Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 4/16/26 – Semis Leading Without the Big Guns

Apr 16, 2026

See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium.  CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.

“Our conviction in the multi-year AI megatrend remains high and we believe the demand for semiconductors will continue to be very fundamental.” – C.C. Wei, President and CEO, Taiwan Semiconductor

Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.  

Before getting to this morning’s note, last night we updated our Bespoke Baskets, where we made two changes to the Growth basket and no changes to the Dividend Income basket.  You can view the full update here.

Also, be sure to watch our discussion on markets with Brian Sullivan in a CNBC appearance yesterday.

Futures are indicated higher again this morning as the S&P 500 looks to add to its record highs from yesterday, in what has been one of the most rapid turnarounds in market history. Treasury yields are also lower, while crude oil is just fractionally higher. Both gold and Bitcoin have also shown very modest moves in either direction.

In Asia overnight, most major benchmarks were higher, with the Nikkei up over 2% and China up roughly 1%. In Europe, we’re also seeing gains with the STOXX 600 up 0.4%.

The pace of earnings continues to pick up, but this morning’s focus has been on economic data, and the news was good as both jobless claims and the Philly Fed Manufacturing report exceeded expectations. Lastly, in Fedpseak, NY Fed President John Williams is speaking right now, and he commented that “the No. 1 topic related to the economy is the Middle East conflict, which has introduced substantial risks and heightened uncertainty”.

Since it’s not a US company, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) doesn’t get a lot of attention in US stock market coverage, which is a mistake. With a market cap of just under $2 trillion, it’s one of the ten largest publicly traded companies in the world. TSM is the linchpin of the global semiconductor supply chain and the global digital economy for that matter. As much as the Iran war has disrupted energy supplies and threatened to derail the global economy, in a scenario where semiconductor supplies from TSM were cut off for an extended period, it would be an economic calamity.

Thankfully, that’s not the case. Overnight, TSM reported better-than-expected EPS and sales and raised guidance. As highlighted in the quote above, the company sees no signs of a slowdown in demand. Revenues rose 40.6% y/y on incredible gross margins of 66.2%.

TSM’s results for Q1 were nothing new and continued a trend of strong results since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. In the 14 quarters since that launch, the company has reported better-than-expected EPS results 13 times, exceeded sales results nine times, and raised guidance nine times. As shown in the table below, while results relative to expectations were shaky early on in the bull market, more recent results have been consistently strong, with six triple plays in its last seven reports.

Despite the strong results overnight, shares of TSM are trading modestly lower in the pre-market and failed to make a new high in yesterday’s trading, even as the broader market and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) specifically hit new highs yesterday. That’s not to say that the stock hasn’t been a strong performer, though, more than doubling in the last twelve months.

TSM is the second-largest stock in the SOX on a market cap basis, trailing Nvidia (NVDA) by a wide margin. Like TSM, though, NVDA also didn’t join the SOX or the S&P 500 in hitting a new high yesterday. The fact that the SOX has managed to make new highs without the participation of its two largest members illustrates how broad the underlying strength in the sector has been.

Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to continue reading today’s full Morning Lineup.

Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 4/15/26 – War Reversals

Apr 15, 2026

See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium.  CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.

“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Winston Churchill

Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.  

In an unusual picture relative to the post-war periods, US equity futures aren’t showing much in the way of gains or losses. Treasury yields and crude oil are modestly higher, while gold and Bitcoin are slightly lower. Asian stocks were higher overnight, and European stocks are mixed in early trading. Empire Manufacturing and Import Prices both just hit the tape, wth Empire exceeding forecasts while Import Prices came in weaker than expected.

It’s been ten trading days since the S&P 500’s Iran war low, and during that time, the index has rallied just under 10%. Along with that impressive gain, four sectors have rallied more than 10%, including Communication Services and Technology, which are up over 15%. Not bad for two weeks! It’s been almost an everything rally over the last two weeks as the only two sectors to trade lower are Energy and Consumer Staples, although while the latter has only experienced a marginal decline, the former is down over 10%.

Sector moves over the last two weeks have largely been a reversal of the moves since the start of the war. Energy was the only sector to rally from 2/27 through 3/30, and it’s easily the worst performer since then, erasing all its Iran war gain. Conversely, the Technology sector has also more than erased its losses from 2/27 through 3/30.  Technology is also a standout. It held up relatively well on the way down (5th best performing sector), but it has still been the second-best performing sector on the way up. Another notable sector has been Consumer Staples. While no sector traded higher in both the periods from 2/27 through 3/30 and since 3/30, Consumer Staples is the only sector to trade lower in both periods.

Have you done your taxes yet? With today being the Federal Tax deadline, we wanted to highlight the S&P 500’s performance leading up to and after 4/15. The chart below shows the performance of the S&P 500 in the week before 4/15, dating back to 1990. During that period, the S&P 500’s median performance has been a gain of 0.55% with positive returns 54% of the time. Just looking at the chart, the market has been trendless leading up to the tax deadline.

Market performance in the week after Tax Day has shown an evolving pattern over the last several years. While the S&P 500’s median performance in the week after 4/15 has been the same as its performance in the week before Tax Day, there has been a weakening pattern since the turn of the century. The S&P 500’s post-Tax Day performance peaked with a 5.75% gain in the week after Tax Day in 2000, and since then, it has been gradually trending lower to the point where the S&P 500 has declined in the week after for five straight years.

Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to continue reading today’s full Morning Lineup.