New York, May 26, 2026, 20:03 EDT
Stock-index funds in the U.S. moved up late Tuesday after both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ended at fresh records. The S&P 500 was up 0.61% to 7,519.12, the Nasdaq climbed 1.19% to 26,656.18, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.23% to 50,461.68. Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, called this year’s tech gains “reminiscent of the boom at the end of the 1990s.” Adam Sarhan at 50 Park Investments said Middle East tensions still seemed likely to “resolve itself in a peaceful fashion sooner rather than later.” Reuters
That’s in focus now since buying wasn’t just in Nvidia. The tape had investors moving into more of the AI supply chain — memory, custom chips, servers, data centers — while oil and inflation risks remained.
After-hours action showed only small moves as of about 7:50 p.m. EDT, with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF up 0.04%. Invesco QQQ gained 0.05%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF was up 0.07%. iShares Russell 2000 ETF added 0.20%. Micron traded 2.08% higher, while Nvidia edged down 0.35%. Nasdaq notes after-hours goes from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern, often with thinner liquidity and more price swings.
Micron topped $1 trillion in market value for a short time. UBS hiked its price target to $1,625 from $535. Art Hogan at B. Riley Wealth said the chipmaker “sits at the center” of demand for AI memory. Samsung Electronics already passed the $1 trillion mark, and SK Hynix is catching up, according to Reuters. Reuters
Qualcomm shares rallied almost 5% in regular trading after Bloomberg said the company has struck a deal to supply chips to ByteDance, owner of TikTok, for AI data centers. The agreement is focused on ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits, which are tailored for specific computing jobs. Reuters also reported the move added to the chip sector’s momentum.
IREN to Buy Nvidia Blackwell Systems From Dell in $1.6 Billion Deal
After the close, IREN said it will buy Nvidia’s air-cooled Blackwell systems from Dell for around $1.6 billion. The purchase is part of a five-year, $3.4 billion cloud AI services contract the company already announced with Dell. “Time-to-compute is everything,” IREN’s Co-CEO Daniel Roberts said. Reuters
Zscaler shares dropped 15% after hours as the company guided for fourth-quarter revenue below what analysts were looking for. Investors are focusing on sales, not just AI hype, when it comes to software stocks. Zscaler operates in Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE, blending networking and security on the cloud. Reuters reported that big names like Palo Alto Networks are stepping up competition in the space.
U.S. consumer confidence slipped this month. The Conference Board’s index came in at 93.1 for May, down from April’s revised 93.8 reading. Chief Economist Dana M. Peterson said “inflationary impacts of the war in the Middle East intensified.” The group added that about two-thirds of consumers mentioned pulling back on spending due to higher prices. The Conference Board
Oil is still the risk case. Iran said new U.S. strikes broke the ceasefire, while the U.S. described them as defensive. Brent crude traded near $100 a barrel, Reuters reported. If oil’s jump pushes up gas prices and inflation outlooks, the record run in equities could get squeezed by rates, margin and demand, not just tech earnings.
After-hours action didn’t move the earlier story much—money is still coming into the AI supply chain, not only the biggest chip stocks. The real test is Wednesday’s open, when markets will choose if the record close has legs or fades as another busy AI run.
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