Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
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Stock futures were little changed Tuesday night after the S&P 500 pulled back from record levels, snapping a three-day winning streak.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 18 points, or 0.04%. S&P futures were 0.06% higher, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.09%.
In after-hours trading, shares of Micron Technology gained more than 2% on the back of better-than-expected earnings and a strong forecast. The artificial intelligence boom fueled a 46% increase in Micron revenue.
The leading memory chipmaker’s results follow a trading session that was dominated by heightened fears about the circular nature of the AI industry, sparked by a Nvidia-OpenAI partnership. Shares of leading AI players Nvidia and Oracle tumbled on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 closed in the red on Tuesday, down 0.6%, after it had reached a new all-time intraday high earlier in the session and posted a record close the previous day. The Nasdaq Composite fell nearly 1%, pulled down by a 2.8% loss in Nvidia shares just one day after the chipmaker announced a massive investment in OpenAI, which prompted questions about whether there is enough energy to power planned data centers and if Nvidia’s partnerships are akin to the risky practice of vendor financing.
Traders could also be profit-taking amid elevated market valuations, which Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell called out at a Tuesday press conference.
Wells Fargo chief equity strategist Ohsung Kwon remains bullish on the AI trade, anticipating that spending will continue to be robust. “I think this is a AI-led bull market, and I think this is likely to continue,” he said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”
“First of all, it’s not a bubble,” Kwon continued. “The entire outperformance of the Nasdaq since the end of tech bubble has been driven by better fundamentals in the Nasdaq versus the S&P 500, and I think that’s likely to continue. Second, we still think we are in the early innings of the AI investment cycle. … I think the way this plays out is, as long as the equity market continues to reward companies’ capex outlook and the growth outlook, this is likely to continue.”
Lithium Americas shares pop 75% on report Trump is seeking stake in the company
The Trump administration is looking to get an equity stake amounting to as much as 10% in Lithium Americas as it renegotiates terms of the company’s Energy Department loan for its Thacker Pass project, according to a Reuters report that cited two people familiar with the matter.
Shares of the Canada-based lithium company popped roughly 75% on the back of the news. Albemarle jumped nearly 6% in sympathy.
Thacker Pass is a proposed large lithium mine in Nevada that has been under construction for almost one year. General Motors has a 38% stake in the project, which would be the Western Hemisphere’s largest source of lithium when it opens in 2028, the report said. It underscores President Donald Trump’s efforts to boost U.S. production of lithium, which is used to make batteries for electric vehicles, grid storage and batteries.
Trump’s interest in Lithium Americas comes after the administration took a 10% stake in beaten-down chipmaker Intel.
— Pia Singh
Micron shares rise after on earnings beat, robust forecast
Shares of Micron Technology rose about 2.8% after Tuesday’s close on the back of the chip manufacturer’s strong quarterly results.
Micron, one of the world’s leading suppliers of DRAM and NAND flash memory chips, exceeded estimates on top and bottom lines and gave a strong forecast for the current quarterly period. The company’s overall revenue jumped 46% on a year-over-year basis during the quarter.
Micron reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.03 on revenue of $11.32 billion, while analysts polled by LSEG expected earnings of $2.86 per share on $11.22 billion in revenue. The company said that its revenue in its fiscal first quarter will be about $12.5 billion, higher than the $11.94 billion consensus analyst estimate per LSEG.
Shares of Micron have skyrocketed 97.7% this year amid ongoing demand for Micron’s high-tech memory and storage technology, which powers AI workloads.
Micron Technology performance over the past year.
— Pia Singh, Kif Leswing
