Memory chips took the lead, the U.S. semiconductor sector plunged across the board, and Micron's market value fell below US$1 trillion! Gold fell below US$4,000, China's Golden Dragon Index bucked the trend and rose red: US stocks opened
On July 16, the three major U.S. stock indexes opened with mixed gains and losses, with the Dow Jones Index rising 0.28%, the S&P 500 Index falling 0.17%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index falling 0.40%. As of press time, the Dow rose 0.03%, the Nasdaq fell 1%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.48%. 2,501 stocks rose and 2,451 stocks fell. Semiconductor and memory chip stocks fell across the board. Kioxia ADR fell by more than 11%, SanDisk fell by more than 9%, SK Hynix's stock price fell by 8.4%, Seagate Technology fell by 8.1%, and Western Digital fell by 8.07%.
On July 16, the three major U.S. stock indexes opened with mixed gains and losses, with the Dow Jones Index rising 0.28%, the S&P 500 Index falling 0.17%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index falling 0.40%. As of press time, the Dow rose 0.03%, the Nasdaq fell 1%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.48%. 2,501 stocks rose and 2,451 stocks fell. Semiconductor and memory chip stocks fell across the board. Kioxia ADR fell by more than 11%, SanDisk fell by more than 9%, SK Hynix's stock price fell by 8.4%, Seagate Technology fell by 8.1%, and Western Digital fell by 8.07%. Micron Technology fell more than 5% to US$858.63 per share, with a total market value of US$969.7 billion. As of press time, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has expanded to 3.21%, ARM has fallen by more than 6.1%, Marvell Technology has fallen by more than 5.7%, Qualcomm has fallen by more than 3.9%, Intel has fallen by more than 3.6%, AMD has fallen by more than 3%, and ASML has fallen by more than 0.6%. The "Seven Sisters of Technology" had mixed gains and losses. Microsoft, Google-C, and Apple rose, while Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, and Nvidia fell. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 1.72%. After the financial report was released, TSMC fell more than 2%. On July 17, local time, TSMC announced its second quarter financial report for 2026. In the second quarter, TSMC achieved revenue of NT$1.27 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 36%, higher than analysts’ expectations of NT$1.264 trillion; net profit reached NT$706.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 77.4%, higher than market expectations of NT$623.7 billion; gross profit margin was 67.7%, also better than expected. Ricky Ho, fund manager of Singapore's Four Capital, said that the current market expectations for TSMC are already at "abnormally high" and that further increases in stock prices in the future will increasingly depend on performance that continues to exceed market expectations. International oil prices rose collectively. As of press time, WTI crude oil futures prices rose 1.08% to US$80.46/barrel; Brent crude oil futures prices rose 1.08% to US$85.87/barrel. Gold and silver prices were both lower. Spot gold once again fell below the US$4,000 mark. As of press time, it fell 1.67% to US$3,991.79 per ounce; spot silver fell by 3.77% to US$55.65 per ounce. On the news, the memory chip sector in the Asian market fell collectively today. South Korea's two major memory chip giants fell sharply. SK Hynix plummeted by more than 11%, and Samsung Electronics fell by more than 8%. On July 16, the South Korean Financial Services Commission officially announced a series of regulatory measures for single stock leveraged ETFs. Among them, the minimum deposit was increased from 10 million won to 30 million won, and only cash is accepted as a deposit. At the same time, leveraged trading of a single stock is limited to 20 shares per purchase. In addition, South Korea will ban the listing of new single-stock leveraged products. Some analysts pointed out that the current general decline in the storage sector is not an isolated incident, but a direct response to the tightening of leverage trading rules by South Korean financial regulators. South Korea announced today that it will increase the minimum margin requirements for chip leveraged ETFs and prohibit the listing of new single-stock leveraged products. This move has targeted an active source of speculative funds in storage stock trading. As a key part of AI computing power infrastructure, the storage sector has experienced huge growth during the year due to outstanding financial reports and AI demand expectations from companies such as Micron, and has become an amplifier of market sentiment and liquidity. KeyBanc analyst John Vinh maintains a positive judgment on the overall storage market. He expects NAND prices to rise by 30% to 40% in the third quarter and another 15% in the fourth quarter; HBM prices are expected to double in 2027. Research analyst Shuli Ren recently released a report stating that the global memory chip shortage will peak in the second quarter of 2026, begin to stabilize in the first quarter of 2027, and overcapacity will occur as soon as 2028. Regarding the situation in the Middle East, according to the latest news, Iran stated on the 16th that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened due to pressure from the United States. On the same day, the Iranian Armed Forces stated that if Iranian infrastructure continues to be attacked by the US military, Iran will attack all infrastructure in the region.
Earlier, according to CCTV News, the US "Wall Street Journal" reported on the 15th local time, citing US officials, that US President Trump intends to expand military strikes against Iran, but has not yet made a final decision. (
Earlier, according to CCTV News, the US "Wall Street Journal" reported on the 15th local time, citing US officials, that US President Trump intends to expand military strikes against Iran, but has not yet made a final decision. (