US Stocks Close: Dow Rises 160 Points, Treasury Yields Fall for Second Day; Chip Stocks Lead Gains, Consumer Stocks Slump; AMD Gains 4.91%

TradingKey - U.S. Treasury yields fell for a second straight day, lifting market trading sentiment. However, investors are awaiting July PCE data to be released on Wednesday, as well as Nvidia's earnings report. All three major U.S. stock indexes advanced, with chip stocks leading the gains while consumer stocks suffered losses.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.30% to 53,577.40 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.66% to 26,151.30 points; and the S&P 500 Index rose 0.32% to 7,677.28 points.

Tech Stock Performance

AMD (AMD) rose 4.91% to $491.18.

Wall Street investment bank Raymond James raised its price target on AMD from $565 to $641 and upgraded the stock to a "Strong Buy" rating, noting that its strategic positioning in the server CPU market is poised to challenge Intel's long-standing dominance. According to Mercury Research, AMD's overall shipment share in the x86 processor market surpassed 30% for the first time in the second quarter of 2026, reaching 30.7%, while Intel's fell to 69.3%—marking the first time since 1995 that AMD has exceeded 30%. In the server CPU segment, AMD's share rose to 34.5%, up 7.3 percentage points year-over-year.

Among mega-cap tech stocks, Nvidia (NVDA) rose 2.19%, SpaceX (SPCX) gained 2.19%, Meta Platforms (META) climbed 1.97%, Microsoft (MSFT) added 0.90%, and Tesla (TSLA) edged up 0.37%. On the downside, Broadcom (AVGO) fell 0.56%, Amazon (AMZN) slipped 0.39%, Google (GOOGL) dropped 0.32%, and Apple (AAPL) dipped 0.14%.

[Source: FutuBull]

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.44% to 11,588.04. Among its 30 constituents, 24 advanced and 6 declined.

Chip stocks led the gains, with AMD (AMD) up 4.91%, Nvidia (NVDA) up 2.19%, Qualcomm (QCOM) up 1.28%, Arm Holdings (ARM) up 1.16%, and Intel (INTC) up 0.25%.

Company News

OpenAI Delivers Samples of First Custom Chip Jalapeno, Outperforming Nvidia's Existing Products in Certain Tests

OpenAI said on Wednesday that engineering samples of Jalapeno, its first custom chip co-developed with Broadcom (AVGO), have been delivered and are currently undergoing laboratory testing. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said early results show that under typical AI workloads, Jalapeno's running costs could be about 50% lower than common AI GPUs. OpenAI said Jalapeno demonstrated higher performance per watt in internal testing and outperformed Nvidia's existing products in certain tests. However, these results remain early company testing disclosures and have not yet been validated through large-scale commercial deployment. The chip was not tested against Nvidia's latest-generation Vera Rubin, nor is it intended for AI model training, so it will not replace Nvidia's products in the training domain in the short term.

Waymo Plans to Launch Driverless Ride-Hailing Service in Germany by End of 2027

Alphabet's autonomous driving unit Waymo plans to launch a driverless ride-hailing service in Germany by the end of 2027, making it the third international market the company plans to enter and its first launch market in the European Union. Waymo said on Tuesday that in the coming weeks, the company will first operate manually driven vehicles on the streets of Munich to map high-definition local roads and collect urban traffic data. Subsequently, the vehicles will be tested under the supervision of trained autonomous driving experts to help Waymo's self-driving system adapt to Munich's unique road environment and driving conditions.

SpaceX Plans to Build $100 Billion Starship Launch Base in Louisiana

SpaceX plans to build a $100 billion Starship launch base along the southern coast of Louisiana, adding a third Starship launch site. Located on Pecan Island, the base covers approximately 125,000 acres and is planned to include five launch complexes, 10 launchpads, as well as propellant production, power generation, vehicle processing, and employee residential facilities. The base will help SpaceX increase Starship launch frequency and support its future plan to build up to 1 million data center satellites. Starship will also be used to launch upgraded Starlink satellites, conduct orbital data center missions as early as 2027, and carry NASA astronauts to the Moon as early as 2028.

Anthropic Projects Total Addressable Market to Exceed $30 Trillion

According to The Wall Street Journal, Anthropic is expected to tell investors in its IPO filings that its addressable revenue opportunity exceeds $30 trillion, surpassing SpaceX's previous estimate of $28.5 trillion. Anthropic is showcasing the growth space brought by AI through the "Total Addressable Market" (TAM) metric, evaluating the total scale of work that artificial intelligence models will be able to perform in the future.

Industry & Macro News

Canada Retaliates in Kind Against Trump Administration, Imposing 50% Tariffs on Multiple Categories of US Goods

Canadian Prime Minister Carney retaliated in kind against the new tariffs implemented over the weekend by US President Trump, announcing a support package to assist Canadian businesses hit by the escalating trade war. Canada will double its existing retaliatory tariffs on US steel and aluminum products to 50%. US-made furniture, apparel and ready-to-wear clothing, video game consoles, smartphones, and other electronic products will also be subject to the 50% tariff. Overall, these retaliatory tariffs will affect approximately $20 billion worth of US imports, roughly matching the tariff amount Trump imposed on Canadian products on Saturday under a never-before-used provision of the Tariff Act of 1930. This equals about 6% of the total goods Canada imported from the US last year.

Central Shipping Lane in Strait of Hormuz Reportedly Reopens as US Says All Naval Mines Cleared

According to media reports, the US Navy has cleared the main shipping lane in the Strait of Hormuz—the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) between Iran and Oman—allowing more oil tankers to pass through. US officials revealed that over the past few months, US Navy underwater drones systematically scanned the area and identified more than 100 objects suspected to be naval mines, which the US military subsequently cleared or detonated in partnership with private companies. Over the past 30 days, more than 500 vessels have entered and exited through the southern lane of the strait, with only about 2% targeted by Iranian drone or missile attacks. Trump stated that any vessel or ship attempting to relay mines would be "immediately and systematically destroyed." US officials said that with the primary shipping lane reopened, ships can transit the Strait of Hormuz in both directions under US protection, channeling more oil into global markets.