Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving money and markets.
Stocks settled mixed on Tuesday as a tech-led pullback kept the broader tape in check. The S&P five hundred edged down a tenth of a percent, while the Dow managed a gain of just over a third of a percent. The Nasdaq one hundred bore the brunt, falling nearly half a point as momentum names lost ground through the session.
But the after-hours story belongs to Micron, and it is a significant one. The chipmaker posted a fifteen-fold surge in profits, with shares rallying sharply on the print as the company signaled that AI-driven demand for computer memory remains not just intact but accelerating. It is the kind of earnings beat that reframes the semiconductor narrative heading into the back half of the year.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm added fuel to the AI hardware story with a surge of its own, after the company unveiled ambitious new revenue targets and announced a partnership with Meta Platforms. Wall Street responded decisively, sending shares sharply higher as investors recalibrated their view of Qualcomm's positioning in the AI ecosystem. The Meta tie-up in particular signals that the competition for AI silicon is spreading well beyond the data center.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
