April proved to be an exceptionally strong month for the stock market.
The month opened against the backdrop of an active shooting war, a nearly closed Strait of Hormuz, record oil prices, and a consumer confidence reading at an all-time low. Despite these concerns, stocks powered forward setting new all-time highs.
April was defined by three themes: diplomacy; an earnings season that delivered; and artificial intelligence producing revenue results for big technology companies.
The first theme was diplomacy — messy, uncertain, but seeming to trend in the right direction, from a financial markets standpoint.
April’s arc ran from President Trump threatening to knock out “every power plant and every bridge” in Iran, to a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, to Iran briefly opening the Strait and then closing it again, to a revised Iranian proposal arriving through mediators on the final day of the month.
None of it was clean, and no permanent deal was reached. But markets are forward-looking, and as each week passed, the probability of catastrophic escalation fell while the probability of an eventual resolution rose. That directional shift — even without a final outcome — was enough to send stocks marching to new all-time highs.
The second theme was an earnings season that delivered, broadly and convincingly.
By month’s end, roughly 87% of S&P 500 companies that reported had beaten Wall Street analysts’ earnings estimates, with first-quarter profit growth tracking above 13% year-over-year.
A few of the standouts:
- Intel posted the largest earnings surprise — as a percentage — ever recorded for a major index component, sending the stock up 23% in a single session
- Caterpillar stock jumped 10% on a blowout quarter and raised full-year guidance
- Apple closed the season with record iPhone and Services revenue, announcing a $100 billion stock buyback, and Q3 guidance more than double what analysts had expected
The message from corporate America was consistent and clear: revenue and profits are generally on an upward trend and business is resilient.
The third theme was artificial intelligence — not as a concept, but as a revenue reality.
Several of the largest technology companies in the world showed impressive financial results related to AI infrastructure: Google Cloud grew 63% year-over-year, Microsoft’s Azure accelerated to 40% growth, and Amazon Web Services posted its fastest growth rate in 15 quarters. These were not promises about future potential — they were current-quarter revenue numbers from businesses already running at tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue.
Here are results for April and 2026 Year-to-Date, compared to longer-term annualized returns (10-Year Trailing):
Note: YTD 2026 as of 4/30/2026; Source: Morningstar