The selling followed a note from HSBC cautioning that AMD would likely "give up gains on a predictable earnings report," citing the stock's 55% one-month advance as having already priced in the consensus beat. AMD reports first-quarter 2026 results after the close on Tuesday, May 5, with Wall Street expecting earnings per share of $1.28, up 33% year over year, on revenue of $9.88 billion, a 33% increase from a year ago.
Not all analysts share HSBC's caution. DA Davidson's Gil Luria upgraded AMD to Buy from Neutral on Friday and raised his price target to $375 from $220, a 70% jump in a single revision, after lifting his 2026 revenue estimate by $2 billion and his gross profit forecast by $1.5 billion above Street consensus. RBC Capital's Srini Pajjuri also raised his target to $325 from $230 while keeping a Hold rating. The divergence in analyst conviction reflects how far AMD has run and how much of the AI silicon buildout it must still prove to justify current levels.
Oracle surges 5% as Wedbush flags $553B AI cloud backlog
Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) was the standout winner on Monday, climbing 4.9% to $180.29 and narrowing a year-to-date deficit to 7.9%. The catalyst was a Wedbush Securities initiation at Outperform with a $225 price target. Analyst Dan Ives argued that investors are mispricing Oracle's AI-focused cloud franchise, pointing to a $553 billion contracted backlog tied to AI and cloud agreements, including major deals with OpenAI and Nvidia Corp. Wedbush contends that Oracle's contract-backed spending model eliminates much of the demand uncertainty that weighs on earlier-stage cloud names.
ORCL traded 31.2 million shares, more than double its 90-day average, signaling broad institutional participation in the move. Oracle has underperformed the broader AI software cohort on a year-to-date basis, a gap that Wedbush argues creates a relative value entry as hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending accelerates through 2026.