The AI trade gets a second chance
Wall Street woke up to a much sunnier mood Thursday, with Nasdaq futures jumping 650 points as traders tried to put the recent chip selloff in the rearview mirror. The spark came from Micron and Qualcomm, which both offered the kind of demand signals that make AI bulls sit up a little straighter in their chairs.
Why investors care
This isn’t just “stocks up, yay” energy. The move suggests traders are willing to believe the AI story again — at least until the next headline reminds everyone that semis can be moodier than a teenager with bad Wi-Fi. If chip demand is holding up, that’s fuel for the whole Nasdaq complex.
The fine print
- Micron and Qualcomm are acting like the market’s unofficial temperature check on semiconductor demand.
- A rebound in futures can lift the megacap tech names first, but it can also fade fast if the follow-through isn’t there.
- After a bruising selloff, investors are hunting for any sign that the AI spending boom hasn’t completely lost steam.
Big picture: this looks less like a victory lap and more like traders cautiously reopening the AI playbook, one nervous page at a time.