Stocks Rise Before Micron’s Earnings as Oil Slides: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed after a rout driven by worries over whether the unprecedented spending on artificial-intelligence will be justified, with traders gearing up for Micron Technology Inc.’s earnings report. Oil fell.
The equity rebound sent the S&P 500 up about 1%. Micron wavered as the chipmaker’s results are expected to provide the clearest test yet of whether demand for AI infrastructure remains strong enough to sustain this year’s surge. As the appetite for risk improved, the meme-stock crowd rallied behind a beaten-up American icon — Wendy’s Co. — whose shares soared.
Also bolstering sentiment was a slide in energy prices, which helped ease concerns over inflationary pressures on the eve of a key report for the Federal Reserve. US crude sank below $70 as more tankers cross the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury yields fell. Gold hovered near $4,000.
Wall Street’s bounce followed a drop driven by concern about elevated valuations after a nearly three-month equity rally. While the tech-led selloff this week was unsettling, it looked more like a rotation and a rightsizing of positioning than a fundamentally driven alarm bell, noted Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
“When stocks rise too much and too fast, a pullback almost always ensues,” said Rick Gardner at RGA Investments. “We would much rather be buying tech stocks on days when they are down, and the pullback can present an opportunity for investors who do not have adequate exposure to this space, which is still fundamentally strong.”
A geyser of cash coming from technology giants locked in a race to add data-center capacity has made the makers of computing components and equipment the year’s best-performing stocks. Micron, which reports results after the closing bell, has soared almost 300% in 2026. But concerns are mounting about how much longer the good times can last.
“Will we see sell the news? Will they guide strongly and the stock fly, or is that already priced in?” said Ken Mahoney at Mahoney Asset Management. “We feel as though any report that’s not a blowout to the upside will see an excuse for further selling in tech.”
At JPMorgan Chase & Co., strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas bet US stocks are approaching a “blue sky” scenario. They highlighted solid earnings and a potential peace deal to end the Iran war as key drivers while boosting their year-end target for the S&P 500 to 7,800. The gauge hovered near 7,400.
Easing geopolitical tensions spurred a further slide in oil prices, curbing wagers on rate increases over the coming year. Those bets had peaked after last week’s Fed meeting, with traders fully pricing in two hikes by mid-2027. They’ve since ebbed, leaving about 40 basis points of tightening priced in.
Still, the latest update to the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge is unlikely to challenge a growing consensus at the central bank around the need for hikes this year. Forecasters expect the personal consumption expenditures price index, due Thursday, to show acceleration on both a monthly and year-over-year basis in May.
Corporate Highlights:
OpenAI unveiled its first custom AI chip developed in partnership with Broadcom Inc., part of a bid by the ChatGPT maker to gain an edge by tailoring hardware to better run its products. SK Hynix Inc. is seeking 45.45 trillion won ($29.4 billion) in a US listing, tapping investor demand for high-flying memory-chip stocks even after a major selloff shook the group this week. Cerebras Systems Inc. gave a sales forecast that disappointed investors who were expecting the company to carve out a bigger slice of the AI data center market. Online spending across all retailers in the US hit $8.3 billion on the first day of Amazon.com Inc.’s annual Prime Day sale, according to Adobe Inc., beating the firm’s earlier estimate of $7.9 billion. Hertz Global Holdings Inc. warned profit this quarter is trending toward the low end of its expectations and announced offerings of shares and notes. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 rose 0.8% as of 11:18 a.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.5% The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9% The Stoxx Europe 600 was little changed The MSCI World Index rose 0.4% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2% The euro fell 0.3% to $1.1352 The British pound fell 0.3% to $1.3159 The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 161.79 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 2.4% to $60,881.68 Ether fell 1.3% to $1,640.57 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined nine basis points to 4.41% Germany’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 2.87% Britain’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 4.69% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.6% to $69.85 a barrel Spot gold fell 2.7% to $4,006.09 an ounce ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
