Stocks Rally as Micron Revives AI Trade, Oil Drops: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Stocks in Asia climbed alongside US equity futures after Micron Technology Inc.’s blowout sales outlook reignited confidence in the artificial-intelligence trade, with a slide in oil prices further boosting sentiment.

Contracts for the Nasdaq 100 were up 1.6%, while those for the S&P 500 rose 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi surged as much as 6% and the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped 1.3%. Shares of Micron, the largest US maker of computer memory chips, soared about 15% after the market close as its quarterly sales forecast crushed Wall Street estimates, signaling that an AI-fueled growth run remains strong.

Brent crude erased all of its wartime gains, falling below $73 a barrel after tumbling 4.3% in the previous session, as flows through the Strait of Hormuz ramped up following progress on a US-Iran peace deal. The move, coupled with Micron’s strong results, brought relief for equity traders after a tech-led selloff dragged a global benchmark to its lowest level in two weeks.

Attention now turns to the release of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, with expectations of a hawkish policy path helping drive a broad gauge of the dollar to a seven-month high on Wednesday after three straight days of gains. That’s putting pressure on Asian currencies, offsetting some of the benefits of lower oil prices. Treasuries were steady after rallying on Wednesday.

“Micron’s earnings overnight have reminded investors that the durability of the memory cycle and broader AI trade is here to stay,” said Hugh Lam, an investment strategist at Betashares. “While sentiment can whipsaw in reaction to pronounced share price moves, structural supply constraints across both DRAM and NAND put a floor under any further weakness in these names at least throughout 2027.”

Further reinforcing optimism around the sector, South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. said it was seeking about $29 billion from a US stock listing. Kioxia Holdings Corp., a supplier of NAND storage that’s become Japan’s most valuable company this year, also said it intends to offer US depositary shares. Both stocks surged more than 10%.

Micron, along with Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix, has been a major beneficiary of the data-center spending boom. Demand for conventional memory chips and high-bandwidth memory, a key component in AI systems, continues to outstrip supply.

What Bloomberg Intelligence analysts say:

“Micron’s 74% sequential revenue growth in its fiscal 3Q ended May implies SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics might achieve similar spikes in revenue for their April-June quarters due to price hikes for DRAM and NAND chips.”

— Masahiro Wakasugi and Jake Silverman.

Revenue will be approximately $50 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, which runs through August, Micron said in a statement. Analysts estimated $43.2 billion on average. Excluding some items, profit will be about $31 a share, compared with a projection of $25.31.

Elsewhere in markets, gold steadied near $4,000 an ounce after falling through the threshold for the first time since November, weighed down by a resurgent US dollar and the prospect of higher interest rates. Bitcoin was little changed, trading above $60,000 after falling through the closely watched support level on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, China kicked off marketing up to €5 billion ($5.7 billion) of sovereign bonds in what could be its largest-ever such deal in euros. Separately, the nation’s central bank is introducing an overnight tenor into its open-market operations, a key step toward reshaping how it steers short-term borrowing costs.

Wednesday’s rally in Treasuries signaled another reassessment of the Fed’s likely interest-rate path, a week after traders piled into bets it may hike as soon as next month following Chairman Kevin Warsh’s first meeting leading the bank. Two-year yields, more closely tied to Fed policy, eased for a second day to about 4.14%, pulling back from the 16-month high of 4.23% hit Monday.

Forecasters expect the personal consumption expenditures price index to show acceleration on both a monthly and year-over-year basis in May.

The PCE data “will have a significant impact on markets,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at AT Global Markets. “If that comes in near expectations or higher, then we see the dollar drive further north. And we could also see a dent in the positive risk sentiment.”

Corporate Highlights:

DigitalBridge Group Inc. is considering options for Malaysia’s AIMS Data Centre Holding Sdn., including raising funds, bringing in new investors or an outright sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Investment firms including Blackstone Inc. and Bain Capital have advanced to the second round of bidding for the real estate unit of Fuji Media Holdings Inc., people familiar with the matter said, in what’s likely to be Japan’s biggest-ever property deal. The biggest US banks boosted their dividends after passing this year’s Federal Reserve stress tests, a hurdle that softened in recent years as regulators hash out new requirements. Two leading artificial intelligence researchers at Alphabet Inc.’s Google are planning to leave for rival Anthropic PBC, according to people familiar with the matter, adding to a series of high-profile departures that risk undercutting the search giant’s position in AI. Anthropic PBC accused Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. of waging a large-scale effort to “illicitly” access its Claude artificial intelligence model using thousands of fraudulent accounts that undermine the US AI developer’s decision to keep its products out of China. 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. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% as of 11:55 a.m. Tokyo time Japan’s Topix rose 1.3% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% The Shanghai Composite rose 0.1% Euro Stoxx 50 futures were unchanged Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1363 The Japanese yen was little changed at 161.71 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.8117 per dollar Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $60,687.97 Ether rose 0.3% to $1,616.9 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.40% Japan’s 10-year yield declined 3.5 basis points to 2.625% Australia’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.72% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.4% to $69.39 a barrel Spot gold fell 0.5% to $3,979.18 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Carmeli Argana, Winnie Hsu and Abhishek Vishnoi.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.