Major Indexes Waver as AI Stock Rally Cools

AST SpaceMobile Stock Soars on Potential ‘Golden Dome’ Contracts

FROM 36 minutes ago

Shares of AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) skyrocketed Friday after the company was named a potential contractor on the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s “Golden Dome” project.

AST SpaceMobile on Friday said it had been “awarded a contract for the Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract,” effectively opening the door for the company to bid on contracts under the SHIELD umbrella. 

Shares were up more than 15% in recent trading, bringing their year-to-date return to about 60%. 

While the award announced Friday doesn’t guarantee AST SpaceMobile any contracts, it does allow the company, which is developing an entirely space-based cellular network powered by low-Earth orbit satellites, to compete for contracts worth up to $151 billion. 

The SHIELD program is one component of the Trump administration’s “Golden Dome” air and missile defense initiative. This week’s contract awards brought the total number of companies eligible to bid on SHIELD projects to 2,440.

“This SHIELD IDIQ contract establishes AST SpaceMobile as an eligible provider to bid directly on future task orders, enabling us to rapidly align our cutting-edge space technology with the critical needs of the Department of War and other U.S. Government entities,” said Chris Ivory, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Government Business of AST SpaceMobile, in a press release on Friday. 

Space exploration has become one of the hottest topics on Wall Street in recent years. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly exploring going public this year at a valuation of about $1.5 trillion, which would be the largest IPO since Saudi Aramco debuted in 2019. Space has even factored into the AI boom, with some experts advocating for putting data centers in space. 

Micron Shares Jump After Director Buys $8 Million of Stock

FROM 1 hr 43 min ago

Shares of Micron (MU) soared on Friday after receiving a vote of confidence from a semiconductor industry veteran.

Mark Liu, a current member of Micron’s board of directors and a former co-CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM), purchased 23,200 Micron shares earlier this week, according to a regulatory disclosure filed late Thursday. The shares were worth about $7.8 million as of Thursday’s close.

Micron stock popped more than 5% Friday morning, making it one of the best-performing stocks in the S&P 500. 

Liu’s purchase comes after a major run-up in Micron stock, making it all the more bullish of a signal for tech investors. Micron shares more than tripled in value last year amid booming demand for memory and data storage devices from the AI data center buildout. That dynamic has kept shares buoyant in the new year, with shares up about 40%.

Sandisk (SNDK), Western Digital (WDC), and Seagate Technology (STX) are among the other stocks benefiting from the memory shortage. Shares of Sandisk are up more than 1,000% since being spun off from Western Digital last February. Western Digital and Seagate stocks have risen about 350% and 240%, respectively, in the past 12 months. Seagate Technology was up about 2% in recent trading, while Western Digital and Sandisk gave up early gains to trade about 1% lower. 

Rate-Cut Chances Seem More Precarious as Fed Officials Rally Behind Powell

FROM 2 hr 56 min ago

If the Trump Administration’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was intended to intimidate the central bank into sharply cutting interest rates, it’s not going as planned.

At least four Fed officials who set interest rates spoke out this week in defense of Powell and the Fed’s duty to make monetary policy decisions in the public interest rather than at the White House’s command. Traders subsequently priced in lower chances of rate cuts early in the year.

Trump’s Justice Department issued a subpoena to the Fed last week, seeking information about Powell’s June 2020 Senate testimony in regard to the ongoing renovation of the Fed’s headquarters. Powell denied wrongdoing and said the criminal investigation was part of Trump’s long-running campaign to pressure the Fed to sharply cut its benchmark interest rate, which influences borrowing costs across many types of loans. Trump has denied knowing about the probe before the subpoena went out.

Several Federal Reserve governors and regional bank presidents backed up Powell’s interpretation of events this week and said the Fed’s independence from White House control is essential to its mission of keeping a lid on inflation using monetary policy. The outspoken comments were unusual because Fed officials usually make a point of avoiding commenting on political controversies.

Read the full story here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Stock Futures Mostly Higher as Tech Rally Continues

FROM 4 hr 5 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed in premarket trading.

S&P 500 futures rose about 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.5%.