#股票交易分享挑战 U.S. stocks recap: All three major indexes fell, while memory stocks rose!
All three major U.S. stock indexes fell
I. Closing performance of the three major indexes
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: closed at 53460 points, down 0.51%, hitting a new low for nearly two weeks
- S&P 500 Index: closed at 7747 points, down 0.52%
- Nasdaq Composite Index: closed at 26647 points, down 0.32%; semiconductor and memory sectors offset the decline, resulting in a significantly smaller drop than the Dow and S&P
II. Key drivers behind the market decline
1. Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East pushed up inflation and U.S. Treasury yields
The window for U.S.-Iran talks expired, with dim prospects for negotiations on a long-term agreement, while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz plunged sharply; the market worried that shrinking crude oil supply would push up inflation, prompting funds to sell U.S. Treasuries for safety. The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to its highest level since 2007, while the 10-year yield climbed 5 basis points to 4.68%; high interest rates pressured growth-stock valuations, weighing on the broader market. International oil prices surged, with WTI hitting a new high for the month and Brent holding above $90, further reinforcing inflation concerns.
2. Earlier rate-cut expectations temporarily cooled
The market had previously bet that the Federal Reserve would begin cutting rates in September, but after U.S. Treasury yields rose, investors reassessed the risk of an inflation rebound caused by high oil prices. Rate-cut trades saw profit-taking, triggering a broad pullback in the market at high levels.3. Profit-taking in indexes at elevated levels
The three major indexes had previously advanced steadily and approached record highs, accumulating substantial unrealized gains, while geopolitical risks prompted investors to lock in profits.
III. Sharp sector divergence: Chip and semiconductor stocks rose against the trend, while major technology leaders broadly fell
1) Biggest decliners: The seven technology giants (AI core heavyweights collectively weakened)
Meta led large-cap technology stocks, plunging 3.5%; Microsoft fell more than 3%; Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla, and Nvidia all closed slightly lower.
Differences among investors emerged: the market worried whether AI companies’ continued massive capital expenditures could sustainably translate into revenue returns, prompting funds to flow out of high-valuation internet and software leaders.
2) Surging against the trend: Memory chips, optical communications, and AI hardware all exploded higher
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged 1.6%, returning to bull-market territory and becoming the only strong theme across the market. The core logic: OpenAI’s long-term computing-power procurement commitments have continued to restore expectations for AI hardware demand.
- Memory chips: SanDisk +9%, Western Digital +5%, Micron Technology +4%, Kioxia ADR surged more than 14%
- Optical communications: Coherent nearly 8%, Lumentum +4.6%, Corning +4%
- AI chipmakers: Cerebras surged 15%, announcing that it would provide hardware for OpenAI’s next-generation GPT computing power; Broadcom rose more than 5.8%; Palantir rose 8.47%
3) Other sectors
The communications services sector ranked last overall; industrials were relatively resilient; value-oriented financial and consumer stocks weakened in tandem.
IV. Moves in popular individual stocks
Gainers
1. SPCX (SpaceX): rebounded 4.5% as institutions raised their price targets
2. MSTR (MicroStrategy): +7.19%, with Bitcoin breaking above $64k and lifting crypto-related stocks
3. Soluna (SLNH): +12.34%, with crypto-mining computing power benefiting from rising coin prices
Decliners
1. CVNA (Carvana): the biggest decliner among S&P 500 components, plunging 7.3%
2. BRK.B (Berkshire Hathaway): down 1.23%, as rate-cut expectations reduced the appeal of high-cash-value stocks
V. Chinese concept stocks
Significant divergence:
- Gainers: NIO and Li Auto rose more than 1%
- Decliners: MINISO plunged 8%, while JD.com weakened slightly by more than 1%
VI. Movements across other major asset classes
1. Gold: rose 0.8% to a new two-month high as geopolitical safe-haven buying entered the market
2. U.S. Dollar Index: fell for three consecutive sessions, touching a two-month low intraday; offshore yuan broke above 6.74 intraday, reaching a new three-year high
3. Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin rose above $64k intraday, with a 3% daily trading range
VII. Market focuses for the coming period
1. U.S. August PPI inflation data (released on August 18), which will directly affect judgments on the Federal Reserve’s rate-cut pace;
2. A dense schedule of retail-company earnings reports this week, testing the resilience of U.S. consumer spending;
3. Developments in the Middle East and the sustainability of crude oil supply; persistently rising oil prices could limit the Federal Reserve’s room for easing. $NVDA ‌

#我的七夕交易分享 Recently, the performance of pure-play U.S. stocks such as SanDisk and Micron has clearly been stronger than that of SK hynix.
Although SK hynix is not a truly American company, its valuation has been constrained. While much of the leverage has now been washed out and volatility has also declined, its earnings are genuine, and so is market demand.
SanDisk’s rally this time is not isolated. Throughout July, the market had already carried out a brutal deleveraging and shakeout of the memory and even the broader semiconductor sector. This time, SanDisk has reshaped the market’s view of memory stocks. The company said long-term contracts can cover most of its future capacity, set a high long-term gross margin target, and its CFO also mentioned that excess cash would be returned to shareholders. What the market actually heard was not just a single piece of positive news, but that demand, prices, profits, and shareholder returns had all emerged together.
At this point, SK hynix’s position becomes relatively clear. It is one of the core suppliers of HBM, and in AI servers, the tightest components, apart from GPUs, are high-bandwidth memory. As NVIDIA, cloud providers, and AI training and inference clusters continue to expand, HBM order visibility will be stronger than that of ordinary memory. After SanDisk rose, capital naturally looked for companies in the same segment whose potential had not yet been fully reflected, and SK hynix is one such catch-up candidate.
U.S. stocks favor buybacks because, fundamentally, investors like companies to clearly account for how they use their money. Once a company earns money, it first invests in the businesses that need investment; if there is no higher-return destination for the rest, it uses the money to return it to shareholders.
Buybacks are more concrete than verbal optimism because they reduce the number of shares outstanding and boost earnings per share. They also amount to management acknowledging that the company’s cash flow is already strong enough. This is the key reason SanDisk rose so sharply this time.
Two figures in the Caixin news report are particularly solid. One is that the company expects to receive total contract value of $93.9 billion from eight customers over the contract period. The other is that the company expects a non-GAAP gross margin of approximately 80% from fiscal 2028 through fiscal 2030. This shows that the market was not buying merely the phrase “I want to conduct buybacks,” but rather longer-cycle revenue visibility and profit margins.
The announcement that evening also gave investors ample time to get in. In hindsight, it was an event-driven trading opportunity with an exceptionally attractive risk-reward profile.
The biggest problem in the memory industry in the past was that its cycles were too strong: once prices fell, profits quickly collapsed. SanDisk has now locked in part of its capacity and customer base through long-term agreements, so investors will revalue the company. When the CFO added that all excess cash was expected to be returned to shareholders, the meaning became even clearer.
The business needs to grow, profit margins need to be maintained, and cash also needs to return to shareholders. That is why U.S. stocks favor buybacks, especially buybacks supported by earnings, contracts, and cash flow. They are not merely intended to prop up the share price, but to tell the market that the company’s money will ultimately translate into value per share.$SNDK ‌