US Stocks Close: Nasdaq Composite Hits Record High, SpaceX and Pentagon in Pricing Dispute

Tradingkey - On May 26, Eastern Time, driven by a retreat in U.S. Treasury yields, U.S. tech stocks extended their rally. The three major indices ended the session with mixed results, while the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 reached record highs.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.23% to 50,461.68 points; the S&P 500 rose 0.61% to 7,519.12 points; and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.19% to 26,656.18 points.

Tech stock performance

Micron Technology shares closed up 19.29% at $895.88, with its market capitalization reaching $1.01 trillion.

On the news front, a significant price target hike from UBS served as a major catalyst for market sentiment. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri released a research report on Tuesday, raising the memory chipmaker's 12-month price target from $535 to $1,625, the highest on Wall Street. Furthermore, public praise from U.S. President Trump also acted as a catalyst for Micron's stock price; during a rally in Suffern, New York, last Friday, Trump stated: "Micron, my goodness, Micron is fantastic, they are investing hundreds of billions of dollars."

Other tech giants saw mixed performance, with Intel (INTC) rising 3.07%, TSMC (TSM) gaining 1.93%, Broadcom (AVGO) up 1.9%, Tesla (TSLA) advancing 1.78%, Google (GOOGL) climbing 1.54%, and Meta (META) adding 0.34%; conversely, Netflix (NFLX) fell 1.04%, Microsoft (MSFT) dropped 0.61%, Amazon (AMZN) declined 0.39%, NVIDIA (NVDA) slipped 0.22%, and Apple (AAPL) edged down 0.16%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged 5.53%, hitting a record high. Among its 30 constituents, 28 advanced while 2 declined.

Storage-related stocks were among the top gainers, with Micron jumping 19.29%, Rambus (RMBS) rising 9.97%, Western Digital (WDC) gaining 8.34%, SanDisk (SNDK) up 7.5%, and Seagate Technology (STX) advancing 4.06%.

Chinese concept stocks mostly ended higher, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up 0.57%. Futu Holdings (FUTU) soared 19.99%, United Microelectronics (UMC) surged 15.7%, and XPeng (XPEV) gained 6.16%; meanwhile, Kingsoft Cloud (KC) fell 8.37%, MINISO (MNSO) dropped 4.21%, and H World Group (HTHT) declined 3.71%.

Corporate News

SoftBank has hired several banks to lead the U.S. IPOs for its SB Energy unit and AI robotics subsidiary Roze.

SoftBank Group has hired banks to prepare for the initial public offerings of its energy and infrastructure developer SB Energy and its planned autonomous robotics spinoff Roze, according to two people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank has hired JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Mizuho Bank as advisors for SB Energy's IPO, which could take place as early as September, according to sources. The sources also stated that SB Energy could be valued at over $50 billion upon listing. Meanwhile, SoftBank has hired Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Mizuho Bank, and Morgan Stanley for the IPO of Roze, its autonomous robotics firm, the sources added. Roze will focus on building data centers and leverage robotics to improve the efficiency of building AI infrastructure, aiming to go public within a similar timeframe.

The Pentagon is in a dispute with SpaceX over price increases for Starlink.

During the U.S.-Iran conflict, SpaceX executives met with Pentagon officials and argued that the military was paying approximately $5,000 for connectivity per terminal while actually using a higher tier of service valued at nearly $25,000, according to media reports.

Tensions between SpaceX and the Pentagon over Starlink pricing have mounted in recent months, partly due to disagreements over its use on LUCAS kamikaze drones (a low-cost American model similar to the Iranian Shahed drone that can hover over a target area and then dive to detonate upon impact), according to interviews with five people familiar with the matter and related documents.

Qualcomm has reached an AI chip partnership agreement with TikTok parent company ByteDance.

ByteDance plans to purchase millions of Qualcomm chips (specifically application-specific integrated circuits) to support the social media company's AI agent software, according to media reports. The deal will help ByteDance convert its completed in-house chip designs into semiconductors ready for production, the reports said.

American Airlines has selected Starlink as its in-flight Wi-Fi service provider.

American Airlines announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with SpaceX's Starlink project to equip more than 500 of its aircraft with Wi-Fi services. This agreement makes American Airlines the latest carrier to partner with the satellite internet provider, with SpaceX's highly anticipated IPO also set to take place in a few weeks.