S&P 500 and Nasdaq notch records, boosted by AI and earnings optimism

STORY: U.S. stocks ended the week higher on Friday...and although the Dow was little changed, the S&P 500 gained more than eight-tenths of a percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.7%, catapulting both indexes to more record high closes.Credit strong company earnings and a resilient economy, says Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird Private Wealth Management."It's really kind of the soft landing of all soft landings. You're wrapping up one of the best earnings seasons we've seen in some time. One of the best non-recession recovery earnings seasons ever. You've got positive headlines about the war in Iran and the move towards a ceasefire there, particularly ahead of, you know, Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping. You have a great jobs report. So signs that the, you know, the economy outside of the AI sector is still holding in pretty well. [FLASH] Now, that doesn't mean there isn't a big tail risk out there if the war in Iran kind of reverses or escalates for whatever reason. But barring that, it is very hard to see a reason that this market doesn't melt up into the summer and really into year end."High-flying chip stocks had another stellar session, with shares of Intel gaining 14% after the Wall Street Journal reported the company reached a preliminary deal to make some chips for Apple devices. Shares of Apple added 2%.Shares of Micron Technology and Sandisk spiked more than 15% and 16%, respectively, lifted by strong demand from the rapid buildout of AI data centers.:: CloudflareStill, other tech stocks didn't fare as well, with Cloudflare plunging more than 23% after the cloud services company said it would cut about 20% of its workforce, and forecast second-quarter revenue slightly below Wall Street expectations.:: CoreWeaveShares of CoreWeave tumbled more than 11% after the cloud infrastructure technology company raised the lower end of its annual capital expenditure forecast, citing a rise in component costs.Elsewhere in the market, shares of Expedia dropped more than 9% after the online travel platform flagged that the conflict in the Middle East was hurting demand.