Stock & Bull Markets

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Stocks slump as Big Tech sinks and a strong May jobs report boosts odds for higher interest rates

The U.S. stock market had its worst day since October Friday as a sell-off in big technology companies weighed down the broader market and a strong jobs report boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates at some point this year.

https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-iran-oil-trump-b5e10863b81cb1d6399f688ad8885c46?

💰 Chart du jour

Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Axios Visuals The S&P 500 (-2.64%) and Nasdaq (-4.18%) each had their worst single-day drops of the year yesterday after a stronger-than-expected jobs report triggered a market selloff. Covers of today's Washington Post and New York Times. More on markets ... Jobs Day.

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📉 Another sharp sell-off hit tech stocks today, with some AI-related shares posting double-digit losses shortly after noon ET. Go deeper.

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📊 SpaceX's massive IPO, visualized

Data: S&P Capital IQ Pro. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals SpaceX's projected $1.77 trillion market cap would equal nearly the combined value of the 29 biggest U.S. IPOs since 2000, Axios' Madison Mills and Erin Davis report. That's based on those companies' market caps at closing time on the day they went public, adjusted for inflation. 💵 The Elon Musk-led company is set to list tomorrow on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol SPCX, with shares expected to be priced at $135. Go deeper ...

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🚀 SpaceX IPO takes off

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Johannes Neudecker/picture alliance via Getty Images SpaceX shares were up over 25% in initial trading by midafternoon, launching it into the pantheon of the largest U.S. companies, Axios' Madison Mills reports. Shares were trading at about $170 this afternoon, indicating a $2.22 trillion market cap. 💰 The offering made CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire, Forbes declared. Data: Financial Modeling Prep; Chart: Alex Fitzpatrick/Axios SpaceX went into its IPO trading at 90 times its sales (not profits — sales). Adam Johnson, portfolio manager of the Bullseye American Ingenuity Fund, says that suggests the company's valuation is divorced from its underlying fundamentals. 👀 What we're watching: What happens after the lock-up period ends. Once the company's next earnings report drops, early investors can sell up to 20% of their initial holdings to realize some gains. Get the latest.

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🚀 SpaceX levels off

Data: FactSet. (The shares priced at $135 a share on June 11 and began trading on June 12, closing at $160.95 a share.) Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios Investors are tempering their enthusiasm for SpaceX shares, which tumbled over 16% yesterday, vaporizing roughly $400 billion in market value, Axios' Matt Phillips writes. The stock has now declined more than 20% in the last three trading sessions. The slump came even as SpaceX announced a deal to provide computing power to AI startup Reflection that could generate $6.3 billion in sales. 🖼️ The big picture: Even after the record $86 billion IPO earlier this month, SpaceX announced plans yesterday to raise at least $20 billion more by selling bonds — a sign that giant tech companies are leaning heavily on the corporate bond market, not just stocks, to fund the AI buildout. Keep reading ...

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📉 Tech takes a bubble bath

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Tech stocks shriveled up today as AI bubble fears sapped market momentum, Axios' Nathan Bomey, Matt Phillips and Madison Mills report. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.5% shortly after the opening bell before recovering slightly by midafternoon. The S&P 500 is down nearly 1.5% on the day so far. 🫣 It's been a particularly ugly day for chip, memory and data storage stocks, which have been some of the AI boom's biggest beneficiaries. Sandisk, Micron and Western Digital were all down by around 10-15% as of midafternoon. 🚀 SpaceX, which went public this month, briefly fell below its opening price of $150 early today before crawling back towards $160 headed into the close. The company — which had a secretive test flight today — has become an AI play as investors bet on a lucrative future with orbital data centers. Go deeper.

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📉 Tech stock slump

Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Investors hit pause on the AI run-up, with chip stocks slumping from their record highs, Axios Markets author Emily Peck writes. Why it matters: We're in a bit of a reality-check moment in the AI buildout — both for businesses blowing their budgets on compute, and for investors bidding up stock prices for any company engaged in the new technology. The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 index slid 3.3% yesterday. The broader S&P 500 closed 1.4% lower, after a selloff in South Korea got investors skittish about the high-flying chip stocks. Keep reading.

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🍔 Wendy's is the hot new meme stock, Bloomberg reports. The burger chain's shares shot up over 40% this morning after a viral Reddit post. The now-deleted post implored fans to "save Wendy's before it's too late." Gift link.

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The Lithium Boom Is Heating Up

Lithium stock prices have more than doubled in the past year in response to ballooning costs and shortages. $ALB climbed 165%. $SQM, 136%.    But the real winner may be a $1B private stock, EnergyX. This unicorn’s tech can recover up to 3X more lithium than traditional methods at speeds 500X faster. Now, after opening America’s largest lithium facility of its kind and announcing a new potential $600M/year project in Utah, they’re preparing to unlock up to 13M tons of lithium.   Industry leaders like General Motors and POSCO have already invested. Join them as an EnergyX investor before the 7/16 deadline.*

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📉 Charted: Crypto's rough year

Data: Yahoo Finance. Chart: Noah Bressner/Axios Bitcoin is down 43.7% over the past year and now trades below its level on Election Day 2024 — before it rallied on President Trump's pledge to make America the world's "crypto capital." The token has shed more than half its value since hitting an all-time high of $126,080 in October. Between the lines: Michael Saylor's Strategy Inc. — a major crypto holder — announced plans to sell as much as $1.25 billion worth of the coin. Saylor was famous in the crypto community for his "never sell" mantra.

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📉 Mag 7? More like Lag 7

Data: FactSet. (Mag 7 is the "original" cohort: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and Meta.) Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios The "Mag 7" tech giants that carried the stock market out of the COVID era are starting to look more like the Lag 7, Axios' Matt Phillips writes. Investors are rotating away from companies spending on AI to those supplying the equipment: Micron, Intel, etc. Why it matters: The AI boom is creating lots of uncertainty, even for tech behemoths that have long seemed invulnerable. 😨 By the numbers: The Mag 7 were down 3.1% on average this year through Monday's close. The S&P 500 was up about 8.7% over that period. The S&P 500 was up 14% in the quarter that ended yesterday. That was the best three months in six years — since Q2 of 2020, when markets rebounded after the COVID selloff. Go deeper.

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📈 Stocks' shining quarter

Data: FactSet. Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios U.S. stock investors brushed off any concerns from the Iran war to send major indexes to their best quarter since 2020, Axios' Matt Phillips writes. In the second quarter of 2026, which ended on June 30, the S&P 500 index rose nearly 15%, the Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 21%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased nearly 13%. The second quarter also had the largest IPO ever — the debut of SpaceX, which saw its shares soar, slump and then rise again. Read on.

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🚀 Musk's market

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images Wall Street analysts published a slew of bullish reports on SpaceX today as Elon Musk's rocket, communications and AI conglomerate joins the Nasdaq-100 Index. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase all issued "buy" or equivalent ratings on the space behemoth, Bloomberg reports. At the same time, analysts acknowledge the company could spend more than it takes in for years to come. 📈 Why it matters: SpaceX joining the Nasdaq-100 should be a boost for the stock because of the large number of funds that track the benchmark. 🔮 While Wall Street sets eye-popping price targets on the stock, analysts don't have crystal balls. Plus, sell-side analysts often skew bullish. But SpaceX shares kept falling today and are now just under the $150 price where shares started trading last month. Bloomberg gift link.

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📉 Chip stocks slide

Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios Chip stocks were hammered yesterday despite reassuring news from a major player — extending their recent slide into a second week, Axios' Pete Gannon writes. Samsung, the world's largest memory-chip maker, reported explosive revenue growth, but its shares immediately fell. Investors are worried the AI boom that's been driving up chip prices can't keep growing this fast forever. The sell-off continued in the U.S., where memory stocks like Micron (-4.7%) and SanDisk (-7.3%) were slammed. Get Axios Business Suite: 3 daily newsletters.

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🦾 Charted: Memory's earnings edge

Data: FactSet. Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios The AI-driven price boom for memory chips and products is expected to keep Sandisk and Micron atop the sales leaderboard this earnings season, Axios' Matt Phillips writes from consensus Wall Street forecasts. 👀 What we're watching: Whether these giant forecasts (charted above) are achieved, and if they actually excite the market. Just last week, gobsmacking results from Korean chip giant Samsung were followed by a steep sell-off.

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🚀 SpaceX falls to Earth

Data: Financial Modeling Prep; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios SpaceX shares are falling again today after closing below their IPO price yesterday, Axios' Matt Phillips reports. That's amid questions about an AI bubble, the upcoming end of a lockup period for early investors, and yesterday's aborted Starship launch attempt. 👀 What we're watching: Nearly 1.4 billion SpaceX shares could hit the market after the company reports second-quarter results, likely in early August. That could roughly quadruple the supply of tradable shares, forcing the question: Will the buying public be eager to snatch them up? The bottom line: We'll soon get a better idea of how the market truly values SpaceX. Go deeper.

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🤖 Investors blink on AI

Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios The boom that powered semiconductor stocks to record highs just last month is now sputtering, Axios' Emily Peck reports. The stocks got to extremes, John Roque, head of technical analysis at 22V Research, a Wall Street research firm, tells Axios: "It's as rash now on the downside as it was rash on the upside." 📈 Reality check: For the year to date, these stocks are still absolutely slaying: SOXX is up 66%, Micron 169%(!) and Intel 141%. And so far, the stock market overall is holding up. Keep reading.

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🧐 Stock market mystery

Data: FactSet. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios A markets mystery has perplexed some analysts this year: Why are stocks near all-time highs while geopolitical conflict and inflation rock the global economy? The usual retort is that the stock market isn't the economy, but a new Moody's report offers a more nuanced explanation: Markets have adjusted — you just have to know where to look, Axios' Emily Peck writes. 💡 How it works: It's visible with bonds and under the hood in the stock market, where certain sectors are struggling (charted above). Software stocks have fallen this year, thanks to AI, as have those for autos, consumer goods and apparel, as consumers struggle with higher prices. The new hot sectors are energy, because of the Iran war and other conflicts, and hardware and semiconductors, as investors flock to the picks and shovels of the AI boom. Keep reading.

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🤖 AI spending slams chip stocks

Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Investors are rethinking their fondness for the chipmakers that make up the backbone of the new tech buildout, Axios' Emily Peck writes. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 briefly flirted with correction territory yesterday — a drop of 10% or more — before finishing 9.5% below its June 2 record closing high. The pullback follows renewed concerns about heavy AI spending and rising Chinese competition.

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US stocks rise to finish a wild July as Amazon soars, Apple sinks and inflation worries worsen

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose Friday to finish a wild July for Wall Street as Amazon leaped, Apple sank and rising oil prices worsened worries about inflation staying high.

https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-rates-korea-ai-oil-e31b3a442bcb957a53f1823ef21e73e8?

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🦾 Charted: Microsoft's $450 billion jump

Data: FactSet. Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios Microsoft's surge in market cap yesterday — $450 billion — was apparently the biggest one-day gain in stock market history, according to a Bloomberg analysis. The company's stock rose 16% after its latest earnings report showed strong growth from its Azure cloud computing business — a sign that AI investments are paying off, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

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US stocks hit records as profits keep piling up for Palantir and others, while oil prices ease

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market rallied to records on Tuesday as profits kept piling up for companies and as oil prices eased.

https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-dollar-yen-trump-iran-war-fbbe6128d618509e33d45a493c2615b1?

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💸 Charted: New stock record

Data: FactSet. Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios The S&P 500 rose 1.8% yesterday, notching a new all-time closing high of 7736.52 — its first record since June, Axios' Matt Phillips writes. In the past four sessions, stocks have jumped almost 6%, led by gains from Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet after each posted strong quarterly results. Some analysts and investors had worried that the markets were beginning to deflate. Previously high-flying chip stocks hit an air pocket in early June before finding their footing over the last week. Why it matters: High stock prices are critical to keeping funds flowing to the AI buildout. A significant erosion of investor confidence would risk the AI flywheel of financial flows, capital expenditures and industrial activity fueling the U.S. economy. Go deeper: Investors can't stop believing in stocks.

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🥇 Gold goes bananas

Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Gold prices rose to their highest level in more than two months yesterday, hitting $4,465 an ounce, Axios' Emily Peck reports. The last time gold rose 13% or more in a month was September 1999 — more than a quarter-century ago. 🖼️ The big picture: Gold's ascent signals that investors are expecting less inflation. When the Iran war started, they generally believed inflation would heat up, and interest rates would rise. 📈 Yes, but: Last month's Fed meeting reassured many investors that interest rates weren't about to rise — and gold started climbing. Yesterday's relatively benign inflation report offered even more assurance. Go deeper.