Hot Wholesale Inflation, Hotter AI Tape
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CLOSING BELL
Happy Wednesday
The market gained some ground on Wednesday; the strong producer price inflation that came in today seemingly failed to make traders break a sweat. The Nasdaq hit record highs again, something like 13 sessions in a row.
Trump and gang got to China safe and sound today with much fanfare, with the distinct absence of President Xi on the landing strip. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was in tow, joining Air Force 1 during refueling in Anchorage Alaska.
Kevin Warsh was officially confirmed by the Senate as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, while the same body voted not to end the war in Iran.
Today’s Briefing:
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After the Bell: Cisco’s AI order boom sent the stock soaring
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Morning Earnings: Alibaba rallied as investors bought the AI cloud story through margin pain
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Macro News: Hot PPI kept tariffs, energy, and rate-hike risk in focus
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Pops and Drops & More
AFTER THE BELL
Cisco Gets a Raise 📡
Cisco, the networking gear and enterprise software giant, jumped after the bell Wednesday after fiscal Q3 results gave traders enough AI-infrastructure demand to look past the messier parts of the print.
The RIP: $CSCO ( ▲ 2.6% ) jumped +17% after hours. GAAP EPS rose 37% to $0.85, revenue rose 12% to $15.84B, product orders climbed 35%, networking orders topped +50%, and expected FY26 AI infrastructure orders rose from $5B to $9B.
The bull case is that Cisco is finally seeing real hyperscaler AI demand, not just sprinkling “AI” into the deck and hoping nobody checks the cables. The bear case is that operating cash flow fell 7%, services revenue slipped, security was flat, and a restructuring plan could bring up to $1B in pre-tax charges. 📡
Jump into the CSCO conversation on Stocktwits ->
Community is bullish, message volume is high across ~60.3K Watchers.
Trending posts:
MORNING EARNINGS
Alibaba’s AI Bill Comes Due 🤖
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant, jumped Wednesday after investors looked past a messy fiscal Q4 miss and decided the cloud AI acceleration mattered more than the margin damage.
The RIP: $BABA ( ▲ 8.18% ) rose +8% after revenue increased +3% to RMB243.38B ($35.84B), missing the RMB247.22B estimate. Cloud revenue jumped +38% to RMB41.63B ($6.13B), and AI product revenue hit its 11th straight quarter of triple-digit growth.
The tension is simple: Alibaba is spending hard enough on AI, cloud, and e-commerce competition to make the profit line ugly, but the cloud business is finally giving bulls something measurable. If Qwen keeps converting into paid usage, the rally has a story. If not, this is just another China tech bounce wearing an AI shirt. 🤖
Jump into the BABA conversation on Stocktwits ->
Community is bullish, message volume is high across ~424.8K Watchers.
One reader NRG8 is waving the China bull flag: $BABA, $BIDU, $JD, and $BZUN all have chunky upside to their price targets, he said, with Baozun carrying the truly unhinged +270% moonshot math.
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TRENDING STOCKS
Pops & Drops
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$NOK ( ▲ 11.69% ) Nokia: surged +15% after agentic AI network tools launched
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$F ( ▲ 13.18% ) Ford: jumped +13% after raised 2026 EBIT guidance
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$ON ( ▲ 11.14% ) Onsemi: surged +11% after analysts lifted AI targets
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$LWLG ( ▲ 14.34% ) Lightwave Logic: climbed +10% after Q1 update call arrived
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$MRVL ( ▲ 8.18% ) Marvell: jumped +8% after BofA hiked target to $200
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$COHR ( ▲ 7.94% ) Coherent: climbed +8% after Q3 beat kept repricing
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$AKAM ( ▲ 7.74% ) Akamai: popped +8% after AI cloud deal fueled breakout
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$USAR ( ▼ 0.51% ) USA Rare Earth: climbed +3% after Serra Verde deal stayed in focus
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$CRM ( ▼ 3.19% ) Salesforce: fell -3% after price target cut hit
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$ENVX ( ▲ 4.59% ) Enovix: slid -7% after Q1 battery revenue landed
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$APP ( ▼ 7.57% ) AppLovin: tumbled -8% after post-earnings fade resumed
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$CTRA ( ▼ 8.62% ) Coterra: tanked -9% after Devon merger closed
MACRO NEWS
Wholesale Prices Snap 🔥
Producer prices ripped to their hottest annual print in three and a half years on Wednesday morning, smoking forecasts and dragging Dow futures lower while Treasury yields edged up. The report dropped a day after CPI came in hot, leaving the Fed boxed in while they shift seats.
The RIP: PPI jumped +1.4% in April vs the +0.5% Dow Jones consensus and an upwardly revised +0.7% in March, the biggest monthly gain since March 2022. Headline is now +6% YoY, the hottest since December 2022. Core PPI accelerated +1% vs +0.4% expected.
Energy demand ripped +7.8%, with gasoline up +15.6%. Services popped +1.2%, the largest move since March 2022, led by a +2.7% surge in trade services margins.
“Inflation is sticky and accelerating. The core reading confirms a deeper structural trend, especially in services,” David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation, said Wednesday.
The energy spike traces to the Iran war and Hormuz pressure on crude, but the trade-services margin jump is the real tell. Fed funds futures now price about 39% odds of a rate hike by year-end, with the benchmark stuck at 3.5%-3.75% and cut hopes effectively dead.
Exposure: $KRE regionals and $IWM small caps lose if hike pricing sticks, refiners $VLO and $MPC plus energy majors $XOM and $CVX enjoy the prices. 🔥
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WHAT’S ON DECK
Tomorrow’s Top Things 📋
Macro: Initial Jobless Claims (12:30 PM ET), Export Prices MoM (12:30 PM ET), Import Prices MoM (12:30 PM ET), Business Inventories MoM (2:00 PM ET), +2 more. 📊
Pre-Market Earnings: $LUNR Intuitive Machines Inc Class A, $ONDS Ondas Inc, $CRMD Cormedix Inc, $CSIQ Canadian Solar Inc, $INVZ Innoviz Technologies Ltd, +11 more. ☀️
After-Market Earnings: $SPCE Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, $WKHS Workhorse Group Inc, $RUM Rumble Inc Class A, $AMAT Applied Materials Inc, $CODX Co-Diagnostics Inc, +44 more. 🌙
P.S. You can listen to all of these earnings calls on Stocktwits.
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