Welcome to the Breakfast Club, your weekly dose of market insights and trading strategies! Join us live every week at 9 AM ET on Traders Reserve Live, where John Hutchinson breaks down the latest market movements, shares actionable trade ideas, and answers your most pressing questions.
Futures are down this morning. Oil is up 6.2%. Tensions flared again over the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz.
You’ve seen this setup before. Eight weeks of it, actually.
Here’s what’s different: while Iran came back to the front page, AMD just printed its longest winning streak since 2005. Twelve days. Thirty percent. The AI2 portfolio went from -3% at the March lows to +31% at Friday’s close. In two weeks.
The AI supply chain isn’t just surviving the noise. It’s running right through it.
When Wall Street wants risk, they go to artificial intelligence. That’s not a theory anymore — it’s what the price action keeps telling us.
Last week, six positions in the AI2 portfolio were up double digits in a single week. Max Liner up nearly 27%. AMD up 12% last week alone as part of that 30% twelve-day run. ON Semiconductor went from negative to a double-digit positive. Quantum computing stocks — IMQ with a legitimate 60% move in one week. Lumentum has run from $300 to $900 in four months.
These moves aren’t noise. They’re the market telling you where the money is going.
And the proof of concept isn’t just in the portfolio. Taiwan Semiconductor reported a blowout quarter — +58% year over year profit, $18.1 billion, record results, 2026 guidance raised. Demand from Nvidia and Apple surging. Three different companies, three different angles, one shared signal: the AI supply chain kept printing record results through a week when Iran dominated the headlines.
AMD hit all-time highs last week, touching $272 intraday. That’s the longest winning streak since 2005, and it’s not a coincidence.
The catalyst that pushed AMD through its recent resistance was a letter of intent with the French government — AMD will advance France’s national AI strategy, provide advanced computing and training programs, collaborate with GENCI and CEA, and power the Alice Recoque exascale supercomputer. France’s first planned exascale system.
This is what I’ve been saying for months: new deals keep getting announced at the country level, the company level, the cloud level. Sovereign AI is no longer a thesis — it’s contracts. And every contract raises the revenue floor for these companies higher than Wall Street had previously modeled.
AMD doesn’t need to beat Nvidia. It just needs to be a credible number two. Right now, it’s doing exactly that. My price target on AMD is still in the 300s. We’re not there yet. But the pages left in this book are long.
Micron is doing something similar in memory. HBM sold out through 2026. Then 2027 sold out. Now they’re already taking orders for 2028 — on 3 to 5 year contracts. That’s not a sales cycle. That’s a revenue floor that Wall Street is only beginning to price in. Price targets have been raised to $700–$825.
Max Liner had a massive breakout on Friday — up 12.5% on the day, up nearly 27% for the week. Small cap, ~$2 billion market cap, under the radar. This was the biggest single mover in the AI2 index last week.
Three things hit at once on Friday. First: a piece of their technology directly affects Samsung’s ability to compete in AI, and Max Liner is the only supplier who can fulfill what Samsung needs. That alone raises their revenue floor. Second — and this is the buy-the-rumor angle — acquisition speculation surfaced with a floated price of $35–$50 a share. The stock closed just under $27. Third: a bullish thesis write-up had been circulating since April 16th, building the institutional case before any of this hit.
The market front-ran the number. Now earnings hit Thursday, April 23rd. The question isn’t whether they beat — it’s whether the guidance validates the 2026 data center revenue doubling thesis. If it does, I see this stock in the low to mid-30s within a month. It’s a little extended right now, so don’t be surprised if it pulls back early this week before earnings. But the setup — consistent earnings performance, rising price targets, a Samsung-specific moat, and acquisition buzz — is unusually strong for a $2 billion company.
Income Masters: $3,629 in Cash Last Week
Six closed trades last week. All six profitable. $3,629 in total cash produced.
CrowdStrike was the standout — $2,660 across multiple rolls over 60 days. That’s the income approach working exactly the way it’s supposed to: not home runs, but consistent cash generated week after week through structured options trades. Through the Iran volatility, through the uncertain market, through all of it.
The framework doesn’t care what oil is doing.
What I’m Watching This Week
The ceasefire end window lands Tuesday to Wednesday. That’s the primary variable. If both sides step back from the brink and don’t re-engage militarily, Wall Street will continue looking past this even if oil stays elevated. If we get escalation — particularly any US retributive action against Iranian tankers — that’s a different set of problems. We’re not there yet. I’m not going to spend time on scenarios that haven’t happened.
What I need to see is the status quo maintained in the Middle East, because that’s the only way we get a clean read on what earnings are actually telling us. We have Lam Research reporting Tuesday and Max Liner on Thursday. Then Microsoft and Google in the next two weeks — both massive AI capex spenders, both under pressure about how much they’re spending. I’ll be listening for two words from both of them: supply constrained. That phrase means demand is outpacing what they can build. That keeps everything running.
The AI2 index — all 356 stocks — flipped to +11% on the year last week. We’re running about 4–5% ahead of both the S&P and the NASDAQ. When Wall Street wants risk exposure, they go to artificial intelligence. That’s where the money is flowing. I don’t see that changing in the next quarter, maybe two, because we’re still in the early innings of AI infrastructure expansion.
We’re not done building. Not even close.
AI2 briefing today at 4pm. Next Breakfast Club: Monday, April 27th
