AMD, Intel, KLA Corporation, Western Digital, and Nova Stocks Trade Up, What You Need To Know

What Happened?

A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after investor optimism around artificial intelligence fueled broad market gains. Technology stocks with a focus on artificial intelligence once again led the market higher, boosting the Nasdaq and S&P 500. 

Companies at the forefront of the AI boom, such as Nvidia and Broadcom, saw significant jumps in their share prices. The rally reflects a renewed belief among investors in the transformative potential of AI technology to drive future growth and productivity. 

The rally was further supported by a surprise cooling in the November consumer price index (CPI) report, which triggered market pricing for additional rate cuts in the coming year. This created a more favorable environment for growth-oriented companies.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

• Processors and Graphics Chips company AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) jumped 6.8%. Is now the time to buy AMD? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Processors and Graphics Chips company Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) jumped 3.2%. Is now the time to buy Intel? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Semiconductor Manufacturing company KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) jumped 2.9%. Is now the time to buy KLA Corporation? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Memory Semiconductors company Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) jumped 5%. Is now the time to buy Western Digital? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Semiconductor Manufacturing company Nova (NASDAQ:NVMI) jumped 4.1%. Is now the time to buy Nova? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.

Zooming In On AMD (AMD)

AMD’s shares are very volatile and have had 29 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 7 days ago when the stock dropped 4.3% on the news that investors rotated out of AI-linked high-flyers following underwhelming earnings updates from Oracle and Broadcom as the core thesis shifted from "growth at any cost" to "prove the returns."

Oracle triggered the alarm by missing revenue estimates while simultaneously hiking capital expenditures by $15 billion. This reignited fears that AI infrastructure spending is outpacing actual monetization. Broadcom compounded the anxiety; despite beating earnings, its stock fell as CFO Kirsten Spears cautioned that gross margins may come under pressure as product mix shifts further toward system-level AI sales. This sparked a macro rotation away from AI infrastructure and power plays. High-valuation names like AMD, Vertiv, and Bloom Energy fell as markets looked to sectors that can benefit from the recent Fed rate cut and a resilient economy.

AMD is up 77.6% since the beginning of the year, but at $214.30 per share, it is still trading 18.9% below its 52-week high of $264.33 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of AMD’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,299.

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