The vibe shift is real
Wall Street spent Thursday in full rebound mode. The S&P 500 jumped 1.75% as the market breathed a little easier on cooling U.S.-Iran tensions and a comeback in chip stocks. If you were wondering whether traders were feeling brave again, the answer was basically yes.
Semis to the rescue
The semiconductor corner of the market did the heavy lifting. SOXX surged more than 8%, while AMD, Intel, and Micron all moved sharply higher. That matters because chips have become the market’s emotional support animal: when semis are happy, a lot of growth investors are happy.
But don’t get too comfy
There’s still plenty of drama in the background. Oracle dropped 8% after saying it plans to raise another $20 billion for AI expansion, which is a polite way of saying investors are starting to ask, “Cool story, but how expensive is this AI party getting?” At the same time, lower oil prices are helping calm inflation nerves, which is exactly the kind of thing the market likes when it wants to pretend macro risk is under control.
What to watch at the open
Polymarket traders were leaning hard toward an up open for Friday, and futures were already pointing slightly higher. Big picture: the market is trying to turn one good day into a trend. Whether that sticks depends on whether geopolitics keeps cooling and whether the AI trade can keep paying for its own hype.