Semiconductor Strength Leads Market Higher! | Market Recap: April 22nd, 2026

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]All right, welcome to the daily market recap for Wednesday, April 22nd. In today's video, I'll be going over the action of the indexes, the liquid leaders, industry ETFs, then end the video with long and short setups going into tomorrow like I do with every daily recap. So, if you guys enjoy it, please leave a like and subscribe to the channel. I'm very close to 10,000 subscribers. So, if you guys do enjoy the channel, please just take 1 second and hit that subscribe button so I can hit that milestone.

[00:00:23]And if you want my market takes throughout the trading day along with the live stream at the open and any trades that I personally take, you can sign up for the Market Pulse Discord using the link in the comment section.

[00:00:33]Starting things off with the Nasdaq.

[00:00:34]After 2 days of chop or what Twitter has called a bear market after the uptrend that we've been in, uh we've resolved to the upside. Uh and I'm joking about that. 2 days of very light chop on light volume over the 5-day moving average and over the support gap.

[00:00:48]Gap up today, closed right at the high of the day. Just extreme extreme strength out of the Nasdaq of 1.67% and measuring this from the lows here, we've had about 15 trading days off that low. An 18% move in 15 days. That is a very very powerful market. So, everyone who said, "Oh, we're going up on low volume, so that doesn't count." Ignore those people. They've never studied market trends.

[00:01:16]We actually also, sorry, going back to the Nasdaq, we started the official power trend today, which is another good sign for the market.

[00:01:24]S&P 500 up 1% today. New all-time closing high, not an intraday high, but on a closing basis, new all-time highs.

[00:01:32]Nothing bearish about that.

[00:01:33]IWO, the growth stocks of the Russell 2000. Is this a new all-time closing high? 5871 5854. Not quite. Just a touch under the previous all-time closing high, but a nice day up 0.9% with a gap up in the middle of the range close.

[00:01:49]ARKK up 2.5% after the ugly close under the 200-day moving average yesterday on a pickup in volume.

[00:01:56]Uh we followed it up with a gap up in a strong close uh basically right where we opened up yesterday.

[00:02:03]Then switching over so we can take a look at Bitcoin. Uh very very nice follow-through today. Uh we had just a couple tight days. Bursting through that 76K level. Now trading at 78.3.

[00:02:16]And it looks like we're set I I again, nothing's for sure, but this is a nice clean uptrend. It looks like a test of the 200-day moving average in the next week or so uh would make the most sense. Ethereum lagging just a touch, not over those previous highs yet from March. Bitcoin, obviously, the stronger of the two, but still both over 5, 10, 20, and 50-day moving averages. And all those moving averages are in uptrends at this point.

[00:02:45]Getting to the liquid leaders, I did make one change today. I took out Intel.

[00:02:50]And Intel not doing anything wrong, really. Like close under the 5-day moving average. This has earnings tomorrow. So, maybe they crush earnings and it's right back on the list. But this is just a sign of how strong the market is. I felt like I had to get AMD on this list and another semiconductor on the list because semiconductors, as we'll see when we get into the industry ETFs, have been absolutely the leading theme in the market. And AMD up 6.7% today. New all-time closing high. Just surfing that 5-day moving average like basically every other semiconductor. Deserves a spot on that list.

[00:03:26]Other stocks, GEV up 13.8% today. Uh gapped up on earnings, opened right on the low of the day, closed in the upper third upper quarter of the daily range.

[00:03:36]Awesome awesome move. Now officially a 10X move off the lows. So, GEV very like a model book stock. Definitely take some time over the weekend or whenever you have time, go back and just study the price action of GEV because it is an awesome awesome chart. SanDisk, I bought this today um on the recapture view app and added through the high of the day.

[00:03:59]It's a 15% position now.

[00:04:01]Nice close. A new all-time closing high up 8.37%.

[00:04:06]A stone's throw away from 1,000. I feel like that's a layup at this point given the strength of the market.

[00:04:11]And hopefully I didn't jinx it there, but really nice action there. Um MU, let me just go to that. Another stock in that memory group. Added to this position today. Gap up and close on a new all-time high. That's just a touch away from $500. So, uh the memory theme very very hot right now.

[00:04:31]We already covered AMD. BE with what looked like a little bit of an ugly close yesterday closing at the low of the day, but in a strong market and when stocks are above the 5-day moving average and they close weak, I really don't worry about them unless they follow through to the downside. And more likely than not, they will just continue higher. And that's what BE did. Gap up and then still close like in the lower third of the daily range, but up another 4% today.

[00:04:59]MRVL, another semiconductor making a new all-time high up 4% today. Just continues its monster run from this gap down 88 to 157. We're almost at a 100% move in uh less than a month. Semiconductors on fire. TER, another stock that I own up just 1.4% today.

[00:05:22]It feels like I could replace this name with another semiconductor stock. Um but it's it's really not doing anything wrong. Just serving the 5-day moving average. So, we'll let it work. If it starts to break down, I'll take it off the leaders list and replace it with something else.

[00:05:35]WDC also in that memory group up 1.4% serving the 5-day moving average. MBIS, a little bit of weakness today down a half a per- or sorry sorry, a quarter of a percent. Tried to get going in the morning, rejected the resistance gap, and then closed right at that support gap once again. Um bigger picture, I don't see anything wrong with the stock. Nice consolidation after breaking into new highs. Something that will cover on the long watch list.

[00:06:01]And then CIEN, uh this was a mistake by me today. I took this off uh kind of in pieces throughout the day as it flushed lower. We saw a lot of the optics themes starting to roll over. Your AAOI at one point was breaking the 10-day moving average after getting extended yesterday. Uh AXTI gapped up and then sold off and then it eventually, obviously, recovered that and rallied.

[00:06:25]And then LITE was coming under pressure as well.

[00:06:28]And that bounced at the 20-day and the support gap. So, stumb- dumb move on my end uh trimming this, but it gave me a little bit more capital to get into the memory theme.

[00:06:40]So, my my idea behind trimming that was this entire like optics theme really hasn't based in a significant amount of time. And after like AXTI and AOI had those gap ups that started to come under pressure, it seemed like maybe this was the first theme that would start to pull back and and finally start to base again.

[00:07:01]But no, the market's just so strong. And so, I was wrong. I got shaken out of this name. Shame on me.

[00:07:06]Should have waited until the end of the day. That is the mistake I made.

[00:07:11]Getting into the industry ETFs, big big setup on this NLR. This is the nuclear and uranium ETF. Absolutely massive base here. I love the couple closes under the 200-day moving average followed by a gap up. Another ugly close under the 200-day followed by a gap up. And then [snorts] yesterday, ugly close under the 50-day followed by a gap up. So, they keep on trying to shake it down. And then the next day, they bid it right back up. And within that theme, a lot of strong stocks. CCJ, DNN, uh UUUU, quadruple U, very very strong.

[00:07:44]We're going to power AI, we're going to need all hands on deck with energy. So, I I think some of that will come with nuclear.

[00:07:51]Really really nice looking chart here.

[00:07:53]And up 6% today leading the way.

[00:07:56]Solar stocks, TAN, um up 4% 4.3% today.

[00:08:00]Little ugly close after testing the 50-day followed by a gap up, open on the low, push through that level. So, nice to see just another theme starting to work.

[00:08:08]Blockchain and data center related names. Ugly close under the 200-day followed by a gap up and tight price action today.

[00:08:15]Getting to semiconductors, SMH, new all-time high. Gap up, close right at the high of the day. Up after hours as well after LRCX reported earnings.

[00:08:25]Just an incredible incredible move off these lows from March 30th. Uh let's actually measure that.

[00:08:33]So, from those lows to the highs, 32% for the semiconductor ETF. And a good rule of thumb is if semiconductors are making new highs, you're just not allowed to be bearish. At some point, semiconductors will pull back and then maybe they bounce, put in a lower high, and and then they break down. Like that's the bear case. And that is weeks away cuz we'd have to have a pullback, we'd have to have a lower high bounce, and then a break of those previous lows.

[00:09:00]I don't see any world where this tops right here and then just goes straight down. Maybe I'm wrong, but even if it goes straight down, at some point we'll get under the 10-day, we'll get under the 20-day, and that'll be a big warning sign. But for now, semiconductors at all-time highs, should not be bearish in that situation.

[00:09:21]IGV up 2.4% today closing near the high of the day. This is down a little bit after hours after some semi some software stocks ServiceNow mainly reporting earnings after the close and getting destroyed.

[00:09:35]XLE, uh wanted to go to this really quick. This is a a group, the energy ETF, that broke out of a multi-year base. Like a absolutely enormous base.

[00:09:44]Went on to run and put in its first weekly extension.

[00:09:49]Since then, we pulled back. We found support at a support gap. We bounced up.

[00:09:53]Another like day or so into the 50-day moving average. And my guess is this starts to stall out, we build out, but I think this is just going to build it build up another base and then get going again. It's hard to believe that we go sideways for 3 and 1/2 years, break out of that with this much power, and then that move just be over, but again, we'll take that day by day. I just big picture I I can't see that really breaking down.

[00:10:19]Then the other group that I always like to look at is financials.

[00:10:22]Was very, very weak during the correction that that we had, but then gap up, gap up, gap up through the 50-day, rallied up to the 200-day. Now we're stalling a little bit at that spot.

[00:10:34]Little bit of weakness today, down 0.2%.

[00:10:37]Still closing at the 5-day moving average, still over the 10, the 20, the 50. So, overall, I don't think anything wrong. Maybe just signs of like, "Hey, the indexes are are quite a bit extended. We're starting to see a little bit of friction around some trades outside of semiconductors." So, God forbid there's a small pullback in the market. I know people might start to freak out or call the top of the market.

[00:11:01]I think we're going to be fine.

[00:11:04]Then I did I added this earnings tab because we're in the middle of earning season now. So, a couple earnings before the market open that I wanted to go over. GEV, again, up 14% on that move. BSX up 9%. Boeing up 5.5% today.

[00:11:21]And then VRT, which has been a leading stock, found support at the 10-day moving average, but was down 2.3% while the market was extremely hot. Maybe needs some time to consolidate. Maybe a pullback into the 20-day and the gap zone there as a potential undercut and reclaim entry.

[00:11:37]Then after the market closed, we had stocks like QS, which is up 19%. Texas Instrument up 11% into new all-time highs.

[00:11:46]AMSC up 8%. That's now trading around $52. LRCX in that semiconductor group building up that nice flag, breaking out to the upside up 2.7%.

[00:11:58]And then Trashla, still just you'd think a stock like a company that's supposed to be like tech-focused and tech-leading would benefit from the AI boom, but it's been 2 years of an AI boom, and this stock has not done anything. It really hasn't done anything since it peaked in 2021. I know technically we made new highs in 2024, we made new highs barely in 2025, but has not done anything in 5 years.

[00:12:25]Double beat on earnings, and it's down a little bit after hours. It's below the 200-day moving average while the Nasdaq is going vertical. So, Tesla has a lot of fanboys because it was such a popular, such a monster stock before, but if we're being honest, like it hasn't done anything. It's under the 200-day moving average. It's not one to focus on in my eyes.

[00:12:51]If it's over the 200-day, I'll start to watch again, but until then, it's not worth your time.

[00:12:56]LVS, Las Vegas Sands, down 0.4% after hours. IBM down 7%, and then ServiceNow down 12.6%.

[00:13:06]Then I want to go over to the theme pulse or the market pulse theme tracker, excuse me. So, you can go to the calendar, the earnings calendar.

[00:13:14]So, anyone in Market Pulse has access to this with the subscription, and you can see well, one nice thing that I wanted to cover is you can see the transcripts of the earnings, and then you can click on this AI summary button, and it'll generate you like a 10-point summary.

[00:13:31]We'll let that work for a second.

[00:13:33]It takes a little bit to go through the transcript to generate the summary, but if you're just looking at the the like the sales, the earnings per share, and and you want a little bit more color to it, then instead of reading through the entire transcript, which is here if you want it, Ariel built in this nice AI summary tool. It does take a second here.

[00:13:55]We'll let that that work.

[00:13:57]Another thing that I wanted to go over Here we go. So, yeah, it gives you like 10 bullet points. It does take about what was that? A minute, maybe 30 seconds or so.

[00:14:07]And then you got your 10 bullet points there.

[00:14:11]Getting into the stocks that report tomorrow, a lot of stocks reporting today.

[00:14:16]Tomorrow before the market opens, we have AXP, NEE.

[00:14:21]Those are the two that kind of catch my eye, but no really important stocks in my eyes before the market opens tomorrow.

[00:14:29]After market closes, Intel, that'll be important. NEM for gold. What else?

[00:14:36]Those are really the more important ones.

[00:14:39]>> [snorts] >> Intel really being the most important one tomorrow, but always good to make sure that you know when the stocks that you own report earnings.

[00:14:47]And then taking a look at the breadth, uh one thing I like to look at is stocks up 4% versus down 4%. Just another day of breadth expansion. 156 stocks up 4% while only 71 were down 4%.

[00:15:01]And the market's been so incredibly strong that that actually lowers our 5-day ratio, which is a little insane to say, but more so because this 249 to 775 falls off, and we only add a double, which again, extremely, extremely strong market. We are also getting more stocks getting 10 times their ATR extended from the 50-day moving average, which you want this number to go up. It shows you you're in a very hot market.

[00:15:29]Once that number starts to come down, it's a sign that, "Hey, things are getting a little hot, things are getting extended. It's probably time for a pullback. Maybe reduce exposure."

[00:15:39]I'd be careful looking at stuff on the short side, but overall, this is just a a sign that the market stays hot. And then the stocks over the 50-day moving average, slight dip today from 72% to 65%. Again, if we do pull back, I know it's hard to believe that we might ever pull back again, but if we do pull back, it's not going to be the end of the world.

[00:16:01]There's still so many people trapped outside of this lockout rally that I expect it to be shallow, and we're going to get plenty of high tight flags setting up, especially in the semiconductor group.

[00:16:12]>> [snorts] >> So, getting into some long setups first.

[00:16:16]We'll sort this by average dollar volume like we always do.

[00:16:19]And what's First up is NBIS.

[00:16:22]Kind of covered this on the leaders list, but support gap undercut and reclaim. If we can come into the 10-day and then like bounce from there and reclaim the support gap, reclaim the daily view app, that's the spot that I would look to add. And honestly, I I would try to just fill out the rest of my portfolio with with something like NBIS.

[00:16:42]This base reminds me so so much of SMCI.

[00:16:45]Um And that was one of my biggest winners in 2024, and percentage-wise, I think my largest winner ever.

[00:16:52]I love the gap up after the ugly close under the 200-day, the higher lows, the secondary offering already out of the way on this name. And now we're just tightening up right at all-time highs into a support gap. Beautiful price action.

[00:17:06]IRUN, nice move today. Ugly close, gap up, closed at the high of the day.

[00:17:11]This is one that you could take just through the highs of the next 2 days, stop at today's low. Or if the market does eventually pull back, the 10-day and the gap zone that we created today right around $45 would be another nice spot.

[00:17:24]WOLF in the same group.

[00:17:26]I know we have a little bit of an overhead resistance gap here.

[00:17:29]Resistance gaps are very are less credible when the stock is over the 50-day and the 200-day moving average, and both of those are rising, and the indexes are above the 50 and the 200-day, and those are rising.

[00:17:41]And that's because when in those scenarios, institutions are accumulating shares, and they're accumulating positions in the market.

[00:17:48]When institutions are accumulating positions, overhead resistance gaps not as important.

[00:17:54]And the reverse is true. When we're under the 50, under the 200-day, when those are sloping down on the individual stock and the overall index, institutions are going to be selling shares, they're going to be distributing, and any pops into overhead resistance gaps way, way more credible.

[00:18:11]Any support gaps underneath less credible because institutions are selling, and they could just rip through those support gap zones. So, I do see the overhead resistance gap here. I get it. I would be fine still buying through the highs of the last 3 days or 4 days, uh not counting that little uppercut.

[00:18:29]If we do get a little pullback, the 10-day and the the lows over the last 2 days, a little undercut and reclaim, wait for a view app recapture just so momentum is on your side as you're putting on the trade, but that'd be my preferred entry point, but I would still take this trade through the high today.

[00:18:47]DOCN, inside day today on lower volume.

[00:18:50]My guess is this follows through and goes quickly to 100, but if it does pull back with with a market pullback, this gap zone that we had from yesterday's gap up right around $89, that's the spot that I would be looking at for an undercut and reclaim. Then get your stop under the 10-day EMA and the HTC from the secondary offering.

[00:19:12]BWXT, nice undercut and reclaim of the support gap today. Zooming out, this is a big base breakout, breakout retest.

[00:19:19]And we we bounced at that spot. One more undercut at 214.40 level, that would be the spot that I'd look to get long with a stop at today's low.

[00:19:31]MOD, just a sliver of a resistance gap, which SNDK had going into day, too. Did not worry about that. It was not a factor because the stock and the market is so strong.

[00:19:42]So, again, I'm not really worried about these very small resistance gaps. Nice close today on lower volume. Just a break through today's high, stop at today's low would be the trade there.

[00:19:52]MDGL, uh it's a individual biotech and I don't typically trade individual biotechs. The only way they get on my universe list is if they have over a million dollars of revenue per quarter and this one does. 137 is the smallest over the last four quarters. Now it's at 320, just massive revenue increase for the stock. Um and we had a big move and then tight price action over the last two three weeks. Just a break through today's high, stop at today's low would be the trade there.

[00:20:25]SOLS, chemicals name. Again, you see that overhead resistance gap. I'm not as worried about that in a market like this. Through today's high, that would be buyable.

[00:20:34]But in a perfect world, we get something like what we got today or sorry, yesterday where we get a little shakeout of today's low into the 20-day moving average, a recapture of today's low.

[00:20:44]That would be a better buy spot than I could get my stop under yesterday's low.

[00:20:50]CARR, of the oil and gas team.

[00:20:52]Extremely, extremely strong. Um we had this a like a secondary low here, but an undercut, rally, closed well, gap up, pushed through the five, the 10, the 20, and then a gap up and strong close today. I don't need to chase it up here, but a pullback into the 10, the 20, and the gap zone at 6150 over the next couple days. That's the spot that I'm looking for for a little undercut and reclaim.

[00:21:16]Oil and gas don't typically trade as well with this sport gap zones. So I'm more so looking for an undercut of the zone and then a recapture of VWAP to put that risk on.

[00:21:27]SPHR, this has been on the watch list for a couple days. Still waiting for that undercut of the 20-day EMA and the sport gap low at 12427.

[00:21:35]Stocks that make new highs and then pull back to their 20-day moving average for the first time usually good risk reward spots, especially when it undercuts a sport gap.

[00:21:44]NVN, from the software theme. Uh expecting a little pullback in software tomorrow given NOW's earnings and the the pullback in IGV. Let this pullback into the sport gap and the 10-day moving average around 1460. Little undercut and reclaim there would be buyable. Stop would be under the ignite bar from April 20th.

[00:22:04]CTRI, uh construction. So many of these construction stocks not like home builders, but like commercial construction, data center construction.

[00:22:13]Very, very strong. Uh this one building out a nice flag here just under all-time highs. Uh held the 10-day moving average. Just a break through today's high, stop at the 10-day moving average would be the trade there.

[00:22:24]Then LPTH tried to get going today, pulled back with the rest of the optics theme. And I guess this is also a little bit defense themed and if we take a look at ITA, that came under some major pressure over the last two days. So the fact that it's holding up so well um with that nice sign of strength.

[00:22:44]Um it is a thinner traded stock, only 26 million dollars a day. So if you're going to take this maybe smaller size, uh at least I would be taking that with smaller size. But just looking for a break through $15 as the entry and then get your stop under uh either the low tomorrow depending on where we open or the 5-day moving average.

[00:23:04]And then on the short side, again, we're in an extremely strong market. I don't think you we should be focusing on shorts. Um if if that's like if you need to short something here are some shorts to to cover, but I think the money is going to be made uh instead of the mean reversion trades on the short side, it's waiting for the semiconductors to pull back, build out those high tight flags.

[00:23:26]Um all the stocks that have just been ripping, ripping, ripping, when those flag out, they're going to be building out awesome, awesome secondary opportunities and I think those are still better than trading on the short side in a market like this.

[00:23:39]That said uh we'll go over some gold. Overall, actually, let me just go back to like gold futures.

[00:23:46]We went parabolic. We had that like blow-off top. We had a lower high, a really big washout, then we rallied back up to the 50-day and now we're putting in these lower highs. Um to me this looks like a broken chart, like ready for lower.

[00:24:01]Tight price action here today. So if you're wrong, you're going to be wrong very small.

[00:24:05]Um and then I would look to trade this with GLD. Just a break through today's low as the entry, stop just above today's high, maybe maybe above the high from April 21st as your stop. Again, it's super tight risk, super, super tight risk. And that's the type of short that I would be trying in this market.

[00:24:24]SMCI, um in that semiconductor group that's been on fire, but this is just a crappy, crappy stock. It's only rallying because of the the general market strength and semiconductor strength.

[00:24:35]If semis come under any pressure, I I think a break under today's low, stop at today's high would be a fine trade for that.

[00:24:44]Rigetti, the weakest of the quantum names, which starting to come under a little bit of pressure today and then bounced back.

[00:24:50]IONQ, I'm actually starting to think that this might be a might be a long overall.

[00:24:56]Uh so I don't want to fight the strongest of the quantum names. I I want to be focused on the weakest and for right now that is Rigetti. Rigetti, not Rigetti, sorry. Um little undercut of yesterday's low and then we closed at the 5-day. Look for a gap up and then a green to red move to short. So as it goes red, you would short that and then get your stop at today's high.

[00:25:18]Then last up, finally, the uh Avis Budget car situation broke to the downside. We had the highest volume of the entire move yesterday, a big gap up to start the day, rally in the morning.

[00:25:29]And then you lost VWAP and for the first time in the entire move, we stayed heavy under VWAP. So like I said, every single day we covered this below VWAP, you could stay aggressive on the short side. Above VWAP, you have to get out because we just squeezed you higher and higher and higher.

[00:25:46]But today, finally, we had a day where it stayed heavy under VWAP.

[00:25:50]And I mean this this broke in a very, very real way.

[00:25:55]From the highs to the lows, a 50% move.

[00:25:58]It was down a little bit more after hours. They came out and said they're moving up their earnings and to me that means that they're also going to be doing another secondary offering cuz they I guess they couldn't do a second a second another secondary offering without getting earnings out of the way.

[00:26:14]So they moved up earnings and I think this move is done. So any rallies that we get like like maybe back into the 540s or the 600s again, same playbook. Let it rally and then as it loses VWAP, short again and this is going to unravel in a very big way over the next coming weeks. So any pops as it loses VWAP, this is like the one short I I would stay focused on and just continue to hammer it every time it loses VWAP and eventually it'll whittle all the way back down.

[00:26:45]So that's going to be the daily market recap for Wednesday, April 22nd. If you enjoyed it, please leave a like and subscribe to the channel. Again, I'm so close to 10,000 subscribers. So if you do enjoy these videos and all these daily recaps, please take one second, hit that subscribe button and help me out.

[00:27:00]And if you want my market takes throughout the trading day along with the live stream at the open and any trades that I personally take, you can sign up for the Market Pulse Discord using the link in the comment section. I hope you have a great night and I'll see you guys in the next trading recap. Take care.