Markets today: Global stocks recover from AI-led bruising; central banks in focus

12/18/25 05:32

Micron surges on upbeat profit forecast as chip prices soar

– Reuters

Micron Technology’s (MU-Q) shares rose 9 per cent in premarket trading on Thursday after the U.S. chipmaker delivered an outsized quarterly profit forecast, underscoring its leadership in the high-bandwidth memory chips market as prices surge.

Micron is one of only three major suppliers of high-bandwidth memory chips, alongside Samsung and South Korea’s SK Hynix. The chips are pivotal for training and deploying generative AI models.

The company forecast second-quarter adjusted profit at nearly double Wall Street expectations, underscoring how Micron is capitalizing on a global supply crunch for memory chips amid booming demand from data centres, propelling its shares higher by about 168 per cent so far this year.

In a conference call with investors, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said he expects memory markets to remain tight past 2026 and that in the medium term, Micron expects to meet only half to two-thirds of demand from several key customers.

Micron’s chief business officer declined to specify which customers would not receive the chips they sought.

“With supply tightness at unprecedented levels, MU is having to strike a fine balance between allocating wafer capacity to high-value bits while also providing adequate supply of less value-added bits to key strategic customers,” J.P. Morgan analysts said in a note.

Shares of chipmakers AMD (AMD-Q) and Nvidia (NVDA-Q) rose nearly 1 per cent each in premarket trade.

12/18/25 05:14

Before the Bell: What every Canadian investor needs to know today

– S.R. Slobodian

Global markets climbed in cautious trading ahead of European central bank interest rate announcements and crucial U.S. inflation data.

Wall Street futures were in positive territory after major U.S. markets closed lower yesterday as AI spending jitters weighed on tech stocks.

TSX futures edged lower after Canada’s main stock market closed down yesterday.

In Canada, investors are getting results from Transat AT Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd.

On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Accenture PLC, Cintas Corp., FedEx Corp. and Nike Inc.

“Softer [U.S. inflation] figures should keep [Federal Reserve rate] cut bets alive, supporting equities and bonds and weighing on the dollar, while stronger-than-expected data would threaten dovish Fed expectations, weighing on equities and bonds and boosting the dollar,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, wrote in a note.

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.28 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.32 per cent, Germany’s DAX advanced 0.19 per cent and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.36 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 1.03 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.12 per cent.

12/18/25 05:14

Stocks recover from AI-led bruising; central banks in focus

– Reuters

Global shares crept higher on Thursday, after the tech sector got hit by renewed concern over AI spending, and investors prepared for a series of central bank meetings that will probably reflect the divergence in worldwide monetary policy.

Geopolitical tensions are roiling commodities markets. Oil prices extended a rebound from five-year lows after President Donald Trump ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. Silver hit a new record that helped pull up gold.

Sterling fell for a second day, after an unexpected drop in UK inflation on Wednesday all but guaranteed a rate cut from the Bank of England later on Thursday.

The European Central Bank also delivers its policy decision on Thursday and is widely expected to leave rates unchanged, while traders expect Japan to raise rates on Friday but are less certain about the pace of tightening next year.

Shares in Europe rose broadly, lifting the STOXX 600 by 0.1 per cent, while U.S. stock futures rose 0.3-0.6 per cent, suggesting there may be some respite for the benchmark indexes after Wednesday’s wash-out.

Concern over record AI spending resurfaced after Oracle announced an equity deal to support a data centre project would not include a key partner, Blue Owl Capital. Its shares tumbled 5.4 per cent, meaning they have now lost 50 per cent of their value since mid-September, when a deal with OpenAI sparked a 35 per cent one-day rise.

12/18/25 04:30

Wednesday markets recap: Stocks fall as AI funding jitters drag tech stocks

– Reuters, Globe staff

Major North American indexes closed lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq sinking to three-week lows as nagging worries about the artificial intelligence trade weighed on technology stocks.

Oracle ORCL-N dropped 5.4 per cent after a report said the cloud company’s largest data-centre partner Blue Owl Capital will not back a US$10-billion deal for its next facility. Amazon.com AMZN-Q fell 0.6 per cent after reports said the company is in talks to invest about US$10-billion in ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Worries about the broader technology sector taking on more debt to develop artificial intelligence have discouraged risk-taking lately.

AI bellwether Nvidia NVDA-Q fell 3.8 per cent and chipmaker Broadcom AVGO-Q dropped 4.5 per cent, sending a broader chips index down 3.9 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 228.29 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 47,885.97. The S&P 500 lost 78.83 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 6,721.43. The Nasdaq Composite lost 418.14 points, or 1.81 per cent, to 22,693.32.

Alphabet GOOGL-Q shares fell 3.2 per cent after a Reuters report said its Google unit is taking on a new initiative to erode Nvidia’s software advantage, and working with Meta META-Q to do so.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite index closed down 0.04 per cent to 31,250.02 points, continuing its four-day streak of losses.