Today’s Market Recap: Nasdaq Sinks on AI Infrastructure and Memory Chip Doubts

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TradingKey - At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.09% to 51,666.84; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.21% to 25,587.04; and the S&P 500 index slid 1.44% to 73,665.46.

Sandisk tumbled over 12%, and Western Digital dropped 8% this morning as a sell-off in South Korean memory giants spread to U.S. chipmakers. Micron Technology (MU), an AI-focused memory and storage chipmaker, closed at $1,051.77, down 13.18%. The stock fell sharply as a South Korea-led memory-chip selloff hit SK Hynix and Samsung, spilling into U.S. memory names ahead of Micron’s June 24 earnings report.

SpaceX (SPCX) closed up 1%, ending a three-day losing streak, as its debut bond offering attracted approximately 3.6 times oversubscription, highlighting a cautious market sentiment. In its debt market debut, SpaceX secured nearly $90 billion in orders, representing about 3.6 times subscription, which is lower than the average 4 times oversubscription seen in the investment-grade bond market this year. 

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), a quantum computing systems and software provider, closed at $25.03, up 2.29%. Shares rose on Tuesday after President Trump signed executive orders to accelerate U.S. quantum adoption and the development of quantum-resistant encryption. Investors are also watching D-Wave's product roadmap and upcoming quarterly earnings for progress toward commercialization.

Among U.S. passenger air transportation peers, Delta Air Lines (DAL) closed at $86.72, up 0.93%, and United Airlines Holdings (UAL) closed at $121.55, up 2.42%, highlighting relative strength in airline shares despite weakness in the broader markets.

Nvidia (NVDA) challenger Cerebras delivered its first financial report post-listing, showing first-quarter revenue more than doubled year-over-year to beat expectations, though it expects to remain unprofitable through the end of this year, causing shares to plunge up to 10% after hours. Cerebras projects its full-year gross margin to be between 38% and 41%, lower than its first-quarter margin of 45% and below the gross margins of competitors like Nvidia and AMD. The full-year core operating margin is expected to land between minus 28% and minus 32%, underscoring the high costs of building AI infrastructure.

Market Headline

U.S.-Iran negotiations ended in a stalemate as President Trump stated that Iran made concessions on nuclear inspections, while Iran claimed that $12 billion in frozen assets would be unfrozen. Trump asserted that because of Iran's concessions, he agreed to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and declared that Iran accepted the "highest level" of inspections. On the other hand, Iran stated that the $12 billion in frozen assets was about to enter the unfreezing implementation phase, to be disbursed in two installments of $60 billion each, but maintained that the usage rights of the assets belong to themselves. This reveals that clear differences still exist between both sides regarding the issues of inspections and the use of funds.

As the U.S. 60-day sanctions waiver took effect, Iran began vying for Asia's largest oil buyers, with reports indicating that 68 million barrels of crude oil are awaiting sale. Following the implementation of a comprehensive 60-day waiver on U.S. oil sanctions against Iran, the country is eager to clear approximately 68 million barrels of floating offshore storage within this limited window. It is actively contacting refineries in countries like India, Japan, and South Korea to expand its buyer base. However, due to ample short-term market supplies and the persistence of other European and U.S. sanctions, Asian buyers mostly maintain a wait-and-see attitude.

The flash U.S. PMI data for June beat expectations across the board, with the manufacturing PMI hitting a more than four-year high, though the employment index plummeted to a six-year low. The flash U.S. Composite PMI rose to a five-month high of 52.2, showing that business activity continues to expand. The manufacturing sector performed strongly, with its PMI climbing to 55.7 and new orders growing at their fastest pace in over four years, partly driven by precautionary inventory stockpiling. Meanwhile, the services PMI rose only modestly to 51.3, indicating a slow recovery. Enterprise purchasing inventory reached the second highest in history, but factory employment fell to its lowest level in six years. Although a cooling of tensions in the Middle East boosted confidence, supply chain delays and cost pressures still persist.

A single report triggered a plunge in memory chip stocks, as South Korean media reported that SK Hynix is slowing its HBM4 expansion due to a downward revision in Nvidia's Rubin production expectations. A report from a South Korean media outlet sparked a chain-reaction sell-off in global memory stocks, with Micron closing down 13%. According to the report, the production forecast for Nvidia's Rubin chips was lowered, prompting SK Hynix to slow down its HBM4 expansion and shift toward the general DRAM market — where profit margins have reportedly surpassed HBM by more than 15 percentage points. This shift has suddenly cast doubts on the demand outlook for AI infrastructure.

The countdown for the mass production of Tesla's Optimus 3 has begun, with reports claiming that suppliers have started stocking up. The mass production of Tesla's humanoid robot has entered the countdown phase — suppliers in Taiwan, China have begun supplying harmonic reducers and optical lenses for Optimus 3, while the Fremont production line, designed for an annual capacity of one million units, is advancing simultaneously. Elon Musk's "robot empire" is accelerating from a concept onto the assembly line, and the substantial inventory buildup across the supply chain provides the strongest external validation for this massive bet.

Masayoshi Son refuted Elon Musk, arguing that space data centers are "meaningless" and that the AI race will be decided on Earth. At the SoftBank shareholder meeting, Masayoshi Son bluntly stated that the concept of space data centers "makes little sense," arguing that challenges such as launch costs, in-orbit maintenance, and communication latency far outweigh any energy advantages, meaning the AI battle will still be determined by terrestrial computing power. He anchored SoftBank's strategy in Earth-based AI infrastructure, firmly believing that the next few years will be the decisive period and that leading players still possess immense growth potential.

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