Thursday's top stock by trading volume was Micron Technology (MU), which closed down 5.65% with a turnover of $39.12 billion. US memory chip stocks declined on Thursday, with Micron's market capitalization falling below $1 trillion.
The second most traded stock was NVIDIA (NVDA), which closed down 2.4% with a turnover of $25.058 billion. NVIDIA launched a new AI model for robots and visual agents on Wednesday, further expanding its footprint in Japan's embodied AI sector.
The new model, named Cosmos 3 Edge, is a world model designed to help intelligent systems perceive the physical environment in real-time and achieve autonomous navigation. Compared to large language models (LLMs), world models can learn from a broader range of data inputs. This release follows the launch of the base version, Cosmos 3, in May of this year.
NVIDIA stated that CEO Jensen Huang has begun a two-day visit to Japan, with regional business expansion being a core topic. The Silicon Valley chip giant plans to form an industry alliance to expand its embodied AI presence in Japan, with major Japanese industrial leaders like Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries planning to join.
The third most traded stock was SanDisk (SNDX), which closed down 12.63% with a turnover of $24.696 billion. SanDisk's stock has been falling sharply recently, with some analysts pointing to TSMC's second-quarter earnings report, which revealed higher-than-expected capital expenditures (over $60 billion), as a direct trigger for market concerns about a potential chip supply glut.
While in the long term, TSMC's expansion of AI chip production could boost demand for NAND flash memory, benefiting SanDisk's business, the industry-wide capacity ramp-up has heightened expectations for a future supply-demand reversal, price declines, and margin compression. Even before any actual oversupply materializes, the market is already pricing in the long-term cyclical risks, putting continued pressure on SanDisk's stock price.
Analysis indicates that SanDisk faces debate over the memory chip cycle. While its performance guidance exceeded expectations, institutional opinions on the stock are sharply divided between bullish and bearish views.
The fifth most traded stock was Alphabet (GOOGL), which closed down 4.44% with a turnover of $14.669 billion. According to informed sources, Google has delayed the release of its Gemini flagship model because its technical capabilities have not yet met the expected targets.
Sources said the launch of Google's most powerful flagship AI model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, has been delayed by several months from the original plan as the company spends more time improving the model's capabilities, particularly in programming.
Ten current and former employees revealed that the delay has caused dissatisfaction among Google engineers, AI researchers, and management, who are concerned that with Anthropic and OpenAI successively releasing models that outperform Gemini, Google could lose its market leadership.
These sources noted that Google requires approval from multiple stakeholders before releasing a model, and it also needs to integrate AI capabilities into products like Search, Maps, and YouTube, factors that can slow down product launches. The individuals requested anonymity due to the internal nature of the information.
The seventh most traded stock was Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which closed down 5.33% with a turnover of $13.545 billion. KeyBanc analyst John Vinh maintained a "Buy" rating on AMD and significantly raised the price target from $530 to $725, indicating the market's continued optimism about the company's long-term growth driven by AI performance enhancements in devices and data center business.
The tenth most traded stock was Intel (INTC), which closed down 5.84% with a turnover of $10.359 billion. Intel announced on Thursday that it will integrate advanced, Gemini-powered generative AI across its global workforce.
The twelfth most traded stock was Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), which closed down 2.32% with a turnover of $10.113 billion. TSMC reported second-quarter net profit that exceeded expectations, raised its full-year growth forecast, and increased its capital expenditure plan.
The company's second-quarter results, announced on July 16, significantly surpassed market expectations. During the quarter, TSMC achieved a net profit of 706.6 billion New Taiwan dollars (approximately $22 billion), with a gross margin nearing 68%. Due to extremely strong AI demand, TSMC plans to invest more in capacity expansion, raising its capital expenditure forecast for this year by a substantial $8 billion to a range of $60 billion to $64 billion. Concurrently, TSMC confirmed an additional $100 billion investment in Arizona, USA, further solidifying its commitment to the US market.
TSMC CEO C.C. Wei stated that, driven by robust AI demand, he has raised the company's full-year sales growth forecast to over 40%. Wei noted that outside the AI sector, smartphone chip sales have declined and no shortages are present, with almost all demand growth currently coming from AI and the data centers that serve it. He expressed high optimism, predicting that the next several years will be "very good business" for TSMC.
The thirteenth most traded stock was SK hynix (SKHY), which closed down 13.69% with a turnover of $8.572 billion. US memory chip stocks continued to fall on Thursday, with SanDisk and SK hynix leading the declines.
The seventeenth most traded stock was Oracle (ORCL), which closed down 6.25% with a turnover of $6.832 billion. Weighed down by concerns over high capital expenditures, Oracle has been weakening since June 1 and is now down approximately 50% from its recent high of $248.15. However, Wall Street institutions remain bullish on the stock, with analysts' 12-month price targets suggesting over 68% upside potential from the current price.
On July 6, Piper Sandler reiterated its "Buy" rating on Oracle with a $225 price target. The firm expressed continued confidence in Oracle, expecting its cloud infrastructure business revenue for fiscal year 2027 to exceed market expectations. The firm also noted that the company's increased capital expenditures will translate into larger-scale cloud computing resources, ultimately driving overall revenue growth.
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