Wall St gains as chips rebound, Middle East tensions ease
By Sruthi Shankar and Twesha Dikshit
June 8 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s major indexes rose on Monday, as chipmakers bounced back from a sharp selloff last week, while investors took comfort from signs of cooling tensions in the Middle East.
Intel shares jumped 12.3% after the Information reported that Alphabet’s Google had placed an order to manufacture more than three million tensor processing units in 2028.
The S&P 500 technology index gained 2.5%, while the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index advanced 6.7%, rebounding from Friday’s losses that wiped out $1 trillion in market value for U.S.-listed chipmakers.
Expectations of tighter monetary policy and underwhelming results from chipmaker Broadcom last week had raised concerns that the sector was growing too fast, prompting traders to retreat after a strong run this year.
“At this point, AI and technology remain the strongest and fastest-growing segments of the economy, and markets typically reflect that strength,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments.
“However, if losses deepen, that could signal a more meaningful shift in market sentiment.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s military announced that its first wave of attacks on Israel since a ceasefire in April was now over. Israel has halted strikes on Iran at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump, a senior Israeli official was cited as saying by Channel 12.
Attacks between the two countries had pushed up oil prices by more than 5% earlier on Monday. Crude prices were last up less than 2%.
At 11:25 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 179.08 points, or 0.35%, to 51,045.86, the S&P 500 gained 77.42 points, or 1.05%, to 7,461.16 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 451.84 points, or 1.76%, to 26,161.28.
Much stronger-than-expected jobs data for May also contributed to Friday’s rout, as traders priced in interest rate increases this year. Pricing in interest rate futures implied a 43% chance that the Federal Reserve will hike rates by 25 basis points in December, per CME Group’s Fedwatch tool.
Wednesday’s consumer prices report for May could offer investors fresh insights on how the rise in energy prices due to the Iran war is impacting inflation.
SpaceX’s massive initial public offering on Friday could also prove to be a major test for U.S. stock markets, with investors wary of possible overexuberance.
Among other movers, Marvell Technology jumped almost 14% with the chipmaker set to join the benchmark S&P 500 before the start of trading on June 22.
