US Stocks to Consider for Short-Term Investment: Top Picks from Industry Heavyweights

Record-Breaking Q1 Earnings and AI Trade Drive US Stocks to New Highs

The US stock market has reached new heights, largely due to the strong Q1 earnings and the growing AI trade. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite ended at new highs last Friday, with investors eagerly anticipating the next move. However, the market may remain volatile on Monday as crude oil prices have rebounded after President Donald Trump's comments on Iran's response to a US proposal to end the Middle East conflict.

According to Subho Moulik, Founder and CEO of Appreciate, Q1 2026 earnings have delivered one of the strongest corporate performances in five years. With over 89% of the S&P 500 having reported, 84% of companies beat estimates at an average beat magnitude of 18.22%, nearly three times the historical norm. Blended earnings growth stands at 27.7%, the best since Q4 2021.

Moulik highlighted that semiconductor and hardware companies are up 30-82%, while software and consulting names are down 15-35%. "The companies spending $700 billion on AI infrastructure are losing ground in the market. The companies supplying the physical backbone of that buildout are leading it," Moulik observed.

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Moulik identified five stocks that investors may consider buying for the next 1-2 weeks, which come from the infrastructure layer and the "magnificent-7" names that have underperformed the broader index in 2026.

Stock Picks for the Short Term

Alphabet Alphabet is the exception among the "magnificent-7" that has collectively underperformed the broader index in 2026. It is up 23% year-to-date. Alphabet's Q1 2026 results, released after the bell on April 29, beat estimates on both earnings and revenue and produced a 10% single-session gain. Google Cloud grew 63% to $20 billion in Q1, its fastest growth rate on record. Search revenue grew 19%.

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Amazon Amazon's Q1 EPS of $2.78 came in against a consensus of $1.64. Advertising revenue jumped 24%. Q2 revenue guidance of $194-199 billion came in well above the $188.9 billion Wall Street had pencilled in. Amazon has committed $200 billion in capital expenditure for 2026, which creates near-term free cash flow pressure, but AWS acceleration signals that the infrastructure being built is already finding demand at scale.

Broadcom Broadcom's custom silicon now runs inside five of the world's largest AI platforms alongside Nvidia GPUs. At hyperscaler volumes, the economics of purpose-built chips are not a preference. They are a cost imperative. Broadcom's AI revenue hit $8.4 billion last quarter, up 106% year-on-year. The company holds a signed backlog of $73 billion covering roughly 18 months of forward deliveries. AI now accounts for 44% of Broadcom's total revenue.

GE Vernova GE Vernova makes the equipment that feeds the grid that powers the data centres. In Q1 2026, it booked $18.3 billion in orders, up 71% year-on-year, and carries a backlog of $163 billion. US data centre electricity consumption is projected to reach 426 terawatt-hours by 2030, up 133% from today. GEV's order book grew faster last quarter than its revenue did. That gap is the backlog building.

Vertiv Holdings Vertiv's Q4 2025 organic orders grew 252% year-on-year, the strongest order quarter in the company's history. The company builds the cooling and power distribution systems that keep GPU clusters running at scale. Its backlog stands at $15 billion, up 109% year-on-year. On its Q1 2026 earnings print, it raised full-year EPS guidance to $6.35, up 51% from 2025. Every dollar of AI infrastructure capital that flows into a data centre creates a thermal management obligation.