Trump Handed Intel Stock A 10% Pop, But Markets Are Hedging

What Happened

Intel stock jumped about 10% after President Trump said Apple will make chips with the company. The surge pushed Intel (INTC) past a ceiling it had failed to clear twice.

Why Intel Stock Gapped Up on the Apple News

Intel Corporation (INTC) gapped higher on Thursday. President Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple (AAPL) agreed to design and build chips in the US.

Market Context

The breakout looks promising on the chart. But money flow, crypto traders, and the options market each tell a more cautious story underneath.

The move caps a strong run. Intel stock has roughly tripled in 2026, helped by ties with Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA). Demand from Agentic AI, software that acts on its own, has also lifted sales of Intel’s chips.

Risks still linger. Intel’s foundry arm stays unprofitable, and the PC market faces headwinds.

INTC Breaks a Ceiling That Capped It Twice

The rally cleared $132.70, a level that had blocked Intel twice. That kind of pattern is a double top, where price stalls at the same high two times.

INTC stock broke above it with force. Thursday’s 233.91 million shares topped the volume behind the late-May push to the same area.

However, CMF sits at neutral, not clearly positive. So the buying interest is not yet confirmed. That’s one market remaining cautious.

Price and volume lean bullish, yet positioning tells another story, starting with crypto traders.

Crypto desks are not buying the breakout yet. On Hyperliquid, an exchange that offers perpetual futures on stocks, smart money stays net short Intel. Perpetual futures are contracts that track a price with no expiry date.

The options market shows the same hesitation, with a twist.

The Options Market Sends a Mixed Message

By daily volume, the ratio fell from 0.68 on June 17 to 0.51 on June 18. Traders bought calls hard as the stock gapped up. By open interest, the ratio rose from 1.02 to 1.04 over the same days. Standing positions tilted a little more toward puts.

Why It Matters

Money flow is turning, too. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF), a gauge of institutional buying and selling pressure, climbed back to zero from negative territory. The recovery suggests selling has eased and larger buyers may be stepping back in.

It is also rising, which suggests some traders are trimming shorts after the Apple news. Even so, the group has not flipped to net long.

Details

However, neither company has formally confirmed the deal at press time. The caveat matters because Washington owns a piece of Intel. The US government bought about 10% of the company in August 2025.

The INTC chart tells the first part of that story.

Crypto Traders Are Still Betting Against Intel

Nansen data shows $7.41 million in shorts against $2.90 million in longs. That leaves a net short of $4.51 million across 21 wallets.

Still, the bet against Intel is smaller than the crowd’s shorts on Nvidia and Micron. Intel’s long-to-short ratio sits at 0.39. That balance of bullish to bearish bets ranks among the least bearish in the group.

Intel’s put-call ratio tells a split story. It compares puts, which profit when a stock falls, to calls, which profit when it rises. A reading below one leans bullish, above one leans bearish.

The split makes sense. Short-term traders chased the move with calls, betting on fast follow-through. Meanwhile, longer-term holders added puts as protection against a failed breakout.