By Alun John and Ankur Banerjee LONDON/SINGAPORE, June 25 Stocks surged on Thursday after strong earnings and forecasts from chipmakers Micron and Qualcomm helped reignite the AI rally, while the dollar sat around a one-year high against peers despite a fall in oil and Treasury…
elds. Tech-heavy Asian markets rose sharply after Micron said its customers had committed $22 billion for its memory chips, while Qualcomm anticipates $15 billion in sales from its data centre business by 2029, Micron shares rose 17% in premarket trading and Qualcomm 12%
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 4.6%, South Korea’s KOSPI gained 5.4%, while futures on the U.S. tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, which includes both Micron and Qualcomm, gained 2.1%. Investor concern that valuations for AI-related companies have become stretched following years of gains has weighed on markets in recent days, leading to volatile sessions — the Nasdaq 100 fell 3.3% on Tuesday. “Earnings trump everything,” said analysts at Barclays in a Thursday note. “Markets are not cheap. Investors expect continued double-digit earnings growth into 2027, and the margin for disappointment has narrowed.” Europe has fewer tech stocks, and the broad STOXX 600 was up 0.7%, though the tech subindex gained 2.2%.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.65%. OIL BACK TO PRE-WAR LEVELS AS TANKERS EXIT HORMUZ The other big story in global markets was oil, and prices extended their decline on Thursday as stranded tankers exited the Strait of Hormuz following an initial accord to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, easing supply concerns. [O/R] Brent crude futures dropped 0.7% to $73.2 a barrel, a fall of 9% this week to erase all the gains from the war. U.S.