Chips Lead the Charge, Oracle Gets Crushed: Midday Market Madness
MarketDash
The S&P 500 gained 0.5% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 1.1% by midday Thursday, extending a rebound from one-month lows. Chip equipment makers soared, but Oracle's massive spending plans sent software stocks into a tailspin.
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The S&P 500 gained 0.5% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 1.1% by midday Thursday, extending a rebound from one-month lows. Chip equipment makers rallied alongside resilient small caps, offsetting fresh war-risk headlines and the return of rate-hike fears.
A hot headline Producer Price Index print lifted producer inflation to its highest since late 2022, yet core measures came in below forecasts and echoed the softer core CPI a day earlier. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged down about 2 basis points to 4.53%, with the 2-year at 4.15% and the 30-year holding above the 5% line at 5.01%. Markets continue to lean toward one Federal Reserve rate hike this year, possibly in October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 333 points, or 0.7%, to 50,252. The small-cap Russell 2000 led the majors, jumping 1.3%.
Gold offered little safe-haven lift, edging up just 0.5% to about $4,094 an ounce and leaving the metal down more than 13% on the month.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) rose 1.9% to $62,600, on pace to snap three straight sessions of losses.
Semiconductor-equipment names tore higher after Cantor Fitzgerald raised price targets across the group, with analyst C.J. Muse describing the industry as in the "early innings of a multi-year supply-constrained and durable upcycle." The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) both rallied over 3%.
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) surged 8.6% after Cantor lifted its target to $425 from $320, while KLA Corp. (KLAC) jumped 8.1% on a target hike to $2,500 from $2,000 and Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) climbed 7.0% after its target rose to $650 from $575.
Intel Corp. (INTC) added about 6% after a Bank of America double upgrade amid soaring CPU orders.
Memory Rode The Same Wave
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) surged 7.4% after Bank of America raised its price objective to $2,100 from $1,550, citing tightening NAND supply against accelerating AI data-center demand.
The day's biggest large-cap winner, though, was Coupang, Inc. (CPNG), up 11.3%, after South Korea's privacy regulator delivered a record data-breach fine that landed well below the feared maximum – a relief that coincided with the e-commerce group's annual meeting.
Risk appetite spread to other beaten-down corners. The SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) rose 2.7% and the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX) added 1.8% as metals firmed, while Albemarle Corp. (ALB) climbed 7.7% as lithium names rallied on a Citi call for a price recovery.
The bright spots papered over a brutal software session, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) down 1.3% as the worst-performing industry group.
Oracle Corp. (ORCL) plunged 11.6% even after a record fiscal fourth quarter, as management disclosed plans to raise roughly $40 billion in fresh financing – including a $20 billion equity offering – and guided capital spending up 162% to $55.7 billion to fund its AI data-center buildout, leaving free cash flow deeply negative.
Peers followed: Salesforce Inc. (CRM) fell more than 3%, GoDaddy Inc. (GDDY) dropped 5.5%, and PTC Inc. (PTC) slid 6.3%.
Among other notable decliners, Chewy, Inc. (CHWY) fell 5.8%, extending losses since Wednesday's fiscal first-quarter report, which beat on revenue and earnings but carried cautious sales-environment guidance and drew a round of analyst downgrades.
