Chips Slide as Korea's Selloff Spreads to Wall Street — Dow and Apple Rally to Close Out a Choppy Week

Chips Slide, Blue Chips Rally as Wall Street Closes Out a Choppy Week

Korea's Overnight Chip Selloff Spreads to Wall Street, Dragging Memory Stocks Lower

• An overnight selloff on South Korea's KOSPI, led by Samsung and SK Hynix, spilled into U.S. trading Friday as memory-chip names sold off in sympathy — SK Hynix's U.S.-listed shares fell about 6% and the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) dropped roughly 7%.
• SanDisk (SNDK) tumbled ▼ 10.8% and Micron (MU) and Western Digital each fell roughly 6%, even after Citigroup called the broader semiconductor selloff "a buying opportunity," noting AI and memory chips make up about 34% of chip sales with demand expected to outrun supply through 2030.
• Intel (INTC) surged as much as 4.7% in premarket trading on a blowout earnings beat — pro forma profit roughly double Wall Street's estimate and sales growth of 25% to $16.1 billion, its fastest revenue growth in nearly 15 years — but reversed to close down ▼ 6.5% as investors weighed heavy AI-related capital spending against the results.
• Despite the tech pressure, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose ▲ 0.46% and the S&P 500 edged up ▲ 0.05%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped ▼ 0.64% as memory-chip weakness offset gains elsewhere on the board.

Apple's Low-Spending AI Story Draws a Premium as Real Estate Rallies

• Apple (AAPL) climbed ▲ 3.5% as investors rotated toward companies with lean AI capital spending — Apple converted roughly $78 billion of operating cash flow into free cash after capex over the past six months, versus just over $4 billion for Alphabet on similar revenue, a gap Baird cited in raising its price target to $330.
• Digital Realty Trust (DLR) led gainers across the market, surging ▲ 13.5% after crushing Q2 earnings estimates and raising its full-year guidance on strong data-center demand, pushing real estate to the top of Friday's sector leaderboard.
• Financial services broadly outperformed, with Bank of America (BAC) up ▲ 1.3%, while yields eased on hopes that a retreat in oil prices would take pressure off inflation.
• Oracle (ORCL) popped as much as 2.5% in premarket trading on a roughly $7 billion Pentagon contract, but the relief was short-lived — shares reversed to close down ▼ 4.3%, extending a stock that's now down nearly 30% year-to-date on AI-spending and debt concerns.

Digital Realty and Apple Led Friday's Gainers

• Digital Realty Trust (DLR) was the day's standout, surging ▲ 13.5% after a stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings report and raised guidance reignited investor enthusiasm for data-center landlords.
• Apple (AAPL) rose ▲ 3.5% as its capital-light AI positioning drew a valuation premium over heavier-spending peers like Alphabet, whose infrastructure spending has eaten deeply into free cash flow.
• Bank of America (BAC) added ▲ 1.3%, part of a broader rally in financial-services names as Treasury yields pulled back from recent highs.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed its peers, closing up ▲ 0.46% to 51,947.25 as blue-chip and value names held up better than growth and technology stocks.

A Mixed Close as Memory Chips Weigh on the Nasdaq

• The S&P 500 edged up ▲ 0.05% to 7,411.98 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained ▲ 0.46% to 51,947.25, while the Nasdaq Composite fell ▼ 0.64% to 24,975.82 and the Russell 2000 slipped ▼ 0.35% to 2,930.00.
• The S&P 500 finished lower for a second consecutive week, and the Nasdaq is down roughly 2% over the past month as renewed AI-spending scrutiny and this week's memory-chip selloff weighed on growth stocks.
• WTI crude retreated about 2.3% to roughly $90.12 a barrel, easing inflation fears slightly on reports that Pakistan is pushing for new U.S.-Iran talks with China's backing — even as Bahrain and Kuwait warplanes reportedly struck sites inside Iran overnight. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.68% and gold rose to roughly $4,056 an ounce.
• Flash S&P Global data showed U.S. business activity accelerating in July, with the composite reading climbing to an eight-month high of 53.6; the manufacturing PMI came in at 53.8, a touch below the 54.3 economists expected, while services rebounded to 53.6.

A Fed Decision and a Wave of Big Tech Earnings Headline Next Week

• The Federal Reserve announces its rate decision Wednesday, July 29, with prediction markets pricing roughly an 80% chance of holding rates at 3.50%–3.75% and about a 19% chance of a 25-basis-point hike, as May inflation data showed a 4.2% annual rise driven partly by higher energy costs.
• Microsoft, Meta, and Robinhood report earnings Wednesday, July 29, just hours after the Fed decision, followed by Apple, Amazon, and Coinbase on Thursday, July 30 — a dense stretch that will test whether AI-spending concerns ease or intensify.
• Q2 GDP and June PCE inflation data land Thursday, July 30, the same day as a Bank of England rate decision, giving investors four separate reads on the economy and rates within 48 hours.
• The Bank of Japan announces its decision Friday, July 31, alongside monthly Bitcoin and Ethereum options and futures expiring on Deribit and CME — a combination that could add volatility in thinner summer markets.
• Follow-through in memory-chip stocks is worth watching after Friday's Korea-led selloff in SanDisk, Micron, and Western Digital — a real test of whether Citigroup's call that the pullback is "a buying opportunity" holds up.