Nasdaq futures are down, led by chip stocks

16:06

Wall Street contracts are signaling declines at the opening amid weakness in chip stocks, as investors appear to be rotating back out of stocks associated with the field of artificial intelligence.

Contracts on the technology index lost 1%, while contracts on the S&P 500 fell 0.1%. On the other hand, the Dow Jones contracts rose by about 225 points, or 0.4%.

Shares of Micron are down about 5% in early trading, and shares of Marvell, Boardcom and AMD are also down.

The pressure on chip stocks already started in Asia, after the KOSPI index fell by almost 5%, following a fall of nearly 7% in the Samsung Electronics stock. The company did report a sharp jump in second quarter profits, but concerns over continued heavy investments and future demand overshadowed the results.

“The manner of reaction to Samsung stock illustrates one of the biggest risks to the markets in the coming weeks: the second quarter results are expected to be very strong in absolute terms, but unlike the first quarter report season, this time investors’ expectations are very optimistic. In addition, the S&P 500 index is currently about 1,000 points higher than its level before the publication of the first quarter reports – therefore the level of expectations is particularly high,” wrote Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge .

A Reuters report also clouded the sentiment, after according to sources the Chinese company DeepSeek is developing its own artificial intelligence chip. Such a move may reduce its dependence on chips from companies such as Nvidia and Samsung.

At the same time, SpaceX shares are trading slightly lower ahead of their entry into the Nasdaq-100 index during Tuesday.

The early trade comes after a positive day on Wall Street, in which the Dow Jones crossed the 53 thousand point mark for the first time and even closed above it. The gains were led by technology stocks, with the Nasdaq Composite index jumping more than 1% on the back of a recovery in chip stocks, while the S&P 500 index added 0.7%.

16:01

You discovered satellite networks announced today that DataPath Gilat received orders with an aggregate value of approximately 11 million dollars for the provision of field services and dedicated SATCOM terminals for the US Department of War. Delivery is expected to take place within the next 12 months.

15:53

Spice X Provides an interesting test of whether passive ETFs, which follow indices, actually distort the stock market. The company’s inclusion today in the NASDAQ 100 index requires the giant hedge fund QQQ to purchase its shares as part of adjusting its holdings to the index.

But the initial result disappoints those who thought that automatic purchases of the index funds would push the stock up. Although the company was also added to the FTSE Russell, CRSP and MSCI indices – which are followed by assets amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars – the share price at the close of trading yesterday was a few cents lower than the closing price on its first trading day.

Those who bought the share in the IPO at a price of $135 and held it until today still enjoy a return of about 19%, but in fact all the profit was made already on the first day of trading. In other words, the entry into the indices has so far not provided the wave of increases that many had hoped for.

Although SpaceX’s market capitalization of $2.1 trillion makes it one of the most valuable companies in the US, it will not join the market cap-weighted index as one of the most heavily weighted stocks.

The reason for this is that in the IPO carried out by SpaceX last month, less than 5% of all its shares were sold. On top of that, the rules of the lock-up period prevent the employees from selling their shares for at least a few months, so that today only a small part of the company’s shares are publicly traded.

Nasdaq adjusts the weight of the shares in the index according to their “free float” rate, i.e. the number of shares available for public trading, and limits their weight in the index to up to three times the float-adjusted market value. In the case of SpaceX, this means that in the first stage it will be treated as if its value were approximately $300 billion, rather than $2 trillion, and its initial weight in the index would be less than 1%.

15:20

Futures on Wall Street are currently pointing to a mixed opening. Nasdaq contracts are now down about 0.9%, S&P 500 contracts are down about 0.1% and Dow Jones contracts are climbing about 0.3%, so the index is expected to open the day with a new high.

Chip stocks continue to suffer pressure in early trading. The basket fund SOXX which tracks chip stocks, lost about 3.7% in early trading. The basket fund DRAM which tracks memory chip stocks, is down more than 5%. Western Digital and Micron lose over 6%, while SanDisk also stands out for the negative with a drop of over 6%. In the broader chip sector, Marvel, Intel and AMD stand out for the negative, with declines of over 4%.

Reuters reported that the Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek is developing its own artificial intelligence chip. According to the report, the company wants to reduce its dependence on the chips of Nvidia and of Huawei, which it currently relies on to operate the artificial intelligence models it has developed.

For investors, the name Deepsik is already associated with an upheaval in the capital markets. In January 2025, the launch of the company’s artificial intelligence model also led to sharp declines in chip stocks, after raising concerns that it would be possible to develop AI models at much lower costs than conventional estimates. Once again, the report on the development of an independent chip reactivates the fear of future damage to Nvidia’s position. According to the sources, the new chip is designed for the inference stage, where an artificial intelligence model provides answers to users after its training process is complete. In recent years, this phase has become one of the main growth engines of the artificial intelligence industry, as it requires a lot of computing power as the number of users of the models increases. After the report, Nvidia’s stock drops by about 2% in early trading on Wall Street.

12:15

Trade in Europe continues to be conducted in a mixed trend. The Dax is down about 0.5%, while the Putsy and the KAC are both up about 0.5%.

The trend is also involved in futures trading on Wall Street. The Nasdaq contracts are down about 0.9%, the S&P 500 contracts are losing about 0.1% and the Dow Jones contracts are advancing about 0.2%.

After yesterday recovering slightly from last week’s declines and climbing close to 3%, the basket fund SOXX which tracks chip stocks, lost about 3.5% in early trading. The basket fund DRAM which tracks memory chip stocks, is down more than 5%. Western Digital and Micron lose over 5%, while SanDisk also stands out for the negative with a decrease of close to 5%. In the broader chip sector, Marvel, Intel and AMD stand out for the negative, with declines of up to 4%.

10:20

European stock markets open the day with a mixed trend. The DAX index falls by about 0.2%, the FTSE climbs by about 0.3% and the CAC adds to its value by about 0.7%.

In Asia, trade closed with significant declines. The Seoul Stock Exchange closed with a decrease of about 4.9%, after its daily low reached a decrease of over 8%. The Tokyo Stock Exchange lost about 2%, the Shanghai Stock Exchange weakened by about 1.3% and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange lost about 1%.

8:55

Trading on the European stock exchanges continues to be conducted in declines, although these have moderated a little. The Seoul Stock Exchange, which earlier fell by about 8%, has reversed some of the declines and is now only about 5% weaker. The Tokyo Stock Exchange weakens by approximately 1.5%, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange decreases by approximately 0.5% and the Shanghai Stock Exchange decreases by approximately 1.1%. Shares of chip giants Samsung and SK Hynix, which fell by about 10%, are now down over 7% and 8%, respectively.

7:55

The Asian stock markets are trading in a negative trend this morning, led by the Seoul Stock Exchange, which falls by about 8%, mainly due to a decrease in the chip stocks Samsung and SK Hynix, which both fall by about 10%. At the same time, the Tokyo Stock Exchange weakens by about 2%, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange loses about 0.7% and the Shanghai Stock Exchange sheds about 1%.

The drop follows strong initial financial results posted by chip giant Samsung for the second quarter. Samsung reported that it expects revenue of 171 trillion won (about $112.2 billion) – which would reflect annual growth of 129%. The unimaginable figure is an expected operating profit of 89.4 trillion won ($58.4 billion) in the second quarter; This, when in the corresponding quarter last year it was only 4.7 trillion won. Thus, the operating profit in the second quarter is expected to be 19 times compared to the corresponding quarter last year.

It is likely that this is the figure that raised concerns among investors that the tidal cycle in the memory chip stocks will not last much longer. Let’s recall that the shares of the chips, and in particular the shares of the memory chips, recorded increases of hundreds of percent in the last year.

Following the plunge among South Korean chip giants, Wall Street futures are mostly red this morning. Contracts on the Nasdaq fall by more than 1%, contracts on the S&P 500 weaken by about 0.3% and contracts on the Dow Jones are stable.

At the same time, oil prices are climbing slightly this morning, after a report according to which Iran attacked a tanker today off the coast of Oman, while it was passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude is trading around $72.5 per barrel, while US crude is trading around $69 per barrel.

Last night on Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange opened the week with a green trading day. The Nasdaq jumped about 1.1%, the S&P 500 advanced about 0.7%, and the Dow Jones climbed about 0.3% to a new all-time high, closing above 53,000 points for the first time.

While in the past week, there was a trend of rotation from the technology stocks to other areas of the market, at the beginning of this week the opposite trend is evident: while the technology and communication services sectors of the S&P 500 led the gains and advanced by more than 1%, the money actually came out of the defensive sectors. Thus, the declines were led by the basic consumer goods, infrastructure and health sectors, with declines of about 1% or more. The raw materials sector also weakened by about 0.2%.

The gains were led by chip stocks, which came under pressure last week. The basket fund SOXX climbed about 2.7%, after falling by more than 10% in the last two trading days of last week. Among the stocks that stood out in the gains, you can find AMD , Qualcomm , TSMC , Broadcom and more.

Memory chip stocks showed an even more significant recovery, with notable increases in shares Seagate , Western Digital andMicron . The basket fund DRAM which tracks shares in the field of memory chips, jumped by about 6.5%, after registering a decrease of about 6% in the past week.

Anthony Segalimbane, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial, referred to chip stocks, telling CNBC that “expectations are really very high, so I don’t know if we’ll see upside in the second half of these stocks like we saw in the first half. As long as they [החברות] They will confirm that the fundamentals are strong, so I think they will probably be able to climb a little higher.”

Seglimana noted that he expects there to be an ups and downs between the leading stocks of AI trading and the broader market over the coming months. According to him, this depends in particular on whether the AI-related companies can reaffirm their forecasts and show “strong” earnings.

Microsoft It stood out for the negative, against the background of its announcement of a round of layoffs of 4,800 employees, which make up 2.1% of its workforce. The XBOX division will cut 3,200 jobs by the end of fiscal year 2027, about a fifth of its workforce. This is one of the latest efficiency measures of the technology giant, in the face of the constraints of the age of artificial intelligence. on the other hand, poor It soared after President Donald Trump publicly expressed support for the company, exclaiming at an official event: “Go buy a Dell computer.”