Wall Street Morning News: Storage chips powerfully rebound, DRAM ETFs, SanDisk, and Micron surge by 10%, while SpaceX ends a seven-day losing streak

Every Monday to Friday morning, focusing on macro, U.S. stocks, AI, precious metals, and crude oil—using data to review the market and using trends to seize opportunities, produced by PANews.

A three-day slump in U.S. stocks is over, but the market isn’t fully reassured yet

On Tuesday, all three major U.S. stock indexes rose together, ending three consecutive days of declines. The Dow Jones rose 0.74%, the S&P 500 rose 0.89%, and the Nasdaq rose 1.29%. This rebound was mainly driven by technology stocks, especially chip stocks and AI hardware. Simply put, the stocks that had fallen the most in the past few days rallied the most last night. But that doesn’t mean market risk has been fully eliminated.

BTIG strategist Jonathan Krinsky noted that although the indexes rose, internal market health isn’t great: the number of advancing stocks isn’t clearly higher than the number of declining ones, and trading volume is also relatively low.

Goldman Sachs data shows that previously, high-volatility tech stocks fell by as much as about 33% in a short period, making them extremely oversold. Last night, many short sellers were forced to cover positions—meaning those who had bet on declines had to buy back to close out—further amplifying the rally.

Goldman Sachs and UBS believe this momentum-stock selloff may be nearing the end, and investors could gradually start buying back AI and semiconductors; but BTIG is more cautious, saying the rebound is nearing a pressure level and it’s not advisable to chase too aggressively in the short term.

Tensions in the Middle East push oil prices up, and inflation worries are back

As tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to escalate, the U.S. military has carried out strikes against targets inside Iran for the 11th consecutive night. Trump again threatened that the U.S. could strike Iran’s underground nuclear facilities soon; Iran warned that if the U.S. continues attacks, the interests of the U.S. and its allies in the region could face retaliation.

The market worries that the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea shipping routes could be affected. Brent crude has reclaimed $91 per barrel, hitting a new high since mid-June; WTI crude is also rising to above $85 per barrel.

Gold is rising in tandem with crude oil, reaching 4,130 dollars, while spot silver surged by about 5% at one point, nearing 60 dollars.

Goldman Sachs warned that if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked through the fourth quarter, Brent could surge to $120. The International Energy Agency (IEA) also reminded that amid escalating conflict and falling commercial inventories, oil supply security shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The violent jump in oil prices has fully awakened market fears of inflation, triggering a brutal selloff in the bond market. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield surged straight to a two-month high of 4.63%; the 2-year and 30-year yields rose to 4.25% and 5.13%, respectively. The U.S. Dollar Index strengthened to 101.3, and the dollar against the Japanese yen even historically broke below the 163 level, the lowest since 1986—Japan’s intervention alert is effectively fully triggered.

RBC Capital Markets interest rate strategist Izaac Brook said the continued rise in energy prices is the main reason rates moved higher that day, and after 2-year yields broke above 4.20% and 10-year yields broke above 4.60% technical levels, the move was further amplified by summer low-liquidity conditions.

Tariff policy becomes another source of disruption

The U.S. Trade Representative hinted the U.S. government may roll out new tariff policies soon, replacing the soon-to-expire 10% global import tariff. The new policy could impose an additional 10% to 12.5% tariff on 60 countries and regions on the grounds of so-called “forced labor.”

Trump also said that imported generic drugs will continue to enjoy two years of zero tariff starting from August 1, 2026, but afterward tariffs will first rise to 100%, then to 200%. This is mainly intended to push drug manufacturing back into the U.S.

These policies will increase corporate costs and could also push up prices of some goods. For the market, tariffs mean two issues: first, inflation may be harder to bring down; second, corporate profit margins could be squeezed.

AI hardware enters a “counterattack for the last stand”: squeeze storage chips, pulling semiconductors back from the edge of a bear market

Last night’s strongest U.S. stock sector was semiconductors, especially storage chips. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 5.21%, the biggest single-day gain since June 22; the VanEck Semiconductor ETF rose 4.52%, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF rose 5.45%. The storage chip and hardware supply chain index rose more than 11%; the Roundhill Storage ETF rose 10.91%, and many individual stocks gained more than 10%.

Why did storage chips suddenly surge? There are three core reasons.

• First, they fell too much in the past few days, triggering a technical rebound. Many short positions were forced to cover, pushing stock prices higher quickly.

• Second, Wall Street is starting to look more favorably at storage demand driven by AI again. Morgan Stanley believes the shortage of data center storage chips is worsening and could continue through 2028. Storage chip prices may rise by at least 25% from Q2 to Q3.

• Third, China’s open-source AI model Kimi K3 sparks new demand expectations. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya said the more open-source models there are, the more likely enterprises and developers will deploy models themselves, increasing demand for storage chips such as HBM, DRAM, and NAND.

Put simply, the market previously worried that low-cost AI would reduce chip demand—but now Wall Street is looking from a different angle: open-source AI may allow more people to use AI, which in turn would require more storage and computing power.

That said, the market isn’t fully optimistic either. LPL Financial chief technical strategist Adam Turnquist said this decline looks more like a healthy adjustment after an overly fast prior rally, not a deterioration in AI fundamentals. But going forward, investors will focus on whether tech companies can really earn back all the money they’re spending to build data centers.

Specific project moves and stock price swings:

• Micron Technology rose 12.17%: Micron was the core representative of last night’s storage chip rebound, with its market cap returning to the $1 trillion threshold. A Bank of America research report became a direct catalyst. The bank believes open-source models like Kimi K3 will drive local deployment demand, bringing more HBM, DRAM, and NAND demand; Morgan Stanley also expects data center storage shortages to persist. Related storage stocks surged together: SanDisk rose 14.27%, SK hynix rose 13.75%, Western Digital rose 12.51%, and Seagate Technology rose 11.14%.

• Nvidia rose 1.97%: Ahead of AMD’s AI event, the company disclosed progress on the Vera Rubin platform, saying Vera Rubin NVL72 is climbing into global mass production. CoreWeave, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud have already begun deploying. CoreWeave’s test data showed that the new system’s tokens throughput per megawatt jumped 10x versus the previous generation. Nvidia also announced that Vera CPU has been delivered to OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX in June, formally bringing the battle into AMD and Intel server CPU territory. CoreWeave rose 8.92%.

• AMD (Super Micro?)—AMD of the company jumped 8.11%: AMD will hold AI-related events this week, and the market is positioning ahead of time for its AI chips and rack-level AI system Helios. AMD hopes to build a full AI infrastructure with GPUs, CPUs, networking, and software to challenge Nvidia’s leading position.

• Intel rose 8.64%: On one hand, it was driven by the broader semiconductor sector rebound; on the other hand, the company announced it is partnering with network security firm Fortinet to develop the next-generation secure processor SP6, using the Intel 4 process. This is viewed as a positive signal for Intel’s foundry business seeking external customers. Related chip stocks: TSMC rose 5.55%, ARM rose 7.46%.

• Super Micro Computer (SMCI) closed up 7.01%, with a post-market jump of about 20%: Even though its Q4 revenue guidance was near the low end of the range, its gross margin was raised sharply to 15%-17%. New orders broke through $60 billion, and its backlog hit a record high.

• Nebius surged 18.78%: Nvidia disclosed it holds about 9.3% equity in Nebius. The market interpreted this as Nvidia’s ecosystem endorsement of Nebius in the AI cloud services space. Northland also raised its target price for Nebius from $248 to $410 significantly, while maintaining a “outperform the market” view, saying Nebius has a chance to capture about 14% market share in the AI-as-a-service market with long-term scale reaching $800 billion. Related cloud service providers: CoreWeave rose 8.92%, Hut 8 rose 7.98%, and IREN rose 2.71%.

• The optical communications sector rose broadly: Applied Optoelectronics rose 12.76%, Coherent rose 11.15%, Lumentum rose 9.41%, Ciena rose nearly 8%, Mievaier Technology rose 6.68%, and Corning rose 6.08%. The market believes AI data centers need large numbers of GPUs and also require high-speed networks and optical modules to connect these devices, so optical communications benefits as well.

• SpaceX rose 3.08%, ending a seven-day losing streak: The company will release its first post-IPO quarterly earnings report on August 4, and on August 6 it will see the first batch of stock—worth about $116 billion in total—eligible for sale unlocking. Up to 911.5 million shares of previously restricted stock will become sale-eligible. S3 Partners estimates that SpaceX’s short position is currently about $25 billion, around 32% of outstanding shares. Musk responded that companies that have heavily shorted SpaceX long-term have a “very low chance of surviving.” Related space and defense concepts: Rocket Lab rose more than 5% after hours after winning a $266 million U.S. Air Force contract for an orbital launch.

• Tesla rose 2.53%: The market is waiting for Tesla’s post-market earnings report, focusing on vehicle deliveries, auto gross margin, the energy storage business, progress on FSD autonomous driving, and long-term plans. Tesla’s valuation pressure has recently been significant, and the earnings report needs to prove the company is not only an EV firm, but also can continue to tell a strong AI and energy story.

• Google fell 1.38%: Google released several lower-cost Gemini models, including Gemini 3.6 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, and a network security model Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber. But the market cares more about when the flagship Gemini 3.5 Pro will be released, and whether AI spending can translate into revenue. In the earnings report, ads, the cloud business, YouTube, and AI capital expenditures will be key.

• Apple rose 0.35%: The company is reportedly set to launch an “Apple Upgrade” device lease plan on July 28, supporting most iPhones, Macs, iPads, and Apple Watch. It will partner with Klarna to provide financial support, stimulating hardware sales with lower monthly payments. Klarna once jumped 11% and ultimately closed up 1.44%. The market sees this as a major sales model adjustment for Apple during a product price increase cycle—lowering the purchase threshold for consumers.

• Microsoft fell 1.13%: Microsoft expanded its cooperation with French AI company Mistral, signing multi-billion-dollar Europe AI infrastructure agreements and using the expanded European GPU infrastructure from Mistral to support cloud and AI services. The stock fell more because funds were readjusting positions ahead of the earnings report, not because the news itself is clearly negative.

• Oklo closed up 6.31%, with a further near 6% gain after hours; X-Energy closed up 7.22%, with another rise of over 8% after hours. The Trump administration launched a $200 million AI nuclear power acceleration plan, selecting Oklo and X-Energy, with Microsoft and Nvidia participating as well. The market believes AI data centers consume enormous electricity, and nuclear power could become a long-term solution. Related AI power themes continue to attract attention.

• Danaher (DHR) fell 10.99%: The company’s Q2 revenue and profit both beat expectations, and it raised its full-year EPS guidance. However, market concerns were triggered by delayed timing of customer orders in its biopharma business.

What to watch next:

• 7月22日21:00：Samsung Galaxy’s global new product launch event will be held, and the market will focus on whether the new devices include more on-device AI functions.

• 7月22日至23日AMD “Advancing AI 2026” conference: CEO Lisa Su will deliver a keynote, and AMD will showcase progress in AI chips and rack-level AI systems. The market will focus on comparing the gap between AMD and Nvidia, as well as the revenue opportunity for AI data centers from 2026 to 2027. If AMD provides strong guidance, it could continue to support the semiconductors rebound; if it falls below expectations, last night’s chip short-squeeze rally may cool off.

• 7月23日凌晨 U.S. stocks post-market earnings: Google, Tesla, IBM, Texas Instruments, and ServiceNow will report earnings after U.S. market close.