US Stocks Close: Nasdaq Falls for Second Day, SOX Drops Over 5%; Semiconductor Stocks Pull Back Sharply, Memory Shares Lead Losses; Micron Falls 7%

TradingKey - Affected by the U.S. 30-year Treasury yield hitting a 19-year high and rising oil prices, all three major U.S. stock indices came under pressure. Semiconductor stocks led the declines, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling about 5% and memory stocks slumping.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.22% to 53,343.40 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.33% to 26,289.71 points; and the S&P 500 Index fell 0.69% to 7,691.76 points.

Tech Stock Performance

SK Hynix (SKHY) fell 9.2% to $155.62.

South Korea's presidential office, the Blue House, recently denied local media reports that the government is discussing with the U.S. to make semiconductor projects the first under its $350 billion investment commitment to the U.S. In a statement, the Blue House said reports that the two countries are discussing semiconductors as the first strategic investment project are 'not true,' but declined to elaborate further on the details of consultations between South Korea and the U.S. regarding the investment commitment.

Among big tech stocks, Apple (AAPL) rose 1.45%, Microsoft (MSFT) gained 0.27%, and Google (GOOGL) advanced 0.06%. On the downside, Meta Platforms (META) fell 4.42%, Broadcom (AVGO) dropped 3.21%, Nvidia (NVDA) declined 2.34%, SpaceX (SPCX) lost 1.98%, Tesla (TSLA) slipped 0.72%, and Amazon (AMZN) fell 0.71%.

[Source: FutuBull]

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 4.98% to 11,922.46 points, with all 30 constituents declining. Among them, Marvell Technology (MRVL) dropped 7.82%, Arm Holdings (ARM) fell 6.67%, Intel (INTC) lost 6.58%, and KLA (KLAC) declined 5.33%.

Among memory stocks, SK Hynix (SKHY) dropped 9.20%, Seagate Technology (STX) fell 9.16%, SanDisk (SNDK) lost 9.01%, Western Digital (WDC) declined 7.43%, and Micron (MU) fell 7.02%.

Company News

Apple Cuts European App Store Fees to Settle Dispute with EU

Apple announced on Tuesday that it will replace its per-install fee for app developers with a 5% commission on digital transactions in apps distributed outside the App Store to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple emphasized: "These adjustments resolve the differences between Apple and the European Commission surrounding commercial terms and alternative distribution methods. At the same time, they reduce rule complexity by applying a single set of commercial terms to all developers distributing apps in the EU. Developers can sign the new terms starting today, and the relevant adjustments will take effect on October 1." In addition, Apple stated that App Store apps using alternative payment methods will be charged a 20% commission, though under its Small Business Program, the commission rate can drop to as low as 10%.

Anthropic Reportedly Plans to Expand Credit Line to Over $10 Billion

According to media reports, Anthropic plans to expand a revolving credit facility to more than $10 billion, a size that could be higher than its previous target of around $10 billion. As Anthropic prepares for its highly anticipated IPO, multiple banks are vying to participate in the financing to secure underwriting roles in the future IPO.

OpenAI Strengthens AI Safety Safeguards to Prevent Models from Going "Out of Control"

Following recent cybersecurity incidents that raised concerns over AI tools potentially going out of control, OpenAI stated that it will adopt a more stringent system to monitor and safeguard artificial intelligence models under development. OpenAI said it plans to further track the behavior of its most capable, unreleased models when solving problems and using various online tools, aiming to alert safety teams within 30 minutes of detecting concerning behavior. OpenAI noted that the company has also added controls to prevent certain AI models from connecting to the internet to perform higher-risk tasks. In addition, OpenAI will require stricter isolation measures, known as "sandboxing," during the training and evaluation of AI models.

OpenAI's announcement noted that following the Hugging Face incident, it immediately paused frontier model inference tasks in its research cluster that could execute code. It is temporarily slowing the pace of scaling, including pausing reinforcement learning training for the latest deployed models for two weeks. The largest frontier reinforcement learning training program remains paused pending the completion of safety verification.

Industry & Macro News

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yield Rises to Highest Level Since Early 2025

The global bond sell-off continued to intensify, with the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rising to 4.75%, its highest level since January 2025. U.S. Treasury prices weakened further, with yields across maturities generally climbing 1 to 2 basis points. The 10-year Treasury yield rose about 2 basis points to 4.75%, hitting a 19-month high.

U.S.-Canada Tariff Talks Stall as Hopes for a Deal Fade

The Trump administration is dampening expectations for a last-minute deal between the U.S. and Canada to avert tariffs ahead of a new round set to take effect on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. has privately signaled that the odds of reaching a deal on Tuesday are "50-50 or lower," the people said. Both sides face a midnight deadline, after which billions of dollars in Canadian goods would face 50% tariffs. It remains unclear whether these signals accurately reflect negotiation progress or represent an attempt by the U.S. to gain leverage. Trump has a history of making last-minute demands on trade partners. Trump is expected to speak again with Canadian Prime Minister Carney on Tuesday, according to the people. The two also spoke by phone on Monday.

Trump: No Negotiations Ongoing with Iran, Naval Blockade Remains Fully Effective

U.S. President Trump: No negotiations or talks with Iran are ongoing or scheduled. The naval blockade remains fully effective. The Strait of Hormuz is open and operating normally. All mines have been removed or detonated.

Multiple U.S. States Tighten Data Center Construction as AI Expansion Faces Regulatory Pressure

The Governor of Pennsylvania issued an executive order imposing strict restrictions on data center construction, requiring projects to obtain local government approval before applying for state permits, comply with water conservation standards, bear the costs of added power consumption, and address their own power supply needs. Shapiro stated that a massive influx of data center projects has entered Pennsylvania, with some developers disregarding local community interests. As AI investment grows rapidly, multiple U.S. states have begun curbing data center expansion to cope with power, environmental, and community pressures. New York has moved to pause environmental permits for large data centers for up to one year, while Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a longtime supporter of data center development, has also paused approvals for certain new projects and launched a review.