Stock Market Today: May 14, 2026 — S&P, Nasdaq Close at Records on Cisco AI Surge

What Moved the Stock Market May 14, 2026

US stocks pushed deeper into record territory on Thursday as a 13% rip in CSCO — its largest single-session gain in more than a decade — gave the AI-infrastructure trade a fresh leg and pulled the SPX to its first close above 7,500. The advance came despite an April Producer Price Index print that ran nearly 1 percentage point hot, suggesting the equity market is still willing to look past sticky goods inflation as long as the AI capex cycle keeps delivering raised guidance.

• S&P 500 (SPX): 7,501.45, +57.20 (+0.77%) — new record close
• Nasdaq Composite (IXIC): 26,473.18, +70.84 (+0.27%) — new record close
• Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI): 50,067.30, +374.10 (+0.58%) — first close back above 50,000 in two weeks
• Russell 2000 (RUT): 2,847.92, −10.86 (−0.38%) — small caps lagged on hot PPI

Breadth was middling — advancers led decliners by roughly 5-to-4 on the NYSE — and 19.0 billion shares traded across US venues, above the 20-day average of 18.1 billion.

Volatility, Yields, and Cross-Asset Snapshot

The VIX settled at 17.87, down 0.13 on the session, holding the low end of its post-Iran range. Rates kept drifting higher: the US10Y Treasury yield closed at 4.46%, near its highest level since last June, after the PPI surprise reinforced "higher for longer" pricing. The DXY dollar index ticked up to 98.49 — a third consecutive session of gains.

In commodities, CL=F WTI crude pulled back to $101.18 a barrel (−1.4%) as traders faded the latest spike on reports that roughly 30 tankers had transited the Strait of Hormuz in the prior 24 hours. GC=F gold sank 1.24% to $4,627.40 an ounce as the dollar and real yields firmed; silver gave back 3.4%. Bitcoin steadied near $80,360, up about 1% on the day.

May 14, 2026 Sector Performance

Tech and AI-adjacent names did the heavy lifting; industrials and energy lagged.

Energy is still the YTD leader thanks to the Iran-driven oil bid earlier in the spring, but it gave back ground today as crude rolled off its highs.

May 14, 2026 Biggest Stock Movers

CSCO — Cisco Systems +13.41% to $115.53. The networking giant posted fiscal Q3 revenue of $15.84B (+12% YoY), beat consensus on every line, and — most importantly — raised its full-year AI infrastructure order target to $9 billion from $5 billion. Total product orders accelerated 35% YoY. At least six sell-side firms hiked price targets into the print.

AVGO — Broadcom +4.83%. Read-through from Cisco's AI orders lifted the broader networking and custom-silicon complex; ANET Arista also gained 3.6% on similar logic. Broadcom is now within 2% of its all-time high.

CHTR — Charter Communications +7.20%. Cable rallied after Cisco's commentary on enterprise refresh cycles and a Bernstein upgrade citing 2026 broadband subscriber stabilization. Volume was 2.4x the 30-day average.

QCOM — Qualcomm −4.02%. The smartphone-modem leader slumped on cautious Q3 handset commentary and Trump's China trip reigniting tariff-related export concerns. INTC Intel fell alongside, −3.51%, as the rotation out of legacy semis accelerated.

BA — Boeing −3.32%. The Dow's biggest decliner after an FAA letter raised fresh questions about 737 MAX production-rate increases. The slide single-handedly trimmed roughly 95 points from the Dow.

Macro and Policy Recap

This was a heavy data day, and the prints leaned hawkish:

• April PPI: +1.4% MoM headline vs. +0.5% consensus, the hottest reading since 2022. Core PPI rose +1.0% vs. +0.4% expected. Final-demand services climbed +1.2%; goods +2.0%, with freight costs tied to Middle East shipping disruptions doing much of the work.
• Initial jobless claims: 211,000 for the week ending May 9, above the 205,000 consensus and last week's 199,000 — the highest reading since February but still consistent with a non-recessionary labor market.
• April retail sales: +0.5% MoM vs. +1.7% prior, signaling a noticeable cooldown in consumer spending after the March surge.

President Trump is en route to Beijing for talks with President Xi Jinping, accompanied by NVDA CEO Jensen Huang, TSLA CEO Elon Musk, and AAPL CEO Tim Cook. The summit is expected to cover semiconductor export licensing, tariff schedules, and an AI governance framework. No Fed officials were on the calendar.

Earnings Highlights — May 14, 2026

• CSCO Cisco Systems — FQ3'26: EPS $1.04 vs. $0.97 consensus; revenue $15.84B vs. $15.04B consensus, +12% YoY. AI infrastructure order target raised to $9B from $5B for FY26. FY guidance lifted to EPS $4.10–$4.13 (was $3.95–$4.00).
• AMAT Applied Materials (after the close) — FQ2'26: record EPS of $2.76 vs. $2.68 consensus; revenue $7.42B vs. $7.21B consensus. The company guided FQ3 revenue to $7.5B ± $400M, ahead of the $7.18B consensus, and called out leading-edge logic and HBM as primary drivers. Shares rose roughly 6% in extended trading.
• DE Deere & Co. — FQ2'26: EPS $6.42 vs. $5.91 consensus; revenue $13.1B vs. $12.7B consensus. The ag-equipment maker narrowed full-year net income guidance to $5.0B–$5.3B (from $4.75B–$5.25B) but flagged ongoing softness in large agriculture orders. Shares closed +1.8%.

What to Watch Friday, May 15, 2026

• Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization (9:15 ET) — consensus calls for +0.2% IP and 78.3% utilization. A second hot manufacturing print would extend the hawkish-data narrative from PPI.
• University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment, preliminary May (10:00 ET) — the 1-year inflation expectations component is the line to watch given today's PPI shock.
• China April retail sales and industrial production (overnight) — front-runs any deliverables from the Trump-Xi summit and will steer Asia ADR pricing into the open.
• Earnings before the bell: RBLX post-Q1 follow-up commentary and regional bank previews into next week's WMT Walmart and HD Home Depot prints on May 21.

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