Trump declared the U.S.–Iran ceasefire “over” at the NATO summit in Ankara as the military launched a second day of strikes, sending Brent crude surging 5.9% to $78.55 after briefly topping $80. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% while the Nasdaq eked out a 0.2% gain on a chip rebound after China signalled it would allow AI firms to buy Nvidia H200s. Fed minutes revealed an evenly split committee on rate hikes, and ASX 200 futures point to a 49-point drop at the open.
Chip stocks hammered as Samsung’s record profit fails to impress. US strikes Iran, revokes oil waiver after Hormuz tanker attacks. Crude surges 5%. Most S&P 500 stocks rose — rotation, not retreat.
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’s AI ETF. Daily market briefing with Mark Gardner at MPC Markets.
The best first half in the Dow in fifty years is in the books. Mark, Kai and guest Finn unpack a monster six months — the record SOX rally, why chips just cracked (Micron down 20% in two sessions), and where the money’s rotating next. Plus: the ASX halftime card, why healthcare could finally be turning, Kai’s Pro Medicus trade of the half year, and a deep dive into the AI stack — infrastructure, cloud, application — and why the cloud distribution layer is the opportunity most investors are sleeping on. MPC Markets also turns three. Happy birthday to us.
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 here. No show Monday (July 4th) — back Tuesday. Catch Bulls vs Bears this afternoon for the full H1 wrap.
Semiconductor stocks suffered their worst session in months as a 6.3% plunge in the SOX index followed reports that OpenAI had halved AI inference costs. Meta surged 8.8% on cloud infrastructure plans while Fed Chair Warsh said inflation risks had eased at the ECB’s Sintra forum. ASX futures point 23 points lower ahead of tonight’s early US payrolls release.
Wall Street closed its best quarter since 2020, with the S&P 500 up 14.8% and semiconductor stocks doubling on a record-breaking AI rally. Gold posted its worst quarter since 2013 as dollar strength and rate-hike bets crushed the metal, while U.S.–Iran talks resume in Doha with the Strait of Hormuz still contested.
ASX FY26 in review: resources surged, healthcare collapsed, and the ASX 200 barely moved. MPC Markets breaks down the winners, losers, and what it means for your portfolio.
US stocks rallied to close out what’s shaping up as the best quarter in six years, with the Dow hitting a record 52,182 as Alphabet made its blue-chip debut. Tech bounced hard after last week’s AI-driven selloff, while the yen slid to 40-year lows and US-Iran talks in Doha offered a fragile path to de-escalation.
The S&P 500 fell 0.05% to 7,353.95 as the chip index plunged 5.3%, capping a week that saw the Nasdaq shed 4.6%. Weekend tit-for-tat strikes between the U.S. and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz have reignited ceasefire fears ahead of Tuesday’s Doha talks. The BIS warned that record debt, AI overinvestment and financial fragilities are building systemic risks.
Micron’s blowout AI-driven earnings sent the memory chipmaker surging 16% and briefly past Meta and Tesla by market cap, but Apple’s aggressive price hikes to absorb soaring component costs dragged the Magnificent Seven lower and left the S&P 500 flat. May core PCE held at 3.4% year-on-year — in line with expectations — while oil rebounded after an attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz complicated the fragile US–Iran peace deal.
Wall Street’s rebound attempt fizzled as tech weakness dragged the Nasdaq lower, but Micron’s blowout after-hours guidance reignited AI confidence. Brent crude hit its lowest since the day before the Iran war began as Hormuz shipping normalised, sending Treasury yields sharply lower. ASX 200 futures point modestly higher ahead of May employment data.