Chip stocks suffered a wobble, and investors had better hope that's all it is.
Insatiable demand for all things semiconductor and artificial intelligence is underpinning this stock market rally. The PHLX Semiconductor Index dropped around 6% Tuesday, and the S&P 500 had a bad day as a result -- the opposite was happening early Wednesday.
While SpaceX's abrupt entry into the highest echelon of U.S. companies is grabbing the headlines, the emergence of two other stocks in the top 10 most valuable list tells the real story of this market.
Broadcom and Micron have both joined the trillion-dollar club in recent months, while Advanced Micro Devices -- up 20% in the past month -- isn't far off. Other chip stocks up double digits in the past month include Lam Research, Applied Materials, Sandisk, and Western Digital.
But Micron and SpaceX aside, the biggest names are struggling. Broadcom is down 11% over the past month, while Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon are all down between 6% and 8%.
SpaceX is a law unto itself at this point, rising irrespective of whether the broader technology sector is having a good day. And Micron is getting a seemingly relentless boost from the memory-chip shortage.
Glass-half-full investors will say that if the Magnificent Seven can join the party then the rally can keep going. But if the chip-stock momentum runs out of steam it could be a big problem for the stock market.
-- Callum Keown
Get more of the journalism you love. Choose Barron's as a preferred source in Google.
What to Watch at Warsh's First Post-Decision Press Conference
The Federal Reserve will conclude its two-day policy meeting later today, and the least interesting aspect will be its decision on interest rates. Instead, all eyes and ears will be on Chairman Kevin Warsh as he takes the stage at his first post-meeting news conference.
-- While President Donald Trump has indicated he prefers his Fed pick to
lower rates, higher inflation and stable employment conditions are far
more likely to argue for keeping rates steady, at least for now. Warsh
comes to the Fed armed with a self-proclaimed reform agenda.
-- Many expect some of his biggest ambitions regarding change to take time
to implement. Still, the news conference is expected to provide investors
and Fed watchers with a better sense of his priorities. The biggest
change could target forward guidance.
-- The Fed is expected to drop the previous language in the policy statement
that suggested the next action would likely be a rate cut. Cleveland Fed
President Beth Hammack, Dallas Fed President Lori Logan, and Minnesota
Fed President Neal Kashkari all dissented against the language in April.
-- Questions during the afternoon news conference will likely seek to
address Warsh's plans for communication changes, including the number of
future postmeeting press conferences. Warsh previously refused to commit
to keeping the tradition of speaking with reporters after every meeting.
What's Next: Fed hawks aren't just worried about inflation; they fear the consequences of 62 months of price growth above the Fed's 2% target. The new set of economic projections will likely show slightly higher median inflation forecasts for year end than the Fed's previous forecast.
-- Megan Leonhardt
Global Investors Look Through Rate Hike Bets, Still Focus on AI
Some of the world's biggest investors held their bullish outlook on stocks even before signs of detente between the U.S. and Iran emerged, as Bank of America's latest Global Fund Manager survey points out. Most say growth and profits will outweigh the risk of interest-rate hikes and surging energy prices.
-- The survey, of institutional investors managing more than half a trillion
dollars over the week ending in June 11, showed continued optimism, with
respondents indicating the highest levels of economic and corporate
profit growth forecasts in three months. Some managers did trim positions
and boosted their cash.
-- More than half of those polled expect the Fed's Kevin Warsh to execute a
"hawkish hold" on rates today but see increases coming over the next 12
months as price growth tied to the U.S. war with Iran continue to
pressure headline inflation readings over the coming months.
-- In fact, inflation remains the market's key "tail risk," according to the
BofA survey, replacing worries over the spread of global military
conflicts and topping concerns of a bubble in artificial-intelligence
stocks. Headline inflation in the U.S. hit 4.2% last month, the highest
in three years.
-- Simon MacAdam, the deputy chief global economist at Capital Economics
said the headline inflation number likely peaked in May, assuming the
deal doesn't collapse and oil prices renew their surge.
What's Next: Investors still see the tech sector trading at unhealthy levels, with a survey record high of 80% suggesting that long positions in global semiconductor stocks remain the market's "most crowded" trade. About one-fifth said the current AI investment cycle is in a stage of "euphoria."
-- Martin Baccardax
SpaceX Valuation Tops Amazon on Third Trading Day
Starstruck investors made SpaceX a more valuable company than Amazon on Tuesday, as Elon Musk's rocket and artificial intelligence company extended its stellar start to life on the public market.
-- Shares, which trade under the ticker SPCX, rose 4.8% to $201.80,
shrugging off a broader selloff. The S&P 500 slipped 0.6% as Wall Street
sold tech stocks and bought laggards.
-- The rally gave SpaceX a total market capitalization of $2.66 trillion at
the closing bell, making it the U.S.'s fifth-largest company -- behind
chip designer Nvidia, Google parent Alphabet, iPhone maker Apple, and IT
company Microsoft. It passed Amazon, valued at $2.65 trillion.
-- Beyond post-IPO momentum, one thing that might have helped is a deal with
Cursor. SpaceX on Tuesday announced it was combining with the agentic AI
software coding tool, which competes with the likes of Anthropic's
Claude. The price is $60 billion, paid in SpaceX stock.
-- SpaceX has been on a tear to start its life as a public company. Shares
gained 19% on their trading debut on Friday, then jumped another 20% on
Monday. SpaceX's market cap rose by about $760 billion across the two
sessions -- more than the value of Intel.
What's Next: If SpaceX stock continues to surge, its market cap may well top Microsoft's over the next few days. The IT company, valued at $2.93 trillion, is expected to generate calendar year 2027 sales of $420 billion and operating profit of $194 billion. SpaceX is expected to generate sales of $65 billion and operating profit of $3 billion.
-- Al Root and George Glover
GM, Lockheed Martin Collaborate Amid Trump Push for Weapons
General Motors and Lockheed Martin are collaborating on efforts to combine GM's high-volume manufacturing capabilities with Lockheed's defense expertise to strengthen the defense supply chain and expand munitions production capacity. The move comes amid a Trump administration push to boost military production.
-- America's security depends not only on developing advanced technologies,
but on its ability to produce them "quickly, reliably and at scale," said
Frank St. John, chief operating officer at Lockheed. The Defense
Department is supporting the collaboration.
-- The Trump administration has signed deals with Lockheed and other
munitions makers to boost missile production. It has been running drone
competitions to more rapidly put technologies from the Ukraine and Iran
wars in the hands of the U.S. military.
-- President Donald Trump invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to
try to increase production of critical munitions, citing "limited
production capacity, fragile supply chains, long-lead dependencies, and
related production bottlenecks," in a memo to Defense Secretary Pete
Hegseth released Tuesday.
-- The U.S. is concerned about a potential weapons shortfall after the Iran
war, and doubts that Americans weapons makers can meet extra demand, The
Wall Street Journal reported. Replacing the stockpiles of long-range
Tomahawk missiles and air-defense missiles could take up to six years,
officials told the Journal.
What's Next: Some administration officials think that the high munitions-expenditure rates could complicate the Pentagon's ability to defend Taiwan from a possible Chinese invasion near-term. The White House and the Pentagon dispute this. Congress must approve the long-term deals and funding before the Pentagon can lock in contracts.
-- Al Root and Janet H. Cho
IMAX Stock Boosted by Hot Summer Movie Schedule
Hollywood's summer box office sales since May 1 are outpacing last summer by about 11% thanks to the movie release calendar -- and even a few unexpectedly strong showings. A beneficiary is the large-screen format IMAX, ideally situated to draw large audiences to summer blockbusters.
-- BFI Imax, the largest screen in the U.K., reported selling 28,000 advance tickets in a day for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, grossing more than $1 million, according to Deadline. The Odyssey, the first film shot entirely in 70mm on IMAX Film cameras, opens in the U.S. on July 17. -- Already, Universal Pictures' Disclosure Day, directed by Steven Spielberg, grossed an estimated $92.9 million worldwide, including $13.8 million on IMAX screens, according to Rentrak. Lionsgate's biopic about the pop entertainer Michael Jackson has grossed $932.2 million globally, including $65.2 million on IMAX. -- Roth's senior media analyst Eric Handler estimates that IMAX's
second-quarter box office has surpassed $234 million, up 5.7% from last
year. He believes Hollywood's 2026 box office has the potential to
approach a postpandemic high of $9.9 billion. IMAX stock hit a new
all-time high Tuesday.
-- Still to be released this quarter are Walt Disney's Toy Story 5, opening
Friday on more than 1,600 IMAX screens worldwide, including in China. The
movie is expected to draw more than $150 million in domestic sales.
Warner Bros. Pictures' Supergirl, opening June 26, was also filmed for
IMAX.
What's Next: Roth's Handler says July is looking especially strong for IMAX, including not only The Odyssey but Minions and Monsters (opening July 1), Moana (July 10), and Spider-Man: Brand New Day in select international markets. China's war epic Peng Hu (July 25), is generating "significant buzz in its home market."
-- Janet H. Cho
Dear Quentin,
My grandmother had a joint checking account with my mother. When my grandmother passed away, the money remaining in that account did not become part of her estate. The will stated that the estate was to be divided equally among her children, but it made no mention of the funds in the joint checking account.
This is not an ethical question about whether the money in the account should have been included in the estate, but a legal one. Was my mother legally obligated to divide the remaining funds in the checking account among her siblings? The only assets the siblings received were the proceeds remaining from my grandmother's life insurance.
What do you think?
-- The Grandson
Read the Moneyist's response here.
-- Quentin Fottrell
-- Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O'Donnell, Rupert Steiner
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 17, 2026 06:32 ET (10:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments