MPC Markets Morning Call

Chip stocks powered Wall Street higher as investors brushed aside U.S.–Iran strikes. S&P 500 +0.8% to 7,541.83, Nasdaq +1.3%. SK Hynix raised $26.5B in the largest foreign IPO in U.S. history. Meta up 4.7% on AI chip production plans, Muse Spark 1.1 launch, and cloud business exploration. Crude fell ~2% despite 170 U.S. strikes on Iranian targets after Trump said Iran called wanting a deal. Le...

Trump declared the Iran ceasefire "over" at NATO, launching a second day of strikes as markets closed. Oil surged past $80 before settling at $78.55. The S&P dipped 0.3% while chip stocks bounced. Fed minutes showed a split committee on rate hikes under new chair Warsh. We break down the Iran escalation, oil dynamics, Hormuz traffic, Nvidia's China chip deal, the IMF growth downg...

Samsung's record profit wasn't enough. Chip stocks got hammered across the board, with the Philly Semis down 4.7% and Intel off nearly 10%. The US hit Iran with fresh strikes and revoked its oil sales waiver after three tankers were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. Crude surged 5%, gold dropped, and bond yields hit a four-week high. But here's the thing — most S&P 500 stocks rose....

Chip stocks snap a two-week losing streak on light post-holiday volume. AMD, Broadcom, TSMC all up big — Nvidia lagged on delay rumours. Dow at a record, S&P within 1% of highs. Bitcoin up nearly 10% in five days. Former Japanese currency czar says yen undervalued by 20%. Fed Chair Warsh testifies tonight, first-under-Warsh minutes out Wednesday. ASX news: Lynas, South32, Netwealth, VanEck&#39...

Dow hits record 52,899 but chip stocks crater. June payrolls: 57k vs 115k expected. Rate hike odds slashed. We cover the jobs miss, what it means for the Fed, Meta's $145B AI capex scramble, oil flattening at pre-war levels, gold surging on dollar weakness, and why 87% of the S&P 500's H1 gains came from chips alone. Plus the 1990s Desert Storm parallel for where inflation goes from he...

Book a Portfolio Review: https://www.mpcmarkets.com.au/portfolio-review/Semiconductor stocks were hammered today after reports that OpenAI has dramatically cut inference costs through software optimisations — slashing GPU requirements for large parts of ChatGPT traffic. The SOX Index fell over 6% in its worst session in months, hitting Nvidia, AMD, Intel and chip equipment names hard after one of...

Best quarter in six years and chips stole the show. SOX up 88% for the quarter — its best ever. Micron quadrupled. Intel trebled. And the Mag Seven? Down 4% for the year. The companies spending the money are lagging the companies selling them the shovels. Gold's had its worst quarter since 2013, down 24% from the January highs. Iran talks resume in Doha but the "back to normal in two week...

The Dow closed at a record 52,182 as Alphabet debuted in the index and tech staged a sharp rebound from last week's semiconductor selloff. Mark Gardner breaks down whether this is genuine buying or end-of-quarter window dressing — plus why the best quarter for equities since COVID might actually be a warning sign. Also covered: the Japanese yen at 40-year lows and what that means for equity ma...

The chip index dropped 7.9% last week while Iran broke the ceasefire and struck two ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil barely moved. The Fed's Kashkari has swung to a rate hike. And the BIS just warned that sovereign debt, AI overinvestment and leveraged hedge funds are building systemic risk. Mark covers the chip selloff and what it means for hyperscaler margins, why software stocks at 52-wee...

Micron's blowout AI earnings sent memory stocks surging 16% — but the consequences hit fast. Apple raised prices across MacBooks and iPads by up to $500, Microsoft hiked Xbox pricing, and every Mag Seven name traded lower. The chip boom is feeding the same inflation problem the Fed is already fighting. KPMG now expects two rate hikes by year-end. May core PCE held at 3.4% YoY, GDP was revised...

Micron Technology crushed Wall Street expectations overnight, reporting Q3 revenue of $41.5 billion (a $6.2 billion beat) with cloud memory up 307% year-on-year and core data centre up 653%. The stock surged ~13% after hours, dragging Nasdaq futures up around 2% and effectively reversing the session's losses. Qualcomm added to the momentum with positive CEO commentary. In today's Morning C...

MPC Markets Morning Call — 24 June 2026: Global Stocks Get Chip-Wrecked The headline writers got their byline this morning: markets got chip-wrecked. South Korea's KOSPI triggered circuit breakers and suffered its second-worst session in history — down 10% — after a local report claimed SK Hynix is shifting production away from AI memory chips (HBM) and back to cheaper commodity DRAM. Samsung...

Wall Street ended mixed on Monday as a wave of AI talent departures punished Alphabet and a post-IPO hangover accelerated SpaceX's three-day rout — while rotation into cyclicals and chip stocks kept the broader market afloat. Mark Gardner breaks down what moved markets overnight and what Australian investors need to watch today. In this episode: Alphabet –5% — Nobel laureate John Jumper (Alpha...

US cash markets were closed Friday for Juneteenth, but global stocks stalled heading into the weekend as US-Iran peace talks opened at Bürgenstock, Switzerland. Mark Gardner breaks down the 14-point memorandum of understanding, what's likely to pass and what isn't, and why crude oil may be the standout risk-reward trade right now — with downside of 5–10% versus upside of 10–25% if negotiat...

Chip stocks are soaring! Join Finn Judell for a comprehensive market breakdown covering today's biggest moves:Key Topics:🔹 Semiconductor Surge - Intel surges 10.4-10.6% following Apple's strategic chip deal announcement🔹 Record Highs - SOX index hits new record, S&P 500 +1.1%, NASDAQ +1.9%🔹 Geopolitical Shifts - US-Iran peace deal establishes 60-day toll halt on Strait of Hormuz🔹 F...

The Warsh era at the Federal Reserve began with a decisive hawkish tilt — rates were held at 3.50–3.75% but updated projections show nine of 18 officials expect at least one hike this year, with the median dot shifting from a cut to a hike. The S&P 500 fell 1.2% to 7,512.15, the Nasdaq 100 dropped 1%, and the Dow slipped 1% after briefly touching a record 52,002.94 earlier in the session. Two-...

The Dow closed above 52,000 for the first time ever, but beneath the surface a fierce rotation out of tech and into financials, industrials and real estate tells a different story. Mark Gardner breaks down why elevated put premiums on chip stocks and extreme price-to-sales ratios echo the 2021–22 software selloff, and what that means for portfolios positioned at the top of this range. Oil has cras...

The US and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding for a 60-day ceasefire extension — not a full peace deal, but enough to send oil plunging to $81 and equities surging to record highs. Mark Gardner breaks down what it actually means for markets, why only one ship has been brave enough to transit the Strait of Hormuz, and whether the insurance companies and ship captains will believe Trump&...

SpaceX, SpaceX, SpaceX — and an Iran deal. The world's largest IPO closed up 19.2% at $160.95, valuing SpaceX at $2.1 trillion and making Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. But overnight the bigger story landed: Pakistan's PM confirmed the U.S. and Iran have reached a peace deal, with a signing ceremony set for June 19 in Switzerland. Oil crashed to $81 WTI on futures as markets...

Stocks Jump as Trump Announces 39th Peace Deal | MPC Markets Morning Call — 12 June 2026 Wall Street surges as Trump declares an Iran peace deal — again. The S&P 500 rips 1.7%, the NASDAQ jumps 2.5%, and the SOX chip index rockets 7%. But is this the real deal, or just the 39th time markets have bought the same headline? In today's episode, Mark Gardner covers: — Why the "boy who crie...

Wall Street got burned overnight — the hot AI bull market finally met hotter inflation. US CPI hit 4.2% YoY (highest since April 2023), Trump struck Iran for a second day in a row, oil surged, and the chip sector cratered. SOX down 3.6%; Nvidia −3.8%; Super Micro −28%. Gold was smacked. And the SpaceX IPO is coming Friday — Mark gives his honest take on valuation. In today's Morning Call, Mark...

The semiconductor rally that powered Wall Street to record highs has stalled. Apple fell 3.6% on a tepid WWDC, the SOX index dropped 2%, and the Nasdaq is down nearly 5% in five days. The US launched retaliatory strikes on Iran after an Apache helicopter was downed over the Strait of Hormuz — yet oil barely moved. Tonight's US CPI (consensus 4.2%) sets the scene for next week's Fed meeting...

Freakout Friday, Mild Rebound Monday — MPC Markets Morning Call | 9 June 2026Wall Street's worst day of 2026 was followed by a cautious rebound. Here's what happened overnight and what it means for Australian investors today. Friday's blowout May jobs report (172k vs 85k expected) sent the Nasdaq down 4.2% and the S&P 500 down 2.6%, snapping a nine-week winning streak. Chip stocks...

Wall Street delivered a tale of two markets overnight as the Dow surged to a record high while the Nasdaq slipped on a Broadcom-led semiconductor selloff. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 7,584.82, with about 360 of its constituents advancing as nine of 11 sectors closed higher — financials led the charge at +2.7% and healthcare added 3%. A renewed Israel–Lebanon ceasefire bolstered hopes for eventual...

The S&P 500's nine-day winning streak finally snaps — but is this the pullback we've been waiting for, or just a blip? In today's morning call, Jonathan Takadani breaks down the overnight session and what it means for Australian investors:S&P 500 down 0.9%, Dow off 1.2% — first red day in nine sessionsTech sector leads losses, down 1.5%, while energy is the lone green sectorCru...