Chip stocks are in the doldrums, the storage sector fell after rising, San Disk fell 4%, the conflict between the United States and Iran escalated, and Brent oil exceeded $88
*The three major stock indexes closed lower, with the Nasdaq and S&P falling more than 1%; *Medium- and long-term U.S. bond yields diverged, with the 10-year U.S. bond reporting 4.55%; *The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index hit a five-month high in July. U.S. stocks continued their decline on Friday. AI-related stocks that had driven the market higher during the year collectively fell back, and market selling sentiment spread to the entire market.
*The three major stock indexes ended lower, with the Nasdaq and S&P falling by more than 1%; * Mid- to long-term U.S. bond yields are divided, with the 10-year U.S. bond at 4.55%; *The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index hit a five-month high in July. U.S. stocks continued their decline on Friday. AI-related stocks that had driven the market higher this year collectively fell back, and market selling sentiment spread to the entire market. As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 406.55 points, or 0.77%, to 52146.42 points, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.4% to 25520.24 points, and the S&P 500 Index fell 1.01% to 7457.69 points. All major benchmark indexes closed down this week: the S&P 500 fell 1.6% for the week, the Nasdaq fell 2.9%, and the Dow Jones fell 0.9%. Among star technology stocks, only Apple closed up, while the rest fell across the board; Meta and Google parent company Alphabet were the top losers, falling 2.7% and 3.2% respectively. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 1.6% and nearly 9% on the week, the largest drop in more than a year. Applied Materials fell 5.57% and TSMC fell 2.81%. Memory chip targets were divided. Seagate Technology rose 5.66%, Western Digital rose 2.23%, SK Hynix ADR rose 1.12%, Micron Technology fell 0.50%, and SanDisk fell 4.02%. Streaming media giant Netflix fell 7.3% as the company's performance guidance failed to dispel investors' concerns about slowing business growth. The energy sector was the only industry to close in the red. The continued escalation of the conflict between the United States and Iran pushed up international crude oil prices, and the oil and gas sector directly benefited. Exxon Mobil rose 0.97% and Chevron rose 1.91%. Uber fell 2.1% after the company announced a nearly $15 billion acquisition of German food delivery platform Delivery Hero. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell 1.81%, Baidu fell 4.95%, Pinduoduo fell 2.93%, Alibaba fell 2.14%, and NetEase rose 0.94%. Chip stock volatility continues. Faced with an AI capital expenditure boom of nearly RMB 1 trillion, some investors in the AI track have begun to bet on the slowdown in industry expenditure growth, and many actively managed fund managers have reduced their exposure to chips and computing power-related assets in advance. Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, said: "The market is clearly experiencing chip stock aesthetic fatigue. The chip sector has closed down in three of the past four weeks, and the core concern remains the same - the early gains of such stocks have overdrafted their fundamentals, and now valuations are returning to a reasonable range." Angelo Kurcafas, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones, said: "The market has shown signs of sluggish growth. The demand for downstream AI terminals has become increasingly price-sensitive. Companies that have aggressively expanded production and invested crazy money in research and development have begun to be sold off by the market. We believe that this round of fluctuations means that the AI market has entered a mature stage, rather than the complete end of the market. This is also a normal adjustment stage in the development of disruptive industry investment cycles." The second-quarter earnings season is still in its early stages, with 49 S&P 500 constituents already reporting results. Refinitiv (LSEG) data shows that 90% of the companies' profits exceeded market consensus expectations. Analysts have raised their overall profit forecasts: The current market expects that the overall net profit of S&P 500 constituent stocks in the second quarter will increase by 26.0% year-on-year. On April 1, the market expected only 19.2%. "The financial reporting season has just started, but the start is very impressive. In the next few weeks, more industries will disclose their performance, and the banking industry is the first to deliver an answer that exceeds expectations, setting a good tone for the financial reporting season." Detrick added. The situation in the Middle East continues to be tense. According to CCTV News, on July 17, local time, the U.S. Central Command stated that the U.S. military would launch a new round of strikes against Iran at 3 p.m. Eastern Time that day. This was the seventh consecutive night of air strikes by the U.S. military. The U.S. Central Command stated that this round of operations was carried out under the instructions of U.S. President Trump and was designed to continue to weaken Iran's military capabilities. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bagaei posted on his personal social media on the 18th local time that the way the United States tried to show its so-called "strength" was by attacking civilian infrastructure and killing civilians. Bagaei said that the Iranian people are now more determined and united than ever before and are determined to make these barbaric enemies pay a heavy price for this criminal aggression against Iran.
David Wagner, director of equities at Aptus Capital Advisors, said: A new round of sharp rises in oil prices will trigger market panic, but current oil prices are still near the historical average range. Even if oil prices run at high levels, I am still optimistic about the U.S. stock market, but market volatility will further increase in the future. " In terms of economic data, the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index reported 54.4 in July, a five-month high, and market expectations were 51.0. Gasoline prices continue to fall, effectively easing the budget pressure on households. Consumers expect annual price inflation over the next year to be 4.2%, down from 4.6% in the June survey. "Consumers remain concerned that inflationary pressures may intensify in the future, and more and more consumers are reporting that now is a good time to make purchasing decisions to avoid future price increases," survey director Joanne Xu said in a statement. " The trends in mid- and long-term U.S. bond yields were divided: the 10-year U.S. bond fell 1.6 basis points to 4.55%; the 2-year U.S. bond rose 2.7 basis points to 4.18%. The continued escalation of the conflict between the United States and Iran has affected the market, and international oil prices have risen sharply. The front-month contract of WTI crude oil rose 4.48% to US$82.49/barrel, and the front-month contract of Brent crude oil rose 4.59% to US$88.10/barrel. This week, the two major contracts have experienced weekly gains of more than 15%. Precious metals stabilized and rebounded. COMEX gold futures for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.68% to US$4,012.70 per ounce, and COMEX silver futures rose 0.25% to US$56.03 per ounce. (
David Wagner, director of equities at Aptus Capital Advisors, said: A new round of sharp rises in oil prices will trigger market panic, but current oil prices are still near the historical average range. Even if oil prices run at high levels, I am still optimistic about the U.S. stock market, but market volatility will further increase in the future. " In terms of economic data, the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index reported 54.4 in July, a five-month high, and market expectations were 51.0. Gasoline prices continue to fall, effectively easing the budget pressure on households. Consumers expect annual price inflation over the next year to be 4.2%, down from 4.6% in the June survey. "Consumers remain concerned that inflationary pressures may intensify in the future, and more and more consumers are reporting that now is a good time to make purchasing decisions to avoid future price increases," survey director Joanne Xu said in a statement. " The trends in mid- and long-term U.S. bond yields were divided: the 10-year U.S. bond fell 1.6 basis points to 4.55%; the 2-year U.S. bond rose 2.7 basis points to 4.18%. The continued escalation of the conflict between the United States and Iran has affected the market, and international oil prices have risen sharply. The front-month contract of WTI crude oil rose 4.48% to US$82.49/barrel, and the front-month contract of Brent crude oil rose 4.59% to US$88.10/barrel. This week, the two major contracts have experienced weekly gains of more than 15%. Precious metals stabilized and rebounded. COMEX gold futures for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.68% to US$4,012.70 per ounce, and COMEX silver futures rose 0.25% to US$56.03 per ounce. (