Chip stocks extended their recent strength: Nvidia, Micron, Intel, Sandisk and more hit record highs. Tech also caught a bid. iCapital’s Sonali Basak breaks down the market action. Fairlead’s Katie Stockton on why she is calling for a breakout in Tesla. Apollo’s Torsten Slok breaks down the AI impact on the labor market – and what it means for inflation. Plus, what’s causing the recent rally in bitcoin with Pantera Capital’s Cosmo Jiang.<br><br>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Closing Bell Overtime:  Chip Stocks Remain Parabolic 5/8/26

Closing Bell

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Closing Bell

## Transcript

The Bell is bringing an end to the trading day at the NYSE. Enhanced, ringing the closing bell. And at the Nasdaq is the Minister of Finance of Chile. Welcome to Closing Bell Overtime. We're live from Studio B at the Nasdaq Market Site. I'm Melissa Lee, along with Mike Santoli. Tech taking off today as chips rebound strongly. The Dow, the laggard, closing near the flat line. The S&P 500 up nearly 1%. The Nasdaq leading the way with a gain of 1.7%. More on the market straight ahead.

On our radar at the close, AI's impact on jobs. We've heard several companies cutting back, but will AI actually increase employment? Plus, signs of stress in the consumer. They're ordering cheaper steaks, skipping toppings on pizza. We'll dig into what we learned from restaurant results this week. And is Tesla's move higher this week a sign of bigger things to come? We'll get a technician's take on that. And of course, this wraps up another winning week for the markets. That is six in a row for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

And Mike, no coincidence. Also six weeks in a row, very strong performance by the chip sector. Absolutely. Which, again, is the leadership here. It's the locomotive. The rest of the train is actually almost getting longer because it's kind of falling further behind. It's pretty remarkable. I mean, you have to say it's overbought, but that doesn't mean it's over yet. I think that's always what you have to remind yourself. The Nasdaq 100, it was up 2% today at one point, closed a little bit below that level.

But it's been up about a percent and a half on average the last four Fridays. It just feels as if there's this grasp for exposure to the leading themes in this market as we get closer. I'll just observe, you know, some signs that we're running hot, right? Put call ratios, super low. RSI for the Nasdaq 100 Relo Strength Index is pretty much as high as it's been since mid-2024. So you shouldn't be surprised if we come in just a little bit. And then, again, consumer, financials, just not keeping pace.

And so you have to ask if that divergence is healthy. Yeah. What is sort of a good sign this week is that software didn't get crushed, absolutely. That's right. Software also found a bid. So it's not the same narrative that software is winning, AI is winning on the hardware side. That's going to crush software. Maybe we're over that. We did see a couple of days where Microsoft did peak its head up. Sure. So, I don't know, maybe that expands. No, and actually, the software chart looks better. It looks like it's maybe kind of made some, you know, kind of put some distance between itself and the lows.

It was down a little bit earlier today. But I do think that is true. So broadening up beyond tech, Apple, we'll talk about that, got a bid as well. That's not really core AI as well. So you can say that it's kind of bullish in general. But VIX higher on a Friday before a weekend when the ma...

Closing Bell Overtime: Chip Stocks Remain Parabolic 5/8/26

Transcript

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Closing Bell Overtime: Chip Stocks Remain Parabolic 5/8/26

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.