U.S. grants a 60-day exemption for Iranian crude oil exports, sending international oil prices down over 2%.
*The three major stock indices diverged, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising nearly 0.3%.
*Medium- and long-term U.S. Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year yield returning to 4.50%.
*Super Micro Computer surged nearly 15% after the company launched a high-performance computing data center solution based on Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform.
On Monday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed lower, dragged down by major tech giants like Alphabet, while investors assessed the latest developments in U.S.-Iran negotiations. At the close, the Dow Jones gained 148.01 points, or 0.29%, to 51,712.71. The Nasdaq fell 1.32% to 26,166.60, and the S&P 500 declined 0.37% to 7,472.79.
Notable Stock Movements
Leading technology stocks performed weakly, with Alphabet falling 5%, erasing $210 billion in market value. The company faced negative news regarding a key talent departure: John Jumper, a data scientist at its DeepMind unit and 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, announced his resignation last Friday to join Anthropic. Meta, Amazon.com, and Microsoft saw declines ranging from 2.3% to 4.7%.
SpaceX plummeted 16.4%, marking its largest single-day drop since going public and wiping over $320 billion from its market capitalization. However, the stock's current price remains above its $135 IPO price. The Elon Musk-led company on Monday announced its inaugural bond offering plan and disclosed that as of June 19, it held approximately $100.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
The semiconductor sector strengthened, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rising 2.4% to a new record high. Intel gained 5.19%, AMD rose 2.65%, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company advanced 1.20%.
Memory chip stocks showed broad strength, with Micron Technology surging 6.82% after Bernstein raised its price target to $1,300 and Needham lifted its outlook to $1,550. The rally faces a key test this week as Micron Technology is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday. The memory chipmaker's stock has gained nearly 300% year-to-date.
SanDisk rose 4.07%, Seagate Technology gained 2.22%, while Western Digital fell 1.82%.
AbbVie announced a $10.9 billion all-cash acquisition of biopharmaceutical company Apogee Therapeutics, sending the latter's stock soaring nearly 47%. AbbVie's shares rose 6.2%.
Super Micro Computer jumped nearly 15% after the company announced the launch of a full suite high-performance computing data center solution built on Nvidia's Vera Rubin NVL4 platform.
The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index fell 1.35%, with Alibaba and JD.com down nearly 2%, Pinduoduo declining 1.82%, and NetEase edging up 0.2%.
Market Overview
While previous optimism about the artificial intelligence sector had supported the sustained rise in U.S. stocks, analysts note that a growing number of investors are beginning to question the massive capital expenditures by cloud giants to build out computing infrastructure regardless of cost. Bill Northey, Senior Investment Director at U.S. Bank, stated, "The technology sector is highly sentiment-driven, and the daily movements of major leaders are often highly correlated. However, over a longer cycle, the fundamentals for the AI data center build-out sector remain very strong, encompassing both major cloud providers and various hardware component companies upstream in the supply chain."
According to a report, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a 60-day general license on June 22nd, authorizing the production, delivery, and sale of Iranian petroleum. An announcement from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control stated that transactions involving Iranian crude oil, petrochemicals, and petroleum products, previously prohibited by multiple U.S. executive orders and regulations, are exempted until August 21, 2026. The announcement also indicated that importing Iranian crude oil, petrochemicals, and petroleum products into the United States is permitted.
The United States and Iran held talks and reached an agreement in Bürgenstock, Switzerland, on June 21-22. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian posted on social media on the 22nd, saying, "Exports of oil and petrochemical products have been exempted, the blockade has been lifted, some assets have been unfrozen, and a major Iranian reconstruction and development program has been launched."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stated that Iran's cooperation and interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency will continue according to existing mechanisms, following relevant laws of the Iranian parliament and decisions made by the Supreme National Security Council.
A key market focus this week is the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index data to be released on Thursday—the Federal Reserve's preferred core inflation gauge. Federal Reserve Chair Michelle Bowman emphasized the necessity of curbing inflation at last week's meeting. If the PCE data comes in higher than expected, it would further strengthen expectations for the Fed's continued tight policy stance. Data from the London Stock Exchange Group shows the market currently prices in a high probability of a 25-basis-point rate hike by the Fed in September.
Medium- and long-term U.S. Treasury yields rose. The 2-year Treasury yield, closely linked to interest rate expectations, increased by 5.3 basis points to 4.230%. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 5.6 basis points to 4.507%.
Commodity Performance
International oil prices declined. The price of light, sweet crude for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.78, or 2.32%, to settle at $74.82 per barrel. Brent crude for August delivery on the Intercontinental Exchange fell $2.67, or 3.31%, to settle at $77.90 per barrel.
Precious metals faced pressure. The price of COMEX gold for June delivery fell 1.00% to $4,181.90 per ounce. COMEX silver for June delivery fell 1.10% to $65.52 per ounce.
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