Charley Grant

When small companies become stock-market darlings, interesting things happen to the Russell 2000. The small-cap index returned 5.2% in the first quarter. But nearly 40% of that gain came from just two stocks: Super Micro Computer and MicroStrategy, which had a combined market value of $87 billion as of Wednesday afternoon and which have both outperformed other hot stocks like Nvidia.

Moderna shares are having their best day in nearly two months. The vaccine developer rose about 8% in morning trading Tuesday.

Our long national nightmare is over: Investment bankers are once again raking in cash after a post-pandemic lull. JPMorgan booked just over $2 billion in first-quarter investment banking fees, up 21% from a year earlier.

Stock and bond markets were calm in the first quarter, resulting in slow business for Wall Street trading desks. JPMorgan Chase booked just under $8 billion in trading revenue, down 5% from a year earlier.

Stocks are still trading near record levels, but some investors say further gains may be more difficult to come by.

Goldman’s first-quarter earnings blew past Wall Street expectations, and strong investment-banking results were a big reason why. The New York bank earned $2.08 billion in investment-banking fees, up 32% from a year earlier.

Strong performance in bread-and-butter businesses like investment banking helped Goldman Sachs's earnings beat forecasts. Goldman said Monday it booked a pretax loss of $117 million in its platform solutions unit, which includes things like the bank’s credit card business. A year earlier, platform solutions lost more than $300 million on a pretax basis.

Goldman Sach’s trading desk has outpaced its rivals so far this earnings season. First-quarter revenue from trading stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities rose 10% from a year earlier to $7.6 billion. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are slated to report their results on Tuesday morning.

The stock market has turned sour in April. Chip stocks, one of the most-popular corners of the stock market, are leading the swoon. + The PHLX Semiconductor Index was down 2.5% on Wednesday afternoon.

Is the shine starting to come off Super Micro Computer stock? Shares of the server maker, better known as Supermicro, fell 14% Friday morning, putting the stock on track for its fifth decline in six sessions.