Indexes

Thursday's memory-driven rally has reversed hard overnight, and US futures point to a lower open led by the same chip names that ripped a day earlier. The trigger is a renewed worry that the cost of building out artificial intelligence is rising faster than the revenue it produces, a fear that sent Tokyo down more than 4% and Seoul down nearly 6% while New York slept. Nasdaq 100 futures near 29,070 sit about 1.3% below Thursday's cash close, while the Dow holds up better on its heavier weighting of value and defensive names.

Thursday's regular session had finished almost exactly where it began, with a violent divide underneath: the memory makers and equipment suppliers soared on Micron's record results while Apple and the device makers were sold on the costs those same chips impose. The Dow held a small gain, and the Russell stayed above 3,000 for a third day.

The selling was loudest where the chip rally had run hottest. Seoul gave back its entire Micron-week bounce and more, and Tokyo surrendered most of Thursday's surge as SoftBank collapsed. Europe opened in the red, with its technology subindex the heaviest drag, per CNBC.

In the News

Drivers

1. Whether the memory reversal is profit-taking or a top. Micron's record quarter was real, but the overnight slide in Korea and Japan shows how fast the trade unwinds when investors decide the good news is already priced. The next tell is whether buyers defend Thursday's gaps in the chip and storage names or let them fill, and the capacity plans from Samsung and SK Hynix have handed the bears a concrete worry about pricing power. Does one blowout quarter settle the debate, or only pause it?

2. The cost of AI as a market theme. Apple and Microsoft raising hardware prices, onsemi paying up for edge-AI chips, and the Korean giants planning more capacity all point the same way: the buildout is getting more expensive, and someone's margins absorb the bill. For two years the market treated AI spending as pure upside. The reaction to onsemi's deal, where the acquirer fell 14% on a purchase it called strategic, says that patience has thinned.

3. Oil and the dollar as relief valves. Crude near $69 and a softer dollar are quietly easing the inflation math the Fed is fighting, the helpful subtext beneath a red morning.

SPY, the fund tracking the S&P 500, daily: poised to open back beneath its 20-day after one day above.

Nasdaq 100 fund (QQQ): Thursday's reclaim of the moving averages looks set to reverse at the open.

Semiconductors (SMH) giving back a chunk of Thursday's memory-driven snapback.

Micron (MU) on the daily, retracing into the gap after Thursday's record-fueled jump.

Newmont (NEM) firming with gold as the rotation favors havens over growth.

Rates, FX, Commodities

Government bonds caught a safety bid, nudging the ten-year back toward the low end of its June band. The dollar eased, and a haven bid lifted gold even as oil resumed its slide. The energy and metals marks here were captured minutes before send.

Crude extended its slide back toward the lows it set after the Iran framework took hold, with West Texas Intermediate near $69 and Brent near $73; Goldman Sachs trimmed its fourth-quarter Brent forecast to $80 a barrel from $90, per Reuters. Gold pushed the other way to $4,065 an ounce, drawing the money leaving equities, while the euro firmed to $1.1408 and the yen strengthened to 161.62 per dollar.

Technicals

Thursday's gap higher had carried the S&P 500 back above its 20-day average; this morning's futures point straight back below it, leaving the index leaning again on its rising 50-day near 7,320, the line that has held every pullback this month. The Nasdaq 100, which had just clawed its 20-day and 50-day lines back on the Micron pop, looks set to give them up at the open. Yields tell the calmer story: the ten-year at 4.39% is parked near the bottom of its recent range, and a drop beneath 4.35% would be its first real downside break since spring, with cheaper oil doing quiet disinflationary work. The morning's sharpest single move belongs to onsemi, whose all-stock bid for Synaptics sent the buyer's shares down hard before the bell. Its intraday chart is below.

onsemi (ON) on the hourly: a sharp gap lower after announcing its all-stock offer for Synaptics.

Breakouts & Breakdowns

Breakouts

Newmont (NEM) — bid as bullion firms, holding above its 50-day near $94; a push through $97 would put the spring highs back within reach.

Walmart (WMT) — the defensive winner of the rotation, near $116.75 and leaning on its record high around $117; a clean break would stretch an uptrend that held its 50-day all spring.

Breakdowns

Micron (MU) — slipping to $1,145 after failing to hold above the $1,200 line it cleared on Thursday's record result; a close back inside Thursday's gap would surrender much of the breakout.

SanDisk (SNDK) — back to $2,203 after Thursday's surge, retracing the move from the top; the first real support sits near the pre-gap shelf around $2,050.

Top Movers

Friday's red is bunched in the chip and storage names that led Thursday higher, with one fresh acquisition adding a seller of its own. The short list of gainers sits in the corners a risk-off morning rewards: a buyout target, the defensive aisles, and a gold miner.

Gainers

Synaptics (SYNA) rose about 4% to $131.00 after agreeing to be bought by onsemi in an all-stock deal worth roughly $7 billion. Holders will receive 1.350 onsemi shares for each Synaptics share, around a 19% premium to the prior ten-day average, with the target's edge-AI and touch-interface business the prize. The gain is capped because the all-stock terms tie Synaptics' value to a buyer whose own shares are falling.

Walmart (WMT) firmed about 1% to $116.75, the sort of defensive name that catches a bid when growth stocks wobble.

Newmont (NEM) added a fraction to $95.66 as gold climbed toward $4,065 an ounce, the miner tracking the haven trade higher while the rest of the materials group stayed quiet.

Losers

onsemi (ON) dropped nearly 14% to $102.30, the steepest fall in the chip group, as buyers balked at funding its all-stock purchase of Synaptics into a tech selloff. Acquirers often slide on all-stock deals because the new shares dilute existing holders, and a jittery morning sharpened the reaction. The takeover is onsemi's largest ever, meant to push it beyond power chips into so-called physical AI, with combined annual revenue put near $7.8 billion and roughly $200 million in expected savings, per the company.

Micron (MU) fell about 6% to $1,145.17, handing back part of Thursday's record surge as traders questioned whether memory pricing holds once Samsung and SK Hynix add the capacity both flagged overnight. The same doubt hit storage: SanDisk (SNDK) slid about 6% to $2,202.59 and Western Digital eased near 4%.

Broadcom (AVGO) eased about 2% to $371.30 and Nvidia (NVDA) slipped near 1% to $193.51, the AI-logic leaders pulled along by the broad chip retreat even though neither was part of the memory trade.

Macro Calendar

After a week stacked with inflation data and a hawkish Fed, the calendar empties out. The only release that rates attention is the University of Michigan's final read on June consumer sentiment at 10 a.m. Eastern, and the survey's inflation-expectations components may matter more than the headline, given how closely the Fed is watching them. With Thursday's hot price data still fresh, a firmer reading would only harden the hawkish case the market is already positioned for.

Earnings Today

The earnings calendar is all but empty on a summer Friday, with no large companies on either side of the session.

Before the open: A handful of small-caps report, none big enough to move the broad market.

After the close: Nothing of size is scheduled. The next marquee report is Nike's fiscal fourth quarter next week, a fresh read on consumer demand and the state of its turnaround.