Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis raised his price target for AMD (AMD) to $50 from $32 ahead of the company's Q4 results while keeping an Equal Weight rating on the shares. The U.S. Semiconductor group is at all-time highs, pushed higher by a combination of improving fundamentals and a trade deal, Curtis tells investors in a research note. He believes memory is the "most positive sounding" sector, aided by both improving demand and pricing trends. With "all this goodness," the analyst finds it too early to call the top on most names but does acknowledge the "air is getting a little thin for some." Curtis favor names with better revenue drivers and relative valuations including NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) and Micron Technology (MU). The analyst keeps an Underweight rating on Intel (INTC) "until there is some sort of capitulation on 10nm and competitive challenges." He also downgraded this morning Maxim Integrated (MXIM) to Underweight from Equal Weight.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Intel Foundry Phase Three of its Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes - Commercial, or RAMP-C, program, the company announced. "The award was announced through the National Security Technology Accelerator's consortium-based Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems Other Transaction Authority program. The third phase of RAMP-C advances the tape-out and testing of early defense industrial base product prototypes, signifying a critical milestone for the program that highlights the readiness of Intel 18A process technology, intellectual property and ecosystem solutions for high-volume manufacturing. As part of the announcement, RAMP-C customers can begin manufacturing commercial and DIB product prototypes on Intel 18A process technology," Intel stated. Reference Link

Friday's total option volume of 56.7 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 6.01 million calls and 5.28 million puts. NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 50k Lyft (LYFT) May-24 20 calls, 44k Energy Transfer (ET) 4/26 weekly 16.5 calls, 43k Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Sep-24 41 calls, 23k Tesla (TSLA) 4/26 weekly 162.5 calls and 21k Papa John's (PZZA) Jun-24 57.5 puts.