When you get blisters from your shiny, new pair of shoes it's a relief to slip on that perfectly worn-in pair of sneakers.
The Magnificent Seven group of stocks is providing investors with that comforting familiarity. While the market had its head turned by Micron, SK Hynix, Sandisk and the rest of the memory-boom gang, they've been patiently waiting for when they were needed again.
That time is now. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven exchange-traded fund jumped 2.3% Wednesday and is now up more than 7% in July after slumping 9% in June -- its second worst month on record. Apple climbed 4% to a record high Wednesday, while Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft were all up around 3%.
The Big Tech bounceback is a timely one for markets. This year's highflying momentum plays and red-hot chip stocks have come under pressure recently. The PHLX Semiconductor Index, or SOX, is down 13% in July. The strength of the biggest U.S. companies has helped the S&P 500 rise around 1% this month, despite sharp falls for the index's hottest stocks.
The Mag 7 itself is probably an unreliable moniker these days -- Nvidia and Tesla ought to be separated from the other five, Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
The famous five have effectively become defensive plays. That's as software names have often been rotated into on bad days for the chip sector. But there's another reason -- if memory prices do ease then Big Tech will be able to keep plowing money into AI spending at lower costs.
Shiny new stocks like SpaceX and SK Hynix have joined the trillion-dollar club recently, while Anthropic and OpenAI will soon. Sometimes it's better to stick with those you know best.
-- Callum Keown
Get more of the journalism you love. Choose Barron's as a preferred source in Google.
A Chinese Rival to Micron Could Shake Up the Chip Market
The initial public offering of a Chinese memory-chip rival might be pressuring Micron Technology. The company, ChangXin Memory Technologies, is the world's fourth-largest maker of dynamic random-access memory, and its IPO proceeds will help it fund more production and take global market share.
-- Of course, Micron has been a highflying stock, up 200% for the year and
700% over the past 12 months, but its shares fell 8% on Wednesday as the
IPO nears. CXMT starts taking orders today for the Shanghai listing, set
to raise $8.55 billion.
-- At that size, the IPO will be nearly double CXMT's initial target, with
an implied market value of around $85.5 billion. CXMT had an 8% DRAM
market share in the first quarter, rising from 3% for the same period a
year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research.
-- That's still well behind Micron's 22% DRAM market share, and the even
larger positions of South Korean semiconductor companies such as SK Hynix
and Samsung Electronics. SK Hynix listed in the U.S. last week, and the
American depositary receipts have been volatile since.
-- But Micron generates nearly 80% of its revenue from DRAM, including the
high-bandwidth memory that is key for AI servers and which is driving
profit growth.
What's Next: Where CXMT will be limited is in its ability to supply U.S. companies and more advanced forms of hardware, such as high-bandwidth memory. CXMT is subject to American sanctions, curbing access to the most advanced chipmaking equipment.
-- Adam Clark, George Glover, and Anita Hamilton
U.S. Will Put 25% Tariff on Some Brazilian Goods
Certain Brazilian goods will be subject to a 25% tariff, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said late Wednesday. The move comes just a few months after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's sweeping global levies.
-- The tariffs follow a yearlong investigation into what officials described
as Brazil's unfair trade practices. High-quality beef cuts, coffee, and
yellowfin tuna are among the goods that will be exempt from the levies.
-- The "action is necessary to address these unfair trade practices to
ensure American workers and companies can compete on a level playing
field," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.
"Extensive negotiations with Brazil over the past year have not resolved
these issues."
-- The levies are being imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
That allows a president to impose tariffs on countries provided that his
administration can point to unjustifiable, unreasonable, or
discriminatory trade practices.
-- Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hit back at the duties
in a post on X. "There is no justification for unilateral measures
against our country," he wrote, noting that the U.S. has accumulated a
$424.5 billion trade surplus in goods and services with Brazil over the
past 15 years.
What's Next: The tariffs could sour relations between the two most populated countries in the Americas. "July 15, 2026, will go down in the history of relations between Brazil and the United States as a lamentable milestone," Lula said, adding that Brazil would respond by activating its economic reciprocity law.
-- George Glover
United Airlines Raises Full-Year Guidance, Warns of Fuel Costs
United Airlines warned that jet fuel costs could balloon by nearly $6 billion this year compared with earlier projections. Strong travel demand is offsetting costs, improving its outlook for adjusted earnings this year to $9 to $11 a share, up $2 on the low end of its previous target.
-- United beat second-quarter expectations even as second-quarter fuel costs
increased 84% from a year ago, of which it recovered about half. It
expects to recover 80% to 90% of its third-quarter fuel cost increases,
and 100% by the fourth quarter.
-- The carrier reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.99 a share
and revenue of $17.7 billion, up 16% from last year. Diverse businesses
contributed to results: Platinum revenue rose 16%, Basic Economy
increased 11%, loyalty rose 11%, and cargo revenue grew 23%. Total
revenue per seat-mile increased 12.1%.
-- United launched 27 new routes in the U.S. and Canada, including nine new
domestic routes from Chicago-O'Hare International Airport. It flew the 10
highest-volume days in company history in June, including a record more
than 640,000 customers in one day.
-- Since rival Delta Air Lines reported better-than-expected earnings on
Friday, oil prices have risen as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran
have escalated. Jet fuel prices had been moderating in recent months, but
the spike complicates the picture for carriers and investors.
What's Next: For the current third quarter ending in September, United expects adjusted earnings of $2.50 to $3.50 a share. It expects to decrease capacity in the fourth quarter from current published schedules, but could also trim capacity near-term because of higher fuel costs.
-- Janet H. Cho and Callum Keown
SpaceX Stock Needs a Booster. This Event Could Help.
Elon Musk's rocket, satellite, and artificial intelligence company SpaceX needs some good news after its stock dipped below the $135 IPO price just weeks after listing. That could come as soon as today, because SpaceX is set to test its huge, fully reusable Starship for the 13th time.
-- Starship promises to dramatically lower the cost of reaching space while
dramatically increasing SpaceX's capacity to put things into orbit. The
fully reusable Starship is designed to put some 150,000 kilograms into
space at a tenth of the per-kilogram cost of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
-- Lower costs will enable new applications, such as orbital AI data
centers. But Starship isn't operational yet. SpaceX is still working out
the kinks. The 13th test will help SpaceX refine the third generation of
its rocket. Starship's upper stage will also try to deploy 20 Starlink
satellites.
-- The upper stage will also attempt an in-space relight of a single Raptor
rocket engine before a controlled re-entry and splashdown in the Indian
Ocean. The 12th test was in May. Today's 90-minute launch window opens at
6:45 p.m. Eastern time.
-- SpaceX shares slid as low as $132.15 on Wednesday before recovering
slightly to close just pennies above the IPO price. It's been a rough few
weeks for SpaceX stock. Shares traded as high as $225.64 on June 16 and
are down double digits since then.
What's Next: Starship success could give sentiment a boost. The rocket is the "flywheel" that enables SpaceX's value creation, says RBC analyst Ken Herbert. SpaceX hopes to be launching hundreds of Starships thousands of times a year, a reason Herbert and others rate SpaceX shares Buy.
-- Al Root
How Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' Became the It Movie of Summer
Director Christopher Nolan's latest epic, The Odyssey, opens in theaters this weekend after months of anticipation and a $125 million global marketing campaign, with a record number of presold tickets and some sold-out theaters already. Hollywood has big expectations.
-- The epic is expected to sell up to $125 million at the domestic box
office and potentially another $100 million overseas. "The buzz is
extraordinary," said Stephen Galloway, dean of the Dodge College of Film
and Media Arts at Chapman University. All eyes are on whether it can beat
2023's Oppenheimer.
-- Fans have been snapping up IMAX's Odyssey tickets ever since some
theaters put them on sale a year ago, and analysts expect the movie's
performance to more than compensate for the lukewarm openings of other
summer films, such as Disney's Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and
Moana.
-- The Odyssey, distributed by Comcast's Universal Pictures, is especially
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
July 16, 2026 07:05 ET (11:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments