Stock Market Today (LIVE): Impinj's Record Backlog Sparks a Surge; Lilly's GLP-1 Revenue Nearly Doubles – The Motley Fool

Top insights from the latest market news from Thursday, April 30, from The Motley Fool analysts on Team Rule Breakers and Team Hidden Gems.
Today's Highlights
📌 Top story — scroll down for more updates
1:10 pm
U.S. stocks closed April at records, with the Nasdaq posting its best month since early 2020. The rally was broad but uneven. Caterpillar (CAT +9.88%) surged 9.5% after raising its full-year outlook on data center construction demand. Alphabet (GOOG +10.00%) gained 9% on cloud strength, while Meta Platforms (META 8.49%) fell 8% on elevated AI spending plans and Microsoft (MSFT 3.90%) slipped 4% on similar concerns. Nvidia (NVDA 4.43%) dropped 4%.
3:06 pm – +6.40%
Textron (TXT +6.88%) has had a pretty decent Thursday — beats on earnings and revenue, and oh yeah, decided to ditch the part of its business that makes golf carts. Q1 earnings came in at $1.45 per share on $3.7 billion in sales, ahead of the $1.32 and $3.5 billion Wall Street expected. Sales rose 12% year over year.
2:53 pm — QCOM +14.78%
Qualcomm (QCOM +15.15%) exploded 15% Thursday after Q2 earnings topped estimates — but the real story is CEO Cristiano Amon dropping a bombshell: the company has landed a "leading hyperscaler" as its first data center chip customer, with shipments starting in December. That’s a big deal for a company that didn’t exist in this market a year ago.
2:18 pm — MRK -0.87%
Merck (MRK 1.59%) posted Q1 sales of $16.29 billion, up 5% and ahead of the $15.85 billion Wall Street expected. Keytruda, its flagship cancer drug, grew 12%. The company raised its full-year sales and earnings guidance. Yesterday, TMFSelena called Merck's valuation "reasonable at recent levels," noting its price-to-sales ratio of 4.2x, roughly equal to the five-year average, and a forward P/E ratio of 21.5x. "For long-term investors, this seems worth a look," she added.
1:10 pm — NVDA -4.1%
Nvidia (NVDA 4.43%) shares fell more than 4% as investors weighed mounting competitive pressure from hyperscalers building and selling their own AI chips, even as other chipmakers climbed.
1:05 pm — HTRO +19.0%
By Yasser El-Shimy
Team Rule Breakers
Hexatronic's (HTRO +19.01%) Q1 2026 report caused a see-saw price reaction of -/+20% — clearly the market couldn't make up its mind, at least initially.
The headline numbers were lukewarm: revenue of SEK 1.7 billion, down 10% year-over-year, though 9 of those 10 percentage points were pure FX headwinds. Strip out currency, and the underlying business is essentially flat. The market didn't care about the top line — what it cared about was the mix shift finally becoming undeniable.

12:15 pm — PI +17.2%
By Morning Show host Tim Beyers
Team Rule Breakers
Moments happen in investing. You know how it is. A stock that's been absolutely nowhere on anyone's radar suddenly pops for … reasons. That's where we are today.
Helllllooooooooo, Impinj (PI +21.05%)!
The maker of the endpoint circuits that give life to the wireless RFID tags we use to track everything from luggage to supply chain inventory was soaring today pre-market. Shares are up close to 20% on an incredible surge in its backlog.
"Endpoint IC bookings hit an all-time record, engendering a strong second-quarter revenue outlook," Chris Diorio, co-founder and CEO said in a statement.
How big are we talking? A 40.7% sequential increase in revenue at the mid-point of guidance, for starters.
Custom ASICs — specialized chips built for a single purpose — are driving the increase, and most of it appears to be coming from 1-2 customers. Still, it's a significant uptick and worth watching. Endpoint ICs can be essential for digitizing real-world environments.
More digitized shopping and increasing reliance on self-checkout at retailers and grocery stores could keep this trend going for a while.
11:15 am — LLY +7.9%
By Morning Show host Sanmeet Deo
Team Rule Breakers
Eli Lilly (LLY +10.01%) is pushing its weight around in the GLP-1 wars as it reported blockbuster Q1 2026 earnings results. The company reported earnings of $8.55 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $1.58 better than the FactSet Consensus of $6.97, while revenues rose 55.5% year/year to $19.8 bln vs the $17.82 bln FactSet Consensus. The results were driven by the eye-popping sales growth of Mounjaro +125% to $8.66 bln and Zepbound +80% to $4.16 bln. These results were primarily volume driven and despite a 13% decrease due to lower realized prices. This led to the company raising revenue and EPS guidance for FY 2026.
While Lilly is showing impressive results in its current products, they aren't getting complacent.
LLY performance
Hidden Gems Primary
Database Superscore
12:10 pm
By Robert Brokamp, CFP®
Team Hidden Gems
Has this ever happened to you?
You're looking at your portfolio, and you come across an investment that you no longer want to own. You pull up your broker's website, and you're about to click the "Sell" button…but then you think about the taxes you'll owe. (Presuming, of course, that this is in a taxable brokerage account and not in a tax-advantaged retirement account.)
You hem, you haw. You think about writing a check to Uncle Sam in April. And then you begin to convince yourself that actually, maybe this investment isn't so bad after all.
Here's another scenario, one I occasionally hear about from Motley Fool members during Fool24. (Tune in to the Retirement Show every Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET and the Financial Planning "Ask Me Anything" every Friday at 12 p.m. ET.) Members tell us they want to move on from a financial advisor, but they're hesitant due to the tax bill that would result from selling all the mediocre funds the advisor has chosen. Or they want to hire a new advisor, but the pros they're considering have said that all current investments must be sold (a common requirement since advisors only want to be responsible for the investments that they personally recommend).
Thus, after considering all the tax consequences, investors often choose to stick with the subpar status quo.
It certainly makes sense to factor taxes into both your buying and selling decisions and to note them when you decide in which accounts to implement those decisions.
But that doesn't mean tax consequences should prevent you from optimizing your portfolio. Because it may not take too long for a better investment to overcome the tax hit from moving on.
10:05 am
By Matt Frankel, CFP®
Team Hidden Gems
Intel (INTC 0.35%) just delivered the kind of quarter that rewrites the narrative on a struggling business. Adjusted EPS of $0.29 obliterated the $0.01 Wall Street consensus, while revenue of $13.6 billion grew 7% year over year and topped expectations by more than $1 billion. The standout engine was the Data Center and AI segment, where revenue jumped 22% to $5.1 billion as hyperscalers raced to buy server CPUs to support "agentic AI" workloads, the kind that orchestrate tasks alongside graphics chips. That demand showed up in margins too, with non-GAAP gross margin expanding to 41% thanks to better pricing, favorable mix, and improved 18A manufacturing yields, the latter referring to Intel's most advanced chip production process.
The picture isn't uniformly clean, though.
10:00 am — AMZN -0.6%
By Emily Flippen, CFA
Team Rule Breakers
Amazon (AMZN +0.76%) just reported one of the strongest quarters in its history, but investors are still stuck asking the same question we've been asking all year: when does all this spending truly start to pay off?
The headline numbers were — as expected — fantastic. Revenue came in well above expectations, growing 17% year over year. Operating income saw record margins (north of 13%), with AWS growing 28% year-over-year, which is that segment's fastest growth rate in 15 quarters. Moreover, its $2 billion sequential revenue jump from the fourth quarter was the biggest increase from the fourth to first quarter in AWS's history.
Success wasn't just on the cloud side, though; Amazon's stores business saw 15% unit growth, its own best since the end of COVID lockdowns, and Amazon's burgeoning advertising business grew a whopping 24%. By almost every count, this was a stellar quarter. And yet shares initially slid around 3% after hours before recovering.
9:35 am — CAT +7.2%, AMZN +2.0%, META -9.2%, MSFT -2.6%
The market is showing resilience this Thursday as the major indexes climb, fueled by a stellar earnings season. Caterpillar (CAT +9.88%) and Amazon (AMZN +0.76%) are providing the heavy lifting, with the former jumping 7% on robust quarterly figures and the latter climbing as much as 4% following a "blockbuster" report. However, it isn't all sunshine in Big Tech; Meta Platforms (META 8.49%) plummeted 7% due to weak user growth, while Microsoft (MSFT 3.90%) slipped as AI-related capital expenditures are projected to hit $190 billion.
Market indexes
9:05 am
By Matt Frankel, CFP®
Team Hidden Gems
Amazon (AMZN +0.76%) just delivered the kind of beat that resets expectations on a slowing growth narrative. Revenue climbed 17% year over year to $181.5 billion, beating consensus by more than $4 billion, while EPS of $2.78 nearly doubled the $1.64 analysts had penciled in. The headline driver was Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing division, which grew 28% to $37.6 billion. That marks its fastest growth pace in roughly four years and reverses the deceleration that had worried investors last quarter. Advertising added another tailwind, growing 24% to $17.2 billion as Amazon scaled new AI-driven ad tools and broadened partnerships with Netflix and others.
The catch shows up in cash flow.
7:45 am — PSUS +1.34% in pre-market trading
Billionaire Bill Ackman's highly anticipated Pershing Square USA faced a rough start on the New York Stock Exchange, opening at $41–roughly 18% below its $50 IPO price. The $5 billion closed-end fund launch attempted to entice investors with a unique "sweetener," granting one share of the parent asset manager, Pershing Square, for every five shares of PSUS purchased. However, the market quickly applied a steep discount to both entities, with PS shares also falling 25% shortly after they began trading. The lackluster debut reflects immediate investor skepticism regarding the closed-end structure, which often sees shares trade at a discount to their underlying net asset value.
7:30 am — GOOG +5.94% in pre-market trading
Alphabet (GOOG +10.00%) soared over 7% ahead of the market open thanks to quarterly results easily beating market expectations, with AI demand evident from Cloud revenue jumping 63% year over year and net income rising 81% over the same period.

5:45 am — GOOG +6.10% in pre-market trading
By Sanmeet Deo
Team Rule Breakers
Alphabet's (GOOG +10.00%) stock has doubled over the past year, squashing rumors of its demise and concerns over its position in the AI race. While AI models have frequently been trading the pole position after every new version release, Alphabet is showing its AI initiatives are flowing through its entire business.
Alphabet delivered a blockbuster Q1 2026, completely crushing expectations. Consolidated revenues reached $109.9 billion, representing a massive 22% year-over-year increase. This was the first 20%+ revenue growth quarter since Q1 2022! Profitability exploded alongside top-line growth, with net income jumping 81% and earnings per share surging 82% to $5.11. The undeniable star of the quarter was Google Cloud, which saw revenues accelerate 63% to cross the $20 billion threshold for the very first time.
These results prove that Alphabet's massive AI investments are translating into tangible, spectacular financial returns. Google Cloud's backlog nearly doubled quarter over quarter to over $460 billion, driven by surging enterprise AI demand.

5:15 am — CRWD -0.75% in pre-market trading
CrowdStrike (CRWD 1.47%) was the subject of the latest Scoreboard video.
5:00 am — MSFT +0.34% in pre-market trading
By Seth Jayson
Team Rule Breakers
Microsoft (MSFT 3.90%) just reported a quarter that beat on basically every number that matters, and the stock still dropped after hours. Such is the state of AI enthusiasm, where some companies are ripping, and some draw yawns despite really hauling the mail.
Azure grew 40%, better than anyone expected, and revenue hit $82.9 billion. Word is the AI business is now running at a $37 billion annual pace, up 123% year over year. And yet: down 3% after hours. That's the strange place Microsoft occupies right now. The company is executing well by almost any measure, but investors are doing the math on $130 billion in annual infrastructure spending and aiming a very hairy eyeball at a Copilot adoption rate that's still hovering around 3% of its enormous user base. (I get it. I use Copilot on windows, and every time I do, I'm sorry.)
4:15 am — META -7.01% in pre-market trading
By Sanmeet Deo
Team Rule Breakers
Meta (META 8.49%) just dropped a monster Q1 2026, posting $56.31 billion in revenue, which is up 33% year over year. Earnings per share (EPS) crushed expectations at $10.44. The company also teased its highly anticipated first model from "Meta Superintelligence Labs".
Meta's advertising machine is absolutely printing money! Ad impressions jumped 19% and the average price per ad climbed 12%. However, don't let the shiny $10.44 EPS fool you; an $8.03 billion one-time tax benefit massively inflated that bottom-line number. Also, daily active people (DAP) saw a rare sequential dip to 3.56 billion, blamed on internet disruptions in Iran and blocked WhatsApp access in Russia.
Meta issued solid Q2 revenue guidance of $58 billion to $61 billion, but management is also opening the wallet much wider. On the bullish case, Meta is firing on all cylinders with surging ad demand and pricing power. Its pivot toward "personal superintelligence" keeps the long-term growth story incredibly exciting.
4:00 am
Wall Street is processing a volatile Thursday morning as surging oil prices and a mixed "Magnificent Seven" report card rattle investor confidence. Brent crude soared past $125 per barrel–a wartime high–after President Trump signaled a long-term naval blockade against Iran until a new nuclear deal is reached. While Alphabet (GOOG +10.00%) provided a rare bright spot with solid sales, peers Meta (META 8.49%) and Microsoft (MSFT 3.90%) saw shares retreat as investors questioned the high price tag of their AI infrastructure. All eyes now shift to Apple (AAPL +0.30%), which reports after today's close, with shareholders seeking clarity on how the iPhone maker plans to monetize its own artificial intelligence roadmap.
This article was created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. Matt Frankel, CFP has positions in Amazon. Sanmeet Deo, CFA has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Eli Lilly, and The Trade Desk. Seth Jayson has positions in Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Tim Beyers has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Caterpillar, CrowdStrike, Intel, Merck, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool recommends Hexatronic Group Ab (publ), Impinj, and Textron. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.
Invest better with The Motley Fool. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool's premium services.
Making the world smarter, happier, and richer.
© 1995 – 2026 The Motley Fool. All rights reserved.
Market data powered by Xignite and Polygon.io.
About The Motley Fool
Our Services
Around the Globe
Free Tools
Affiliates & Friends

source