New York, May 26, 2026, 16:20 EDT
- The S&P 500 added 0.62% to close at 7,519.47 while the Nasdaq jumped 1.18% to 26,655.89. The Dow ended down 0.21%.
- Micron was last seen at $896.84, up 19.3%. Market value stood over $1 trillion.
- Oil, inflation, and Thursday’s PCE price data are still the key hurdles for the rally.
S&P 500 closed at a record on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq jumped, driven by gains in semiconductor stocks linked to AI and growth in computing infrastructure for advanced software. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was weaker, narrowing the day’s rally compared to what headline numbers might indicate.
Wall Street was back from the Memorial Day break, with traders going right back to bets on AI spending, chips, and earnings—drivers of this year’s rally. Nasdaq’s holiday calendar confirmed U.S. equity markets were shut May 25 for Memorial Day.
S&P 500 closed 0.62% higher at 7,519.47, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.18% to 26,655.89, according to Reuters. The Dow slipped 0.21%, weighed down by losses in non-tech sectors.
Micron Technology jumped 19.3% to $896.84, pushing its market value near $1.02 trillion. UBS raised its price target to $1,625 from $535—top among the 46 brokerages LSEG tracks. The memory-chip stock stood out on the day.
Micron’s high-bandwidth memory chips, or HBM, are used to speed up data in AI processors. The company said its HBM supply for 2026 is already fully booked. Its HBM4 chips are now in production, according to Reuters.
“The need for pure memory has increased rapidly,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, told Reuters. “Micron sits at the center” of the AI demand story, he said. Micron’s move has drawn more comparisons to Nvidia, which supplies AI processors, as well as to Asian memory firms Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Reuters
Chip stocks gained. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index set a record, with Qualcomm up after Bloomberg News reported it signed a chip-supply agreement with ByteDance, according to Reuters. Marvell Technology also moved higher.
AI wasn’t the whole story in the market. Brent crude finished at $99.58 a barrel, climbing 3.58%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 2.81% to $93.89. The two benchmarks moved apart as investors weighed U.S. strikes in Iran and talk of a possible deal to get shipping through the Strait of Hormuz moving again.
Stocks looked for AI gains, but oil stuck with inflation risk on the day. Sam Stovall, CFRA Research’s chief investment strategist, told Reuters the cross-asset moves showed markets were “not really sure what should happen.” Reuters
Consumer data pushed up some of those worries. The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 93.1 in May from 93.8 in April. Dana M. Peterson, the group’s chief economist, said confidence “edged downward in May” as price shocks tied to the Middle East kept up. The Conference Board
“It’s reminiscent of the boom at the end of the 1990s,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, told Reuters about the tech rally. He isn’t making a prediction, but flagged the heavy reliance on a few surging tech and chip stocks as a warning sign for the market. Reuters
Inflation is the concern. If Iran talks stall, energy prices could jump, hit consumers, and drive bond yields higher. The next read is Thursday, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis puts out the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE. That’s a wide look at what households pay for goods and services, and the Atlanta Fed says the PCE matters for Fed rate policy.
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