Nasdaq Index: Intel Leads Early Bounce While Oil Risk Keeps Nasdaq on Edge

Intel Lifts Nasdaq but Oil Risk Caps the Bounce

Intel is giving the chip trade the earnings number it needed Friday morning after Thursday’s broad selloff. Revenue rose 25% from a year earlier and the stock is up about 4% before the bell.

Amkor Technology is adding to the bid after signing a $1.5 billion multiyear deal with Nvidia for advanced semiconductor packaging.

Crude oil is pulling back with Brent slipping toward $97 after briefly clearing $100 Thursday, which is taking some heat out of Treasury yields and growth stocks before the opening.

The ceiling on this bounce is President Trump, who said he is close to deciding whether to launch a massive attack on Iran after the conflict expanded into the Red Sea. That keeps the weekend dangerous for anyone holding long exposure in growth stocks.

At 12:55 GMT, Nasdaq-100 Index futures are trading 28,659.50, up 38.75 or +0.14%. S&P 500 Index futures are at 7,462.50, up 17.50 or +0.24%. Dow futures are trading 52,104.00, up 210.00 or +0.40%.

The Nasdaq is trying to stabilize after dropping 2.2% Thursday, its worst session since June 23. The early gain is modest against that decline and the index is still on pace for a weekly loss of about 1.5%.

Intel Delivers the Revenue Growth the Market Wanted

Intel posted second-quarter revenue of $16.1 billion, up 25% from a year ago and its strongest quarterly growth since the third quarter of 2011. Adjusted earnings of 42 cents per share beat estimates. The report matters because it shows demand reaching companies beyond the narrow group of hyperscalers spending hundreds of billions on data centers and that is a different read than the one Alphabet and Tesla gave the market Thursday night.

Intel is in a downtrend on the daily chart but trying to recover from a selloff into a retracement zone where the selling stalled at $89.59. Premarket trading indicates an opening near $104.11, up about $4.00, and traders will be watching whether the move extends beyond that price toward the next resistance cluster above. If the rally fails and reverses, a retest of the retracement zone is the downside risk.

Crude Pullback Helps but the Supply Threat Is Intact

Brent slipped toward $97 after Thursday’s push above $100 and WTI is holding above $89. Five sessions of gains left the market stretched and traders are booking profits before a weekend where Trump said a new attack on Iran could be bigger than anything seen so far in the conflict. U.S. forces completed a thirteenth straight night of strikes on Iranian targets overnight.

Iran is still restricting Hormuz traffic. The Houthis attacked Saudi tankers near Bab el-Mandeb this week and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea export route is under the same kind of pressure as the Gulf. Lower crude Friday helps the Nasdaq by easing some of the inflation pressure that drove the 10-year yield toward its highest level since January 2025 on Thursday. But the supply picture that pushed oil higher all week has not changed and one weekend headline can put the premium right back into crude.

Brent is lower Friday as traders lock in gains after the sharp rally from the July 2 bottom at $70.14. The move was fueled by fresh buying and short-covering, leaving the market vulnerable to profit-taking before the weekend.

Stocks in the News

Amkor Technology is up more than 11% before the bell after signing a multiyear $1.5 billion agreement with Nvidia for advanced semiconductor packaging and testing, giving the AI supply chain another demand signal beyond the hyperscalers.

Oracle rose nearly 3% after signing a 10-year Pentagon software deal worth almost $7 billion. Oracle’s daily chart is worth watching because the stock has fallen from $345.72 in September 2025 to $119.44, just above its April 2025 bottom at $118.86, and the premarket shows an expected opening at $122.57 after the government deal.

Tenet Healthcare jumped more than 16% on a large earnings beat with stronger revenue and improved full-year guidance. SAP rose 5% after cloud backlog increased 27% from a year ago. American Express slipped about 3% after missing revenue estimates despite an earnings beat. Robert Half fell nearly 7% on weak quarterly results and Charter Communications dropped more than 4% after missing on EBITDA and free cash flow.

Daily September E-mini Nasdaq-100 Index Futures

September E-mini Nasdaq-100 Index futures are edging higher during the pre-market session on Friday. Despite yesterday’s steep sell-off, buyers still came in to defend the July 17 main bottom at 28408.25.

We can look at the bottom at 28408.25 in two ways. We can anticipate the bottoming process to begin, or we can treat it as a potential trigger point for an acceleration to the downside.

If a rally from here gains some traction then the focus will shift to the short-term retracement zone at 29754.25 to 30071.75. Included in this area is the 50-day moving average at 29816.70.

If sellers return with conviction then all eyes may shift to the long-term retracement zone at 27142.25 to 26208.25 and the 200-day moving average at 26948.18.

What to Watch

Oil controls the direction from here. If Brent keeps pulling back and Treasury yields ease, the Nasdaq has room to build on the Intel bounce heading into next week. If Trump announces broader strikes or another tanker attack hits over the weekend, crude reverses and the pressure comes right back to growth stocks Monday morning. The chip group got what it needed from Intel and Amkor Friday but the AI spending debate has shifted from whether demand exists to whether companies can turn that demand into cash flow fast enough to justify the bill. Thursday’s reactions to Alphabet and Tesla showed the market is done waiting.

Buyers defended the July 17 bottom on the Nasdaq-100 despite Thursday’s steep selling and that level is now the line between a bottoming process and an acceleration lower. A rally that gains traction from here targets the retracement zone and 50-day average overhead. If sellers return with conviction, the long-term retracement zone and 200-day average well below are where the market finds out how serious the correction is.

More Information in our Economic Calendar.