Shares of Intel Corp. INTC shot up 7.0% in afternoon trading Wednesday toward a 6 1/2-month high, enough to be the second-biggest gainer in the S&P 500 INTC on the day. Helping provide a boost to the semiconductor maker’s stock, Micron Technologies Inc. shares MU jumped 7.6%, to be the S&P 500’s biggest gainer, after the memory-chip maker reported its biggest-ever quarterly loss, but Wall Street cheered a potential bottoming of gross margins. Intel also said as part of an investor webinar on Wednesday that “demand for compute and especially compute cores continues to accelerate,” according to an AlphaSense transcript. The company also said it sees a “clear path to regaining leadership” of the market, and is well positioned to capitalize on the accelerating growth in artificial intelligence (AI). After Intel’s stock closed Feb. 27 at a nine-year low of $24.90, it has rocketed 25.65% so far in March, which puts it on track for the biggest monthly gain since it ran up 33.7% in November 2001. Inc comparison, the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX has gained 6.0% in March, the S&P 500 has edged up 1.0% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA has slipped 0.2%.
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