U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapping a five-session winning streak. Oil prices climbed after Iranian state media reported that a draft bill regarding navigation conditions in the Strait of Hormuz would reportedly bar American and Israeli vessels from the crucial waterway. The semi-official Fars news agency stated the plan is currently being reviewed by an Iranian parliamentary committee. Meanwhile, market attention is turning toward Friday's nonfarm payrolls report.
The Dow fell 464.02 points, or 0.85%, to close at 53,885.10. The Nasdaq slipped 15.09 points, or 0.06%, to 26,348.35. The S&P 500 dropped 13.53 points, or 0.18%, to 7,710.02. Shares of SanDisk (SNDK.US) fell 6.8%, while Western Digital (WDC.US) plunged 13%. SK Hynix (SKHY.US) lost 5%, and SpaceX (SPCX.US) gained 6%. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rose 0.27%, with Alibaba (BABA.US) declining 1%.
European markets showed mixed results. Germany's DAX 30 edged up 20.00 points, or 0.08%, to 26,159.03. The UK's FTSE 100 fell 15.39 points, or 0.14%, to 10,872.91. France's CAC 40 added 30.41 points, or 0.35%, to 8,699.71. The Euro Stoxx 50 gained 30.27 points, or 0.47%, to 6,507.25. Spain's IBEX 35 rose 122.90 points, or 0.61%, to 20,179.90, and Italy's FTSE MIB increased 259.20 points, or 0.48%, to 53,706.00.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 0.93%, and South Korea's KOSPI index dropped 4.58%.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.25% to 99.930 in late trading. At the New York close, the euro traded at $1.1524, down from $1.1553 the previous day. Sterling was at $1.3457, down from $1.3469. The dollar bought 158.33 yen, up from 157.67 yen. It also rose to 0.8122 Swiss francs from 0.8069, to 1.4014 Canadian dollars from 1.4008, and to 9.5068 Swedish kronor from 9.4832.
Bitcoin was hovering above $64,000, trading at $64,402.18. Ethereum slipped 0.12% to $1,904.
Oil prices surged. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery rose $2.07 to settle at $77.29 a barrel, a gain of 2.75%. Brent crude for October delivery jumped $3.04 to close at $82.49 a barrel, an increase of 3.83%.
In precious metals, spot gold edged down 0.14% to $4,240.27, while spot silver stood at $61.533.
President Trump commented on Thursday that a deal with Iran could be reached soon, stating the Strait is "sort of open." Trump signed executive orders on birthright citizenship and polysilicon tariffs at the White House. On Iran, he said, "The war with Iran will be over soon. I am involved in negotiations with Iran, and a deal could happen soon. I don't think Iran can last much longer. There is no agreement on the Strait of Hormuz yet, but it is 'sort of' open right now. We control it." He also addressed arms supplies, noting, "We are in good shape, we have unlimited supply, but we always want more ammunition. We have stockpiles all over the world, and if needed, we will go get them."
The U.S. is reportedly considering delaying tariffs on polysilicon and related products. Sources indicated that Trump administration officials are weighing a plan to postpone tariffs on solar panels and other goods containing polysilicon by several months. The President could issue an order as early as Thursday, but officials are considering a 90-to-120-day transition period. This arrangement might accelerate imports by companies involved in U.S. renewable energy projects before the tariffs take effect.
U.S. crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia fell to zero in July, marking the first full-month halt in over 40 years. Preliminary government data shows no Saudi crude was shipped to the U.S. in July, the first time since 1985 for an entire month. The Energy Department data revealed shipments had completely stopped. This is a significant drop considering U.S. refiners were buying over 800,000 barrels a day from Saudi Arabia earlier this year. U.S. refiners have been seeking alternative supplies as disruptions linked to the Strait of Hormuz pushed up prices tied to global benchmarks. While Saudi deliveries to the U.S. have occasionally fallen to zero in individual weeks, July was the first full month at that level in four decades. According to Kpler, imports from Saudi Arabia are expected to resume in August at about 300,000 barrels a day, consistent with recent historical norms.
SpaceX plans to build its own natural gas power plant and large-scale energy storage facility for a chip factory in Texas. The company is developing a massive semiconductor manufacturing plant, Terafab, in partnership with Tesla. Riley Trettel, who oversees energy and data center development for SpaceX, said in Grimes County, Texas, "We will be self-sufficient. We will build a gas-fired power plant and also a very large battery array to store energy." These comments provide new details on the plans for the new facility by two of Elon Musk's largest companies. Surging electricity demand from data centers and new factories is driving the need for new gas plants, and Musk has long favored a vertical integration model. Musk and his companies are not new to the Texas energy market. Tesla produces large-scale grid batteries called Megapacks and operates a Megapack factory west of Houston.
Nvidia is reportedly considering reducing the memory capacity of its next-generation Rubin Ultra graphics processor to address a shortage of high-end HBM memory chips. Sources said Nvidia has tested at least three versions of the Rubin Ultra card in recent weeks, with some having less memory than originally specified. The adjustment is partly due to potential supply constraints for the high-end memory needed for the original design. Reducing memory could impact chip performance, though Nvidia may compensate through other means. However, other AI companies might need to use more of these memory-reduced chips to run large AI models.
Alphabet's latest mega bond offering attracted about $115 billion in orders, signaling renewed investor interest in debt linked to the AI boom after a recent selloff. According to sources, demand for the bond sale was more than four times the expected maximum size of $25 billion. This demand exceeded orders for other recent AI-related bond offerings from companies like Amazon and SpaceX. Alphabet offered a relatively higher yield premium to attract demand for the issuance.
Tesla announced that the Terafab project is officially launching in Texas, with a target of achieving over one terawatt of compute power. Earlier this year, SpaceX and Tesla unveiled the "Terafab" project, billed as the world's largest chip manufacturing initiative, integrating logic chips, memory chips, and advanced packaging under one roof. In April, Tesla broke ground on a new R&D wafer fab in the north section of its Texas Gigafactory, a precursor to Terafab. The company confirmed Terafab will be located in Grimes County, Texas. The facility is designed as an advanced semiconductor wafer fab to bridge the gap between current global chip supply and future computing demand. The combined demand for chips from SpaceX and Tesla is projected to exceed one terawatt of computing power, far surpassing current global supply capacity. The widening gap between future supply and demand is the core reason for the Terafab project, which aims to manufacture new computing capacity at an unprecedented scale and speed. The project includes a vertically integrated factory with over 100 million square feet of manufacturing space, covering advanced logic and memory chip fabrication, packaging, and testing. Co-locating these processes aims to enable rapid iterative improvements and accelerate the deployment of new computing power.
BNP Paribas raised its price target on Western Digital (WDC.US) from $660 to $700.
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