Dow Ends Higher On Support From Weak Oil, But AI Concerns Weigh On Nasdaq, S&P 500 — ASML, MSFT, NVDA, AMZN, PSKY In Focus

• The S&P 500 ended flat, while the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5%.
• SK Hynix slumped below its IPO price.
• Apple surpassed Nvidia to be the world’s largest company by market cap.

The Nasdaq index ended Monday lower, and the S&P 500 gave up most gains amid weakness in chipmaker stocks after reports suggested China had developed chipmaking machines that could threaten U.S. AI dominance. 

The S&P 500 ended flat, while the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5%. The Russell 2000, which tracks stocks with small market capitalizations, rose 0.6%.

Among ETFs tracking benchmark indexes, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) added 0.1% and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ended Monday 0.2% lower, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) rose 0.6%.

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell 2%, down for the third straight session, pulled down by weakness in Nvidia (NVDA), AMD (AMD) and ASML Holdings (ASML). The broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) fell 0.6%, tracking weakness in SpaceX (SPCX) and Amazon (AMZN).

SpaceX stock lost about 1.4% on Monday, extending its 7% drop last week, its third consecutive weekly decline as investors turned jittery over bloated capex plans.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for QQQ dropped to the ‘extremely bearish’ zone, while sentiment for SPY was ‘bearish’ and ‘neutral’ for the DIA with ‘high’ message volumes.

US Market Drivers

ASML Holdings (ASML) tanked about 6% along with most other chipmaker stocks, following a report that a Chinese state-backed firm is producing certain chipmaking machines that could threaten its sales.

Separately, weakness in oil prices supported the Dow along with industrial and material stocks after the US and Iran were engaged in diplomatic talks to end their conflict. However, President Donald Trump warned that Washington is ready to resume "very strong military action" if diplomatic talks with Iran fail.

International benchmark Brent crude futures for September delivery ended down 8.7% at $88.36 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled down 7.5% to $82.61 a barrel.

Investor attention this week will squarely be placed on quarterly reports from Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) as they look to judge the pace of hyperscaler artificial intelligence spending following Alphabet’s and Tesla’s blowout capex plans. 

While results are due this week, Apple overtook Nvidia to be the world’s largest company by market capitalization on Monday.

Trending Stocks To Watch 

ASML Holdings (ASML): Shares of Dutch chip-equipment maker closed 6% lower on Monday following a report that China has begun producing domestic immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, tools long dominated by the company. 

Microsoft (MSFT): Microsoft Corp. announced the release of MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, its first specialized cybersecurity artificial intelligence model designed to help organizations secure complex codebases against rapidly evolving AI-driven threat vectors. 

Nvidia (NVDA): A report said the chipmaker had committed $5 billion to Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.  

Amazon (AMZN): The company announced plans to extend smartphone connectivity beyond the reach of cell towers with more than 5,100 satellites capable of delivering voice, data, messaging, and emergency services directly to compatible mobile devices. 

Paramount Skydance (PSKY): CEO David Ellison said he’s “highly confident” in a planned $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) despite legal challenges. 

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