Opened high and closed low on Friday, with storage taking a backhand blow.

The US stock market was highly divided on Friday. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index once rose over 5%, Micron initially surged over 6%, SK Hynix rose over 8%, and SanDisk neared a 10% gain. However, the market suddenly plunged intraday, wiping out all gains in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and turning negative. Micron closed down about 4.2%, and SanDisk fell over 6%.

Why the gap-up and gap-down? Four selling pressures ignited simultaneously.

① Kioxia's earnings missed expectations. On July 31, Kioxia released its quarterly report, with performance below market expectations. The market interpreted this as "the AI-driven surge in flash memory prices may be slowing." Upon news release, the storage sector instantly shifted from a gap-up to a plunge—SanDisk went from up over 10% to down over 6%, and Micron from up over 6% to down over 4%.

② Collective plunge in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. It opened with a gain of about 5%, but subsequently wiped out almost all gains. The linked sell-off across the entire chip sector directly crushed buying interest in Micron.

③ Large-scale net selling by retail investors. The total net selling amount for individual stocks by retail investors that day was $213 million, with 88% concentrated in the storage chip sector—Micron, SanDisk, Seagate, and Western Digital. This concentrated selling exacerbated the pullback after the gap-up.

④ The bomb hidden in Apple's earnings report. On July 30, Apple delivered its Q3 fiscal year 2026 results—revenue of $109.4 billion beat expectations. However, during his last earnings call in office, Tim Cook warned that Apple is facing a "once-in-a-century" spike in memory chip prices. The DRAM market is monopolized by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. Cook bluntly stated, "It would be good if there were more suppliers." More critically, several US senators wrote to Cook, blocking Apple's procurement of chips from CXMT and YMTC on grounds of "national security." Apple's path to breaking the monopoly and lowering costs by introducing Chinese manufacturers was completely blocked. Storage chip prices will continue to rise, squeezing Apple's profits further.

Friday's tech stocks showed a stark contrast: AI cloud software and chips rose, while storage and consumer electronics plummeted. Microsoft surged 15.51%, marking its largest single-day gain since October 2008; Amazon rose nearly 4%; Google stabilized; and NVIDIA rose over 2%. These tech giants held the index up.

On the SpaceX front, risks are still accumulating. It fell 3.4% on Friday, closing at $108.37, setting a new low since its IPO, down about 30% from the $150 IPO price. The first earnings report will be released on August 4, and approximately 910 million shares will become unblocked on August 6. Short-term pressure is not yet over.

Back to storage: Has the trend changed? No. UBS predicts HBM demand will grow 90% year-over-year in H1 2026, and another 77% in 2027. Micron has fallen about 34% from its June high.

Friday's tech stock pullback was a "sector divergence" rather than a "systemic crash." The storage sector's gap-up and gap-down was caused by short-term capital stampedes. Apple's issue lies in its own supply chain, and SPCX faces pre-earnings pressure.

Next week will likely repeat the high-volatility oscillating market. The fundamentals of Micron and SK Hynix remain unchanged, and institutions are broadly bullish. However, there are also many negative factors: the pressure from trapped positions, and increased volatility following the implementation of new quantitative regulations. Relatively speaking, SPCX has higher uncertainty.