CNBC Closing Bell
2026-05-13 · Hosted by Scott Wapner, Melissa Lee, Michael Santoli · CNBC
Executive Summary
The Closing Bell session featured a sharp pullback in chip and memory stocks that erased intraday losses but still saw Qualcomm log its worst day since 2020, down roughly 11.5%, and Intel close 7% lower despite doubling in a month. The April CPI print at 3.8% headline drove the 10-year yield to its highest level of the year (around 4.45%) and the 30-year reclaimed 5%. FDA Commissioner Marty McCary resigned with Kyle Diamantas stepping in as acting commissioner, while Sam Altman took the stand in the Musk-OpenAI trial. Goldman Sachs President John Waldron described AI as transforming Goldman’s “human assembly line” via digital agents. Guests City Wealth’s Aoifinn Devitt-equivalent Lawla Oganga and Tekne Capital’s Beneek Otari argued that breadth is broadening into physical AI, energy infrastructure, and Asian semiconductor packaging plays. CME announced its compute futures partnership with Silicon Data.
Key Stories & Changes
1. Tech Pullback — Memory and Chip Names Get Hit
QCOM: Qualcomm — -11.5% — Worst day since 2020
INTC: Intel — -7% — Still nearly doubled in a month
NVDA: Nvidia — Slight gain — Only positive name in SMH; became “defensive” within chips
MU: Micron — Lower — Memory selloff
SNDK: SanDisk — -6% — Memory laggard
WDC: Western Digital — Lower — Memory laggard
LITE: Lumentum — -5% — Optical connectivity sold off after yesterday’s NASDAQ-100 add surge
QCOM target: Wells Fargo — $315 — Raised ahead of next Wednesday’s earnings
NVDA target: Susquehanna — $275 — Raised ahead of earnings
Drivers cited: South Korea AI dividend story, hot CPI print, overbought technicals
Mizuho flagged the CPI print as the key catalyst; rate cut odds plummet, hike probability now exceeds even one cut
2. CPI and Bond Market Repricing
April CPI: headline 3.8% YoY, core 2.8% — both warmer than expected
10-year yield: highest level of the year at ~4.45%; first close at these levels since mid-July
30-year yield: reclaimed 5%
UK 10-year gilt: above 5%, highest yield close going back to 2008
Rick Santelli (Chicago): “many other countries like the UK and the EU group do have bigger issues with the energy spike prices”
3. FDA Commissioner Marty McCary Out
Marty McCary resigning as FDA Commissioner
Kyle Diamantas (top food regulator) stepping in as acting commissioner
Was scheduled to testify before Senate Appropriations Committee tomorrow
Replumune up 9% on the news as investors anticipate more stability
Open questions: who replaces him, status of National Priority Voucher Pilot Program, fate of acting heads at CDER and CBER
4. Goldman Sachs AI Transformation
President & COO John Waldron described Goldman as a “human assembly line”
Generative AI giving the ability to automate processes; “digital agents will be our robots”
AI will automate some jobs and create new ones — net impact unknown
Separately: FT reported Amazon employees gaming internal AI usage leaderboards (“token maxing”)
5. CME Compute Futures Announcement
CME Group + Silicon Data creating compute futures market later this year
Pending regulatory approval
Will allow traders, financial institutions, AI builders, cloud providers to hedge price risk
Based on price index of capacity rental (not physical delivery)
6. Sam Altman Takes the Stand
Sam Altman testified Elon Musk wanted absolute control of OpenAI
Musk wanted 90% equity stake at one point, always sought majority
Altman called the demands “hair-raising” and said he was “extremely uncomfortable”
Altman said his personal stake in companies doing business with OpenAI (Helion, Reddit, Cerebras) amounts to roughly $2 billion
IPO road show expected “as early as this year”
7. Healthcare and Earnings Movers
LLY: Eli Lilly — -7%+ YTD — Drag on XLV; weak oral GLP-1 launch
CSCO: Cisco — Near record high — Reports earnings tomorrow; up 20% in last month
WEN: Wendy’s — Surging — Tri-In reportedly trying to take private; owns ~40%
UAA: Under Armour — Worst day since April 2024 — Missed Q4 revenue; weak guidance
ONON: On Holding — Beat — Asia-Pacific sales +44%; Under Armour APAC only +13%
8. Software Layoffs
Zuora (Zuminfauks reference) eliminating 20% of workforce
GitLab cutting workforce to reinvest in “agentic era”
Trends Identified
1. AI Trade Broadening Beyond Big Tech
Guest Lawla Oganga of City Wealth highlighted that AI capex is now bleeding into financials, healthcare, robotics (physical AI), and energy infrastructure. Beneek Otari of Tekne Capital argued that 90% of hyperscaler spend ends up in Asia, with Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and the Netherlands (Besi) hosting underappreciated packaging and back-end semiconductor plays. The bull case rests on AI being a margin-expansion story rather than just a capex story.
2. Bond Market Sending Mixed Signals
Yields globally are surging — UK gilts at 17-year highs, Japan 10-year at 29-year highs, French and German notes at 15-year highs — yet US equity markets are shrugging it off. Rick Santelli framed it as US economic strength absorbing the upward yield pressure, but multiple guests warned this divergence cannot persist indefinitely.
3. Commodities Quietly Rallying
Copper hit a record close on CME, up 10% in the past week. Silver up 18% in a week, transitioning from industrial demand to speculative gauge. Christopher Rona Stratigas calling FCX and other miners “on the cusp of breaking out from 20-year bases.” Mike Santoli: “high nominal growth supply chain issues out there” reinforcing inflation themes.
4. China Tech Independence as Investable Theme
Otari argued China represents 20% of global AI capex but only 5% of AI market cap — and made the contrarian case that “this is sort of the last chance to buy China at these levels.” Cited combined market cap of $1.5 trillion for Western semi-cap equipment names (ASML, LAM, AMAT, TEL, KLAC) of which 45% of revenue comes from China, versus only $150 billion combined market cap for Chinese equivalents.
5. Healthcare’s Lily Concentration Risk
XLV is one of only two S&P sectors in the red this year, primarily because Eli Lilly is 4.5% higher weighting than next-largest holding J&J and is down 7%+ YTD on weak oral GLP-1 launch. Demonstrates how sector ETFs are increasingly hostage to single-stock outcomes. —-
Sentiment Analysis
Overall Market Sentiment: Cautiously Cooling
The day’s narrative blended healthy profit-taking in extended momentum names with growing acknowledgment that rate-cut hopes have faded and inflation may be re-accelerating. Speakers were not bearish but increasingly emphasizing diversification.
Risk Factors Highlighted
AI/chip momentum unwind: SOX 20% drop needed to reach 50-day moving average; Qualcomm worst day since 2020
Inflation re-acceleration: CPI 3.8% headline; rate hikes now more probable than cuts
Bond yield contagion: UK at 17-year highs, Japan 29-year, France/Germany 15-year highs
FDA leadership vacuum: Acting commissioner can only do so much; multiple senior positions unfilled
Iran conflict: Strait of Hormuz still closed; energy price persistence
OpenAI IPO overhang: Musk lawsuit seeking remedies including Altman removal
Eli Lilly drag on healthcare: GLP-1 oral launch underperforming
Wave of AI IPOs swamping market: Capital absorption risk
China-Taiwan supply chain risk: National security limits on Nvidia chip sales
Software sector layoffs (Zuora, GitLab): AI-driven restructuring pressuring incumbent SaaS valuations
This episode was covered in today’s The Market Signal — 2026-05-13, a cross-source synthesis of multiple podcast reports.