S&P 500, Nasdaq Hit Records as Tech Powers Past Hot PPI
SkimNews Take
A narrow, tech-led rally brushing aside hot PPI suggests investors are pricing earnings power over monetary relief, leaving the index increasingly dependent on mega-cap performance to sustain these levels.
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to a record close and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.2% to a fresh high on May 13, 2026, while the Dow slipped 0.1%, as investors looked past a hotter-than-expected April producer-price report.
- Kevin Warsh was confirmed by the Senate as the next Fed chair in a 54-45 vote, succeeding Jerome Powell, whose term ends Friday; Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the lone Democrat to vote in favor.
- The 'Magnificent Seven' added roughly $516 billion in market value on the day — with Microsoft the only decliner, shedding $26 billion — as the Roundhill MAGS ETF logged a ~2% gain and its best day in four weeks.
- Apple crossed $300 a share for the first time on a record-high intraday print, with CEO Tim Cook joining President Trump's delegation — alongside Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Tesla's Elon Musk, and BlackRock's Larry Fink — for a Beijing summit with Xi Jinping focused on trade and AI.
- Cisco Systems and Alibaba both beat analyst estimates on revenue and earnings per share, while Birkenstock missed on both the top and bottom lines.
- US producer prices rose far more than expected in April, echoing a hot April CPI report and reinforcing bets the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady at its next meeting.
Why it matters: A 1.2% Nasdaq surge sitting on top of a PPI upside surprise is the kind of dissonance markets rarely dismiss — yet the Magnificent Seven's $516 billion single-day cap gain shows AI conviction is overriding inflation fear, at least for now. Powell exits Friday, handing Warsh an immediate rate decision complicated by sticky wholesale prices, while the rally's reliance on a handful of mega-cap names keeps index-level risk concentrated in seven stocks.
