While US cash markets are closed for the July 4th holiday, stocks around the world rebounded from yesterday's momentum rout as the latest round of jitters about the AI trade subsided, with Europe’s benchmark rising to an all-time high. S&P futures rose 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures rebounded 1.2% in thin holiday trading after South Korean memory giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics recovered, helping to drive a 2% rally in Asian shares after earlier tumbling with SK Hynix plunging as much as 30% from its all time high. Europe’s utility and technology sectors outperformed to set the Stoxx 600 up for a second straight record close. The dollar touched a two-week low amid another mjni flash crash in the USDJPY overnight while gold extended gains.
Friday’s gains marked the latest turn in a stretch of choppy trading as markets grapple with whether the second quarter’s AI-driven rally has gone too far. With stocks recovering after a two-day rout in chipmakers, investors are waiting for the upcoming earnings season as the next signal of whether massive spending on AI infrastructure can translate into profits.
“The fundamentals are still very, very strong and the market is still underpricing them,” Tim Moe, Goldman equity strategist told Bloomberg TV. “There still is a lot longer to go in the overall positive profit environment for memory stocks and the AI hardware supply chain space overall.”
With momentum crashing, its funding counterparties in the momentum pair trades, bitcoin and gold, jumped. Gold rose 1.2% to around $4,170 an ounce, the highest level in nearly two weeks, after money markets dialed back expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes this
