--- title: "☕️ [Task Coins Giveaway] Daily Market Talk — Chips Rally as Iran Fears Rattle Wall Street" type: "Topics" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/100000000858419.md" description: "Chips rallied hard against a falling US market Monday: SanDisk, Western Digital, and Micron all jumped after Elon Musk called memory the binding constraint on AI, even as the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow ..." datetime: "2026-08-18T02:54:45.000Z" locales: - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/100000000858419.md) - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/100000000858419.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/100000000858419.md) author: "[Captain's Watch](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/24747427.md)" generator: "portal-rs" --- # ☕️ [Task Coins Giveaway] Daily Market Talk — Chips Rally as Iran Fears Rattle Wall Street Chips rallied hard against a falling US market Monday: SanDisk, Western Digital, and Micron all jumped after Elon Musk called memory **the binding constraint on AI**, even as the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow all fell on escalating US-Iran tensions. In an ironic twist, Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office had **just exited Micron entirely**, days before the rally. Singapore's STI reversed a weak open to close higher, while Hong Kong's own chip rally sent its market up. Let's dig in 👇 **💬 Druckenmiller dumped Micron days before it ripped: bad timing, or an overdone rally?** ## 📊 Quick Recap — What Moved & Why ### 🇺🇸 US — Chips Rally as Iran Fears Rattle Wall Street **🔑 Key Event:** Memory and optical-chip names rallied hard even as the broader market fell: $Sandisk(SNDK.US) jumped about **8-10%** to a fresh high, $Western Digital(WDC.US) rose **6%**, and $Micron Tech(MU.US) gained **5%** to reclaim **$1,000**, after Elon Musk flagged memory as AI's binding constraint and Commerce Secretary Lutnick opposed Apple **sourcing memory from China**. $S&P 500(.SPX.US) fell **0.52%** to 7,745.06, $NASDAQ Composite Index(.IXIC.US) lost **0.32%** to 26,644.91, and $Dow Jones Industrial Average(.DJI.US) dropped **0.51%** to 53,459.78, as a US-Iran shipping deal expired and oil topped $90. > @Heroic Lifesaver : Both SanDisk and Micron look headed for new highs. Memory demand is outstripping supply, and I'd rather be on the right side of that than fight the tape. **👀 Other to Watch** - **Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office** → fully exited Broadcom, Intel, and Micron **just days before** Monday's memory-sector surge, per a Friday 13F filing, loading up instead on Amazon, AMD, and a new Alphabet stake. - $Coherent Corp.(COHR.US) **&** $AXT(AXTI.US) → also rode the memory/optical theme, up **10.4%** and **14%** respectively, the latter on a blowout earnings beat. - **Airlines** → fell hard on the oil spike ($American Airlines(AAL.US) down over **4%**, $Delta Air Lines(DAL.US) and $United Airlines(UAL.US) both down more than **2%**), while energy producers rallied as a **mirror trade**, with $ExxonMobil(XOM.US) up about **3%**. - $Snap(SNAP.US) → fell about **8-12%** premarket after a court ruling revived thousands of social-media-addiction lawsuits and its CTO sold roughly **$21.5M** of stock. - **Anthropic** → said its annualized revenue run rate topped **$65B** in July, up from just $9B a year ago. Investors reportedly expect an October IPO near a **$2 trillion valuation**, which would make it the largest IPO ever, topping SpaceX's $1.77T listing. ### 🇸🇬 Singapore — STI Reverses a Weak Open to Close Higher **🔑 Key Event:** $FTSE Straits Times Index(STI.SG) opened down about **0.9%** at 5,679, carrying over Friday's Iran-driven jitters, before reversing to close up **0.4%** at 5,768.46 as Singapore's **July trade surplus held firm at S$12.6B**, reassuring investors even as global oil risk lingered. > @只想暴富 : UOB's Q2 profit rose 10% on record wealth-management fee income, but I'd watch whether that can keep offsetting the margin pressure from lower rates, since trading income already fell 8%. **👀 Other to Watch** - $OCBC Bank(O39.SG) **&** $UOB(U11.SG) → both traded ex-dividend Monday, paying S$0.47 and S$0.88 per share respectively; $DBS(D05.SG) had already gone ex-dividend Friday. - $MediLifestyle(Z4D.SG) → surged **44%** on a deal to acquire 60% of EM2AI for S$6.76M. - $Ever Glory(ZKX.SG) → filed for a proposed dual-primary listing on the Hong Kong exchange. ### 🇭🇰 HK/China — Chip Rally Lifts Hong Kong Even as Wall Street Falls **🔑 Key Event:** Hong Kong moved the opposite way from Wall Street: $Hang Seng Index(00HSI.HK) rose **1.34%** to 25,453.23 and $Hang Seng TECH Index(STECH.HK) gained **1.58%** to 4,782.03, led by $SENSETIME-W(00020.HK), up **8.9%**, and a continued rally in chipmakers $SMIC(00981.HK) and $HUA HONG GRACE(01347.HK) on **the same AI-chip enthusiasm** lifting US memory names. **👀 Other to Watch** - $Moutai(600519.SH) → H1 profit fell **1.95%** year-on-year to RMB44.5B, its **first half-year decline since listing**, as China's "national team" funds exited its top-10 shareholder list. - China's July industrial output rose **4.5%** year-on-year, though property investment fell 19.2% and retail sales grew just 0.6%, a soft print keeping the case for more stimulus alive. ### 🌍 Other - 🇺🇸 Meta faces opening statements Tuesday in a landmark Oakland trial, with state attorneys general seeking **$1.4 trillion** in damages over claims it engineered addictive features for kids. - 🌍 Oil topped $90 a barrel (Brent) after a US-Iran shipping memorandum expired with no successor deal; Citi turned bullish on silver, targeting $75-90/oz. ## 📅 Key Events Tonight / This Week | **When (SGT)** | **What** | | --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Today, Tue 18 Aug** | 🇺🇸 $Home Depot(HD.US) earnings 🇺🇸 Meta's $1.4T addiction trial opens in Oakland | | **Wed 19 Aug** | 🇺🇸 FOMC meeting minutes 🇺🇸 $Target(TGT.US), $Lowes(LOW.US) earnings | | **Thu 20 Aug** | 🇺🇸 $Walmart(WMT.US) earnings 🇨🇳 $BABA-W(09988.HK) earnings | | **Watching** | 🇺🇸 Tesla's driverless Cybercab could begin public rides in Austin before month-end 🌍 Jackson Hole Symposium, Aug 27-29 (new Fed Chair Warsh's first keynote) | 👇 Drop your take (20+ words) & click "Repost" to earn 288 Task Coins ✨ 🚫 No duplicates · ⏰ Deadline: Aug 18, 2026, 11:59 PM SGT Not investment advice, just market talk 🙏 ### Related Stocks - [MU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MU.US.md) - [O39.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/O39.SG.md) - [STI.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/STI.SG.md) - [TGT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TGT.US.md) - [WDC.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/WDC.US.md) - [SNDK.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SNDK.US.md) - [.IXIC.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/.IXIC.US.md) - [XOM.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/XOM.US.md) - [WMT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/WMT.US.md) - [SNAP.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SNAP.US.md) ## Comments (34) - **longOnly · 2026-08-18T17:12:36.000Z · 👍 1**: watch out for a long time us yield. I'm not kidding. if it doesn't come down stocks will come down. this occurs every us election - **TheCollector · 2026-08-18T13:52:17.000Z**: bank dividends remain the single biggest swing factor for the STI, seeing DBS’s payout strength, OCBC’s growth momentum, and UOB’s weaker profile shaping index performance. - **NewUser_zS0M8w · 2026-08-18T13:46:34.000Z**: The Iran US 60 days ceasefire has ended and immediately there were reports of explosion and ship struck in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump also said on social media that there are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with Iran, which could be one of the various reasons why the market indexe - **Fattycat · 2026-08-18T13:00:09.000Z · 👍 1**: Gold trap in the tunnel for almost the whole day. Going to breakout soon 🫣🤣 - **Fattycat** (2026-08-18T13:01:12.000Z): No direction. Up and down within the $10 range🤔 - **Lemonade · 2026-08-18T12:36:20.000Z**: While broader markets slipped under geo-tension, AI memory demand continues to prove it’s the ultimate bottleneck. SanDisk, WDC and Micron ripping higher shows where real pricing power sits. Meanwhile, Druckenmiller exiting Micron right before the surge is a stark reminder that even institutional gi - **TheRaccoonAnalysis · 2026-08-18T11:50:30.000Z**: Memory and optical-chip stocks outperformed despite broad market weakness, reflecting growing expectations that AI infrastructure demand could intensify memory shortages. Musk’s comments and US concerns over Apple’s potential China sourcing further supported the sector. Meanwhile, the S&P 500, N - **Victor y · 2026-08-18T11:49:57.000Z**: AI and semiconductor demand continue to drive the market, with strong growth in memory, semiconductors and AI infrastructure. The market continues to favour companies with strong earnings, pricing power and clear exposure to AI driven growth.Geo higher oil prices and global growth concerns are addin - **Valenxis · 2026-08-18T11:27:23.000Z**: Waiting for FOMC minutes for this week key event. Inflation risk is there, oil price rebounded higher, iran ceasefire deal over with no new outlook..small correction is welcome. - **NewUser_ThinkSwim · 2026-08-18T11:20:28.000Z**: Recently the markets are uncertain of their movements. Either up in the few hours then drop. So invest safely DCA. - **Dacai · 2026-08-18T09:16:20.000Z**: The ending of the cease fire and consequent spike in oil prices will raise the operating costs of airlines. Whether the airline can pass part of this cost to the consumer without affecting demand will make a difference to its bottom line and profit margin. - **Fattycat · 2026-08-18T08:34:53.000Z**: Latest Global bond news : German 10‑year yield jumps to its highest since 2011.Global inflation worries are real and are triggering a broad sell‑off in government bonds worldwide now 🥹 - **LazyCat** (2026-08-18T08:36:15.000Z): ha ha, you beat me to it! was about to post the same. - **Helen72 · 2026-08-18T07:59:33.000Z**: Home Depot's (HD) moat lies in its robust supply chain for Pro customers (professional truck drivers/contractors). Through recent acquisitions of SRS and Mingledorff's, HD holds significant sway in heavy building materials and HVAC. With large customer orders and relatively rigid demand, despite a s - **LazyCat · 2026-08-18T07:52:00.000Z**: The market likes to hear what they want to heard and Musk gave them an excuse to rally the memories hard. The pace of fund rotation seems to pick up and those chasing highs need to manage their risk well. - **FaithAnchor · 2026-08-18T07:15:27.000Z**: MediLifestyle (Z4D) surged 44% 🚀 after announcing its EM2Au acquisition. Investors are betting the deal can unlock a new growth engine and earnings upside. But after such a sharp jump, the easy money may be gone. Now, it’s execution that matters. Can Z4D deliver? 👀 - **dingdongbell · 2026-08-18T06:11:20.000Z · 👍 1**: A healthy bullish market always have periods of shallow pullbacks and then bursts of upward movements or rallies. Looks like we are having a pullback which is much needed. The market needs to breathe too. - **Heroic Lifesaver · 2026-08-18T06:08:33.000Z · 👍 1**: They always say ‘The market does not go up in a straight line’. This market still looks like it wants to go higher and if it keeps having shallow pullbacks, then the trend is up. - **Fattycat** (2026-08-18T06:09:59.000Z): Yeah scary🫣😆 - **koolgal · 2026-08-18T06:07:42.000Z · 👍 1**: 🌟🌟🌟Black Gold is back with a vengeance! Brent Crude has officially broken through the USD 90 per barrel threshold, sparking a fresh wave of panic across global markets and sending inflation weary tech stocks running for cover.A good tactical bet is to invest in $SPDR Energy Select(XLE.US) as it prov - **NewUser_CkrdqW · 2026-08-18T04:56:36.000Z · 👍 1**: Memory stocks edge higher, back to near all time highs as Musk's words triggered massive buying into the sector. Wednesday's FOMC meeting minutes will be interesting as reports suggest that there may be a 0.25 basis point rate hike by end of this year, which is considerably better than initially exp - **Tiffany lover · 2026-08-18T04:54:02.000Z · 👍 1**: Brent crude oil broke through $90 per barrel as the US-Iran shipping memorandum expired with no successor agreement.As oil prices rose, gold and silver saw a reversal.Portfolios might consider broader diversification for risk control. - **Fattycat · 2026-08-18T04:42:53.000Z · 👍 4**: Today marks earnings day for Xiaomi (1810), Baidu (9888) and Fuyao Glass (3606).I am watching these stocks closely, as I have keen interest in them. Xiaomi and Baidu are two of China’s biggest tech giants while Fuyao Glass is a leading supplier of automotive glass for electric vehicles. In addition, --- > **Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.**