Friday, July 10, 2026
SK Hynix Soars in Record Nasdaq Debut as Micron's $250 Billion AI Bet Fuels a Third Straight Rally
Key Indicators
S&P 500
7,543.64
+60.93 (+0.81%) (up)Nasdaq Composite
26,206.89
+336.24 (+1.30%) (up)Dow Jones Industrial Average
52,487.41
+139.02 (+0.27%) (up)10-Year Treasury Yield
4.54%
-0.04 pts (down)VIX
16.90
+0.86 (+4.8%) (up)WTI Crude Oil
$72.08
-1.44 (-1.96%) (down)Gold
$4,112.00
+40.00 (+0.98%) (up)Bitcoin (BTC/USD)
$62,666.19
+582.23 (+0.93%) (up)Market Recap
Wall Street rallies a third day as the Iran ceasefire craters further
Wall Street closed higher for a third straight session Thursday, with the S&P 500 rising 0.81% (60.93 points) to 7,543.64, the Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.30% (336.24 points) to 26,206.89, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0.27% (139.02 points) to 52,487.41. The gains came even as the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire collapsed further: President Trump declared the truce "over" after Iran struck U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar in retaliation for a second night of U.S. strikes on roughly 90 Iranian targets, including sites near a nuclear power plant and a port in Bushehr province. Unlike Wednesday, when the VIX fell even as stocks rallied, Thursday's advance came with a bit more caution underneath it: the VIX ticked up to 16.90 (+4.8%), and WTI crude oil fell 1.96% to $72.08 a barrel, unwinding part of its prior spike, even as Pakistan and Qatar pursued diplomacy to bring the U.S. and Iran back to the table.
Micron's $250 billion AI bet and Meta's custom-chip plan ignite another rally
The day's dominant theme was a fresh wave of AI-infrastructure spending commitments. Micron Technology rose 4.42% to $991.64 after raising its planned U.S. investment to more than $250 billion through 2035 — a roughly $50 billion increase — tied to surging demand for the memory chips that power AI data centers. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra unveiled the expansion at a groundbreaking event in Clay, New York, where Micron poured first concrete on what's expected to become the largest semiconductor manufacturing site in U.S. history, with up to four fabs and a goal of producing 40% of its DRAM domestically. Meta Platforms jumped 4.76% to around $631 after Reuters reported the company will begin mass-producing its own custom AI chip, code-named "Iris," in September — part of a plan to double its total data-center computing capacity to 14 gigawatts by 2027. Meta co-designed the chip with Broadcom and is using TSMC to fabricate it, with a new version planned roughly every six months through 2027, far faster than the industry's typical cadence.
Costco falls despite strong sales as a premium stock meets a high bar
Costco Wholesale fell 4.47% to roughly $910 even after reporting strong headline sales growth, illustrating how much good news is already priced into the stock. Net sales climbed 10.6% year-over-year to $29.24 billion for the five weeks ended July 5, and comparable sales — revenue from stores open at least a year — rose 8.8%. But that 8.8% figure was a deceleration from May's 12.5% pace, and because Costco trades at a premium valuation that assumes continued blockbuster growth, merely meeting expectations was enough to trigger profit-taking. Analysts noted the stock's premium price-to-earnings and cash-flow multiples leave little room for anything less than an upside surprise.
Jobless claims stay low, but existing home sales unexpectedly slump
Away from the AI and geopolitical headlines, Thursday's economic data pointed to a resilient labor market but a softening housing sector. Initial jobless claims for the week ended July 4 fell by 2,000 to 215,000, below the roughly 218,000-223,000 economists expected and the lowest count in six weeks. Continuing claims rose by 8,000 to 1,814,000, the highest since late March but still below forecasts. Existing home sales told a different story: sales unexpectedly dropped 2.4% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million units, well below the 4.20 million economists forecast, as tight inventory pushed the median home price to a record $440,600 and elevated mortgage rates — reinforced by the Middle East conflict — kept buyers on the sidelines.
SK Hynix's record $26.5 billion Nasdaq debut is live this morning
The morning's biggest story is unfolding live: SK Hynix began trading on the Nasdaq today under the temporary ticker SKHYV (switching to SKHY next Tuesday) after pricing its American Depositary Share offering at $149 each, raising $26.5 billion — the largest U.S. share sale ever by a foreign company. The stock opened well above its offering price and traded up as much as 17% intraday, near $174.50 as of late morning. The debut extends Thursday's memory-chip enthusiasm: SK Hynix, whose customers include Nvidia and Apple, controls more than half of the global market for the high-bandwidth memory chips that feed AI accelerators, and the offering was reported to be roughly seven times oversubscribed. Because this briefing is published before today's close, treat these as intraday figures rather than a final settlement.
Concept of the Day
Priced for Perfection: Why Great Results Can Still Sink a Stock
When a stock trades at a high valuation — a high price relative to its earnings or cash flow — investors aren't just paying for the company's current performance, they're paying for years of expected future growth. That's the situation Costco was in heading into today's June sales report: the stock already carried a premium price-to-earnings multiple built on the assumption that its double-digit sales growth would continue indefinitely. When the actual number came in exactly in line with expectations — 8.8% comparable-sales growth, a deceleration from May's 12.5% — that wasn't good enough to justify the stock's price, because nothing about the print suggested growth was accelerating from here. This is the core idea behind the phrase "priced for perfection": a stock's valuation embeds a set of assumptions, and once the price reflects rosy assumptions, merely meeting them isn't rewarded — only beating them is. Falling short, or even just matching a high bar, can trigger a sell-off, because the marginal buyer who was willing to pay a premium multiple did so expecting confirmation that growth was still accelerating, not just continuing at the same pace. That's a very different dynamic from a cheaply-valued stock, where in-line or modestly disappointing results often don't move the price much, because expectations were already low. The lesson for investors: valuation multiples aren't just a snapshot of the present, they're a forecast of the future baked into today's price. Before buying a stock trading at a rich multiple, it's worth asking specifically what growth rate or margin expansion the price already assumes — and whether the next few quarters of results are likely to clear that bar, not just meet it.
Why it matters
This matters right now because Costco's sell-off today is a live example: an 8.8% comp increase would be a phenomenal result for almost any retailer, yet it knocked over 4% off Costco's stock in a single session because the bar was set so high. The same dynamic applies across today's other big stories — Micron and Meta both jumped on capital-spending announcements that raised the growth bar even further, meaning their own future results will now be judged against even loftier expectations. Recognizing when a stock is priced for perfection helps investors avoid buying into a story right before ordinary good news becomes a selling catalyst.
What to Watch
Tue, Jul 14
Consumer Price Index (June)
June CPI is the next hard inflation read and will show whether the recent oil-price volatility from the Iran conflict is starting to show up in consumer prices.
Wed, Jul 15
Producer Price Index (June)
PPI offers an early read on wholesale price pressure, including whether oil-price swings are feeding into producer costs ahead of CPI.
Thu, Jul 16
Retail Sales (June)
Retail sales will show whether consumer spending is broadly softening the way Costco's deceleration hinted at today, or whether that was company-specific.
Tue, Jul 28
FOMC Meeting (July 28-29, no Summary of Economic Projections)
This is the Fed's next chance to weigh in on rates, with the Iran conflict's inflation risk and the upcoming CPI/PPI/retail sales data all likely to factor into the decision.