SPX: S&P 500 Tumbles 1.5% as Chip-Wreck Slams Wall Street. Futures Perk Up.

“It’s only Tuesday, lemon.” The risk takers got their teeth kicked in with Micron and Sandisk losing more than 13% each. Dip buyers wanted?

💥 Chip-Wreck Hits

• The S&P 500 sank 1.5% Tuesday as investors abruptly remembered that stocks can, in fact, go down. The Nasdaq got hit harder, tumbling 2.1% in a broad selloff centered on the AI trade that has carried markets for months.
• A closely watched semiconductor index plunged roughly 8%, raising fresh questions about whether the market's enthusiasm for artificial intelligence has gotten a little ahead of itself.
• The trigger was a growing realization that spending billions on AI infrastructure is one thing; generating enough profits to justify trillion-dollar capex and frothy valuations is another entirely.

📉 Memory Stocks Beat Up

• The biggest casualties were memory-chip names. Micron and Sandisk both cratered more than 13% during the regular session, wiping out chunks of recent gains and leaving momentum traders reaching for the eject button.
• The selloff quickly spread beyond isolated markets. South Korea's Kospi plunged 10% from record highs, turning what started as a local pullback into a global technology shakeout. At one point, the decline became severe enough to trigger a market-wide trading halt.
• Elsewhere, Bitcoin lost roughly 3%, while investors fled toward traditional safe havens (think dollars).

🔄 Futures Hint at a Rebound

• After Tuesday's bruising session, futures showed signs of stabilization. Shares of Micron and Sandisk edged about 1% higher each in extended trading as investors prepared for Micron's earnings report, which could become the next major test for AI sentiment.
• Asia offered a mixed picture overnight. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.6%, but South Korea's Kospi bounced more than 3% after Tuesday's collapse. Whether that's a meaningful recovery or just a dead-cat bounce remains the trillion-dollar question.
• Meanwhile, SpaceX managed to find some footing after briefly falling below its IPO opening price.