Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and why.
Micron is the headline in chip land today, tumbling thirteen percent after a South Korean ETF rebalancing triggered a broader semiconductor sell-off. That's a sharp single-session reversal, though context matters here — the stock is still up more than two hundred sixty percent since the start of the year, so long-term holders are sitting on substantial gains despite today's pain.
Shifting to energy, Constellation Energy has struck a nuclear power agreement with Walmart to supply a perishables distribution center in Illinois. This is another data point in a growing trend of large corporates locking in clean, baseload nuclear power through direct offtake deals, bypassing the grid entirely. For Constellation investors, it signals continued commercial momentum in the corporate clean energy procurement space.
And in commodities, cotton futures faced meaningful pressure Tuesday, with old crop front months down as much as one hundred forty-eight points. Crude oil also retreated, shedding eighty-one cents a barrel to settle near seventy-three dollars and nineteen cents, while a firmer dollar index — up nearly four tenths to one hundred one point one six five — added headwinds across the commodity complex broadly.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
