US Stock Market Summary for April 28, 2026

On April 28 (local time), New York equities saw profit-taking hit tech stocks after a Bloomberg report that OpenAI missed its own subscriber and revenue targets, ahead of the kickoff of big-tech earnings season. The report fanned doubts about the durability of AI infrastructure demand. The S&P 500 fell 0.49% to 7,138.80 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.90% to 24,663.80, pausing a three-day run to record highs. The Dow closed roughly flat, down 0.05% at 49,141.93, supported by defensive strength. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) slipped an additional 0.94% to 17.85, but the Fear & Greed Index retreated one notch to 64, as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the FOMC decision due early on April 29.

The sector picture was a clear defensive rotation. Energy (XLE +1.66%) led the market as the Treasury's additional sanctions on Iranian oil pushed crude prices higher. Consumer Staples (XLP +0.90%), Health Care (XLV +0.26%), and Financials (XLF +0.08%) all closed higher. On the other side, Technology (XLK -1.69%) was the weakest sector, and the semiconductor ETF SOXX plunged 3.67%, with its RSI falling quickly from 81 to below 70. Consumer Discretionary (XLY -0.70%) and Industrials (XLI -0.89%) also posted losses.

The bond market was little changed ($TLT +0.10%, $IEF -0.09%). In commodities, crude oil (USO) +3.62% and agricultural products (WEAT +4.26%, DBA +1.41%) advanced. By contrast, gold ($GLD -1.86%), silver ($SLV -3.12%), uranium (URA -4.36%), and platinum (PPLT -2.27%) declined on profit-taking, unrelated to risk-off sentiment.

Gainers were concentrated in defensive and energy names. Coca-Cola ($KO) spiked 3.86% after reporting 1Q earnings that beat consensus. UnitedHealth ($UNH) +3.41%, Philip Morris ($PM) +3.10%, AT&T ($T) +2.12%, and T-Mobile ($TMUS) +2.13% lifted the defensive and telecom camp. In energy, TotalEnergies ($TTE) +2.58%, ConocoPhillips ($COP) +2.17%, and Chevron ($CVX) +1.94% rallied together, and IBM ($IBM) +2.19% held firm despite the broader AI softness.

Losers clustered in semiconductors and AI infrastructure. The names hit hardest by the report on sluggish AI subscriber growth were Arm ($ARM) -7.98%, Sandisk ($SNDK) -6.30%, Applied Materials ($AMAT) -5.93%, KLA ($KLAC) -4.81%, Broadcom ($AVGO) -4.39%, Oracle ($ORCL) -4.05%, Micron ($MU) -3.86%, AMD ($AMD) -3.41%, and Arista ($ANET) -4.16%, all sold off heavily. Even after Oracle and CoreWeave publicly backed OpenAI, the move was not enough to blunt the near-term shock.

> Key events for the next trading session are displayed automatically.

> "Today's price action in individual stocks shows that some profit-taking is underway in semiconductors. Given the remarkable rally since late March, the move is a reasonable one."

> — David Morrison, Senior Market Analyst at Trade Nation

> "AI capital expenditure has been the central driver of economic growth this year, but we are now reaching the phase where AI is also generating layoffs."

> — Christiane Hopper, Chief Market Strategist at Man Group

Indicator signals stayed balanced at 120 bullish versus 120 bearish, but the stock-level distribution looked like the opposite of yesterday. MACD golden crosses clustered around defensives and energy (11 names), including BRK-A, BRK-B, KO, PEP, and NEE, while MACD death crosses surfaced in financials and tech (6 to 10 names each), including LLY, ASML, MA, BAC, LRCX, and AMAT. With RSI and stochastics for big tech still stretched at overbought levels, the FOMC meeting and Magnificent 7 earnings will set the near-term direction. For more detail, see the Technical Signals Report.