Market
July 1, U.S. stocks opened on the back foot as rate jitters and a steep semiconductor pullback dragged benchmarks. The Dow Jones fell 0.3%, the S&P 500 lost 0.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.8%, while Treasury yields crept higher and VIX edged up, pointing to a cautious tone ahead of the long holiday weekend.
Gainers: Meta Platforms, Inc. rallies 6.1% after unveiling an AI-powered ad-targeting suite; ServiceNow adds 4.9% on an upbeat analyst day; Palantir Technologies Inc. climbs 3.6% as the Pentagon expands data-analytics contracts; Microsoft rises 1.4% on cloud growth optimism; SoFi Technologies Inc. improves 1.5% after topping quarterly lending volumes. Decliners: Micron Technology sinks 6.6% on soft Q4 guidance, dragging Marvell Technology down 6.0% and Western Digital off 5.3%; NVIDIA retreats 3.1% amid profit-taking; Applied Materials sheds 5.8% on a downgrade tied to memory weakness; Advanced Micro Devices slips 3.4%.
Outside the chip wash-out, Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bear 3x Shares jumps 11.4%, while Token Cat Ltd spikes 216.2% on thin float momentum. Travel names ease with Trip.com Group Limited down 0.8% and Delta Air Lines lower 0.6%. Energy is mixed as Bloom Energy Corp gains 1.6% but Exxon Mobil eases 0.4%. ADR action sees XPeng Inc. up 1.9% on strong June deliveries, whereas Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing falls 2.8% as investors rotate out of fabs.
News
Micron Technology cuts Q4 outlook, shares slide 6.6%. Management flagged slower data-center orders and extended inventory digestion. The warning sparked broad selling in memory and semiconductor stocks.
Meta Platforms launches “AI Campaigns” tool, stock jumps 6.1%. The advertising suite promises 20% efficiency gains, fueling hopes of higher revenue per user ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Palantir Technologies wins new $463 million DoD contract, rises 3.6%. The multiyear deal expands the company’s battlefield decision-making platform and reinforces its federal revenue pipeline.
ServiceNow raises medium-term margin targets, climbs 4.9%. At an investor day, the workflow-software maker projected 30% operating margin by 2028, soothing concerns over AI-driven cost inflation.
Applied Materials downgraded by Barclays, falls 5.8%. The broker cited cyclically peaking wafer-fab equipment orders and elevated valuations after the 2026 rally.
XPeng Inc. posts record June deliveries, ADR up 1.9%. Monthly units surpassed 22,000 on strong G6 SUV uptake, signaling share gains in the competitive Chinese EV market.
Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bear 3x Shares surges 11.4% as traders hedge chip sell-off. The leveraged ETF’s volume doubled its 20-day average, reflecting heightened volatility demand.
Bloom Energy Corp awarded 500 MW fuel-cell project in Texas, shares add 1.6%. The utility-scale contract could generate $800 million in revenue and accelerate U.S. green-hydrogen adoption.
Token Cat Ltd rockets 216.2% amid social-media buzz. No fundamental news accompanied the move, underscoring ongoing speculative activity in micro-cap tech.
U.S. ISM manufacturing index falls to 47.8, underpins defensive rotation. The contractionary reading marked a third straight miss, raising recession fears and capping broader equity appetite.
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