THE MORNING MOMENTUM Thursday, July 9, 2026
🌅 PRE-MARKET SNAPSHOT (as of ~8:35am ET)
Chips are roaring back — and then some. This is a genuine reversal of Tuesday's Samsung-driven selloff, not just a bounce.
Index | Change |
|---|---|
SPY | +0.3% |
QQQ | +1.0% |
DIA | ~flat |
IWM | +0.5% |
📰 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Memory and chip stocks are having one of their strongest days in weeks. Western Digital (+7.1%), Applied Materials (+6.6%), Micron (+6.6%), Marvell (+6.2%), KLA (+5.9%), Lam Research (+6.0%), and Intel (+5.4%) are all sharply higher — fully erasing Tuesday's Samsung-driven selloff, then some.
The story flipped overnight. Tuesday, markets treated Samsung's blowout profit (still a 19x jump) as a "sell the news" moment over soft guidance — Korea's Kospi actually fell into bear-market territory. By Thursday, dip-buyers returned in force: Kioxia jumped 8.3% in Japan, and Wall Street analysts started backing the AI-memory-demand thesis with real numbers — UBS raised its DRAM contract-price forecast (DDR up 32% quarter-over-quarter), Bank of America reiterated a Buy on Micron with a $1,550 target, and HSBC doubled its Intel target to $200 on foundry-turnaround credibility.
Jobless claims came in better than expected. Initial claims fell to 215K for the week ending July 4, below the 218K forecast and slightly better than the prior week. The 4-week average also improved, dropping to 218.75K. This keeps the "low firing, low hiring" labor market narrative intact — no fresh reason for the Fed to move faster in either direction.
One nuance worth flagging: this chip rally isn't showing up as "confirmed" in options flow the way some of our past picks have been — none of MU, AMAT, WDC, KLAC, or INTC appear in today's unusual-options-activity scan. This looks like a genuine fundamentals/analyst-driven re-rating rather than a speculative options-fueled spike — arguably a healthier signal, just a different kind of confirmation than we usually highlight here.
What's next: SK Hynix's Nasdaq ADR debut lands tomorrow (July 10) after its $28B US share sale was oversubscribed more than 7 times — a real-time test of how much more investor appetite exists for AI-memory exposure.
🎯 MOMENTUM PLAYS TO WATCH — Confirmed by Options Flow
NVDA — Up ~1% on 2.7x normal options volume — modest price move, but notable positioning worth watching for follow-through.
BE (Bloom Energy) — Up ~5.1% on 2.2x normal options volume — real conviction behind a data-center-power-adjacent name, worth watching alongside the chip story.
MARA — Up ~3.8% on 2.6x normal options volume, tracking broader crypto-miner strength.
XOM & OXY — Both down modestly (−0.7%, −0.5%) but showing 2x+ normal options volume — possibly unwinding some of yesterday's oil-driven positioning as tensions cool slightly today.
📅 TODAY'S CALENDAR
Jobless claims (215K, better than expected) already out this morning. Existing home sales at 10am ET. SK Hynix's Nasdaq ADR debut tomorrow (July 10) is the next major catalyst for the memory/chip trade.
⚡ TRADER'S NOTE
This week keeps making the same point in different ways: the first reaction to news isn't always the right reaction. Tuesday's Samsung selloff and today's Samsung-driven rally are built on the same underlying data — what changed was how Wall Street chose to read it. Add in a labor market that's still quietly stable, and today looks like a "risk back on" day rather than anything fragile.
⚠️ DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.