Thursday, July 9, 2026
Markets Shrug Off a Second Night of Iran Strikes as SK Hynix Prices $28B Nasdaq Debut
Key Indicators
S&P 500
7,535.60
+52.89 (+0.71%) (up)Nasdaq Composite
26,166.85
+296.20 (+1.14%) (up)Dow Jones Industrial Average
52,452.38
+103.99 (+0.20%) (up)10-Year Treasury Yield
4.58%
+0.01 pts (up)VIX
16.04
-0.86 (-5.09%) (down)WTI Crude Oil
$72.64
-0.88 (-1.2%) (down)Gold
$4,133.70
+51.30 (+1.26%) (up)Bitcoin (BTC/USD)
$62,666.19
+582.23 (+0.93%) (up)Market Recap
Stocks rally despite a second night of U.S.-Iran strikes
Wall Street pushed higher even as the U.S.-Iran conflict escalated further. The S&P 500 gained 0.71% to close at 7,535.60, the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.14% to 26,166.85, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.20% (103.99 points) to 52,452.38. The gains came despite a second consecutive night of U.S. strikes on Iran: U.S. Central Command hit roughly 90 additional targets — missile and drone storage sites and air defense systems — bringing the two-night total to about 170, in retaliation for Tuesday's Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded with a broader wave of retaliation, launching drones at a Patriot missile system in Kuwait, an early-warning radar site in Qatar, and fuel storage in Bahrain, then following up with 10 ballistic missiles aimed at Jordan's Al Azraq Air Base. Kuwait's defense ministry said one person was injured and that several incoming projectiles were intercepted. Rather than selling off, investors leaned into an AI-driven rally in chip stocks strong enough to outweigh the geopolitical headlines (see below), and the VIX — Wall Street's volatility gauge — actually fell 5.09% to 16.04.
Oil falls even as the conflict widens
In a counterintuitive move, oil prices declined even as the Iran conflict spread to four additional countries. WTI crude fell 1.2% (88 cents) to $72.64 a barrel, and Brent crude dropped 1.32% ($1.03) to $76.99, giving back part of Wednesday's sharp spike. Traders cited two offsetting forces: the Strait of Hormuz — which carries roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil — remains open and has not seen a direct attack on tanker traffic since Tuesday, while renewed worries about slowing global growth and softer oil demand are creeping back into the price. A Saxo Bank analyst described the market as "very nervous," noting that any news that dims prospects for a ceasefire adds a bit to prices, but that today's military news wasn't enough on its own to extend Wednesday's rally. Both benchmarks are still trading near their highest levels since June 22.
SK Hynix prices a $28 billion Nasdaq debut as the AI memory trade roars back
The day's biggest single story was South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix pricing a $28 billion U.S. share sale — the largest foreign listing in U.S. history — ahead of its Nasdaq trading debut under the ticker SKHY. The offering, structured as American Depositary Shares (each representing one-tenth of a common share), drew demand for roughly seven times the shares on offer, according to Reuters and Bloomberg, underscoring how strong the appetite for AI-linked memory-chip exposure remains among U.S. investors. SK Hynix's stock has already risen more than sevenfold on Korea's KOSPI over the past year, pushing its market cap to roughly $1 trillion; the company controls 56.4% of the global high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, the specialized chips that feed AI accelerators. The news lit a fire under the broader memory sector: Micron Technology jumped 7.44% and SanDisk rose more than 9%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index advanced roughly 4.5%. Micron separately announced plans to invest up to $3 billion to expand U.S. semiconductor supply-chain capacity, including support for GlobalWafers' silicon-wafer plant in Texas.
PepsiCo and Costco slide on cracks in consumer spending
Two consumer bellwethers moved sharply lower on results that hinted at a squeezed U.S. shopper. PepsiCo fell roughly 3.75% after second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $2.20 came in a penny below the $2.21 analyst consensus, even as revenue beat expectations, rising 6.4% year-over-year to $24.18 billion versus $23.95 billion expected. The soft spot was volume: North American food volume was flat and North American beverage volume dropped 4%, and management pointed to consumers tightening budgets amid rising gas prices and broader economic worry. Costco fell 4.42% after its June sales update showed comparable sales decelerating to 8.8% growth from May's 12.5% pace, a sharper-than-expected slowdown that raised questions about the durability of membership-driven spending even at a historically resilient retailer.
Jobless claims hold near cycle lows as yields tick higher
Away from the geopolitical and AI-driven headlines, the week's labor-market data continued to show a resilient, low-turnover job market. Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 4 came in at 215,000, down 2,000 from the prior week's revised 217,000 and below the roughly 218,000 economists expected. The four-week moving average fell to 218,750. Continuing claims ticked up modestly to 1,814,000, still below forecasts. The data reinforces a pattern that's held for months: companies aren't hiring aggressively, but they also aren't laying people off in large numbers. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield edged up to about 4.58%, and gold rose 1.26% to $4,133.70 an ounce even with equities rallying — a sign that some investors are still hedging against the Iran conflict even as the broader market shrugs it off.
Concept of the Day
American Depositary Shares (ADSs) and Dual Listings
When a foreign company like SK Hynix wants to raise capital from U.S. investors and trade on a U.S. exchange, it typically doesn't list its actual home-country shares directly. Instead, it uses American Depositary Shares (ADSs) — U.S.-traded securities issued by a depositary bank that represent a specific number (or fraction) of the company's shares held in custody back home. SK Hynix's Nasdaq listing today is a clean example: each ADS represents one-tenth of one common share held on the KOSPI in South Korea, so the ADS price should track roughly one-tenth of the KOSPI-listed share price, adjusted for the exchange rate between the Korean won and the U.S. dollar. The mechanics matter because ADSs solve a real problem: most U.S. investors can't easily buy shares on a foreign exchange, deal with foreign currency settlement, or navigate a different country's clearing and custody rules. A depositary bank handles all of that in the background, holding the underlying local shares and issuing ADSs against them that trade, settle, and pay dividends in U.S. dollars just like a normal U.S. stock. This is a dual listing, not a spinoff or a separate company — SK Hynix continues trading on the KOSPI at the same time its ADSs trade on the Nasdaq, and arbitrageurs keep the two prices roughly in line by buying the cheaper one and selling the more expensive one, adjusted for the ADS ratio and currency. For a company, listing ADSs is a way to tap a deeper, more liquid pool of capital — the $28 billion SK Hynix raised today is a scale that would be far harder to source purely from Korean investors, and being reachable by U.S. institutional funds meaningfully broadens the shareholder base. For investors, ADSs offer exposure to a foreign growth story without the operational friction of a foreign brokerage account — but they still carry currency risk, and depending on the ADS program's structure, sometimes a small annual custody fee charged by the depositary bank.
Why it matters
This matters right now because SK Hynix's $28 billion listing — the largest foreign offering in U.S. history — is a real-time test of how much U.S. capital wants exposure to the AI memory-chip trade, and the roughly 7x oversubscription is a direct read on that appetite. It also matters for anyone building a portfolio with international exposure: a huge share of the world's fastest-growing companies, from Asian chipmakers to European luxury names, are only reachable by most U.S. investors through ADSs, so understanding how the wrapper works — and where its risks differ from owning a plain U.S. stock — is essential before adding one to a portfolio.
What to Watch
Tue, Jul 14
Consumer Price Index (June)
June CPI is the next hard inflation read and will show whether this week's oil price swings and the broader Iran conflict are starting to show up in consumer prices.
Wed, Jul 15
Producer Price Index (June)
PPI offers an early look at wholesale price pressure, including whether this week's oil-price swings are already feeding into producer costs.
Thu, Jul 16
Retail Sales (June)
Retail sales will show whether consumer spending is actually softening the way PepsiCo and Costco's results hinted at today, or whether those were company-specific issues.
Tue, Jul 28
FOMC Meeting (July 28-29, no Summary of Economic Projections)
This is the Fed's next chance to act on the hawkish tone from this week's minutes, with the Iran conflict's inflation risk and the upcoming CPI/PPI/retail sales data all likely to factor into the decision.