Today’s Market Recap: Middle East Tensions Weigh on U.S. Stocks, Brent Crude Surges Over 4%, SpaceX Jumps Over 6% on Lockup Expiration

Tracking the Market Trend

TradingKey - Tensions in the Middle East have escalated once again, weighing on U.S. stocks and driving them lower. The three major indices closed lower across the board for the first time this week. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.85% to 53,885.10; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.06% to 26,348.35; and the S&P 500 declined 0.18% to 7,709.96.

Memory chip stocks plummeted on the back of disappointing earnings reports, with SanDisk (SNDK) closing down nearly 7% and Western Digital(WDC)falling more than 13%. AppLovin (APP), an app advertising company, saw its stock price plunge nearly 20% after its third-quarter earnings guidance fell short of expectations. Notably, SpaceX(SPCX) defied the trend on its lock-up expiration day, closing up more than 6%.

In the commodities market, escalating tensions in the Middle East boosted oil prices. Following news of attacks in Iran, crude oil prices surged rapidly, with Brent crude rising by more than 4% at one point during the session. Gold rose by more than 1% at one point during the session but later turned lower.

Bitcoin hit an intraday low of $64,000, down more than 1% from its intraday high.

Market Headline

Trump’s new tariff policy has taken effect, covering polysilicon and photovoltaic products, setting minimum import prices and imposing a 15% tariff. The announcement specifies the following minimum import prices: $21 per kilogram for polysilicon; $100 per kilogram for polysilicon ingots and wafers; $0.22 per watt for solar cells; and $0.38 per watt for solar modules. At the same time, the United States will impose a 15% ad valorem tariff on polysilicon ingots and related derivative products listed in the annex to the announcement. These measures will officially take effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on December 4, 2026.

SpaceX Shares Rebound by Over 6% Against the Market Trend on Day of $100 Billion Lock-Up Expiration. On Thursday, the first batch of 911.5 million restricted shares at SpaceX became eligible for sale, with trading volume reaching 250 million shares—a one-and-a-half-month high. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the stock price plummeted 14% with 200 million shares traded, which had already largely exhausted the supply from marginal sellers. Market analysts point out that some short-selling strategies were not based on expectations of deteriorating fundamentals, but rather aimed at capitalizing on concentrated selling following the lock-up expiration; if actual selling volume falls short of expectations, the pressure from short covering will be significant.

NVIDIA(NVDA) may adjust the configuration of its Rubin Ultra graphics cards due to a shortage of high-bandwidth memory, reducing VRAM capacity to ensure supply. According to The Information, to address the shortage of high-end, high-bandwidth memory chips, NVIDIA is considering reducing the VRAM capacity of its next-generation Rubin Ultra graphics processors. Sources familiar with the matter say that over the past few weeks, NVIDIA has tested at least three versions, some with less video memory than originally announced, likely because it cannot secure enough high-end memory to meet the original design requirements. Although the downgrade will affect performance, it can be compensated for in other ways; however, if AI companies use the scaled-down chips to run large models, they will need to deploy more chips than originally planned.

Alphabet(GOOGL) launched a $25 billion bond offering that was oversubscribed by more than four times, surpassing the demand seen for Amazon and SpaceX’s recent bond issuances. The offering triggered a rise in long-term U.S. Treasury yields and a steepening of the yield curve, with subscription orders totaling approximately $115 billion. The strong demand not only exceeded the performance of recent bond offerings by Amazon and SpaceX but was also driven by Alphabet’s relatively generous issuance concessions, which attracted a large number of investors.

With the iPhone 18 launch imminent, Apple（AAPL） is stepping up efforts to secure DRAM supplies amid global memory shortages. According to independent tech journalist Tim Kulpan, with less than six weeks to go before the launch of the foldable iPhone Ultra and the iPhone 18 series, Apple and its suppliers are accelerating efforts to coordinate the supply of DRAM memory chips. Currently, Apple relies primarily on Micron for its DRAM, while also sourcing from SK Hynix and Samsung. However, with surging demand from AI data centers, global DRAM supplies are becoming increasingly tight, and Apple is facing unprecedented supply chain pressures.

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