- U.S. stocks drifted lower at midday Monday with the S&P 500 easing 0.2% to 7,772.93 and the Dow falling 172 points, or 0.3%, to 53,560 amid rising long-term Treasury yields.
- AI optical interconnect and memory stocks rallied significantly, driven by strong sector demand and comments from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick against sourcing DRAM and NAND from specific Chinese suppliers.
- Key industry gainers included SanDisk jumping 10%, Micron rising 6%, Coherent surging 10.4%, and Semtech climbing 10.6%, while precious metals and manufacturing data also saw notable increases.