Notable market news this past week (28-Jun-26)
Here is the Skeptivest roundup of the latest market headlines for the week
🌍 Massive structural supply shock in the global semiconductor market disrupting major tech valuations
Major consumer technology stocks sold off as memory chip suppliers, such as Micron, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, aggressively shifted their manufacturing wafer capacity away from traditional consumer tech to prioritise high-profit high-bandwidth memory for AI data centres. Together, these 3 global chip giants, control well over 90% of the global Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) market. This structural pivot has severely choked off the global supply of standard DRAM components and starved the consumer electronics market, with AI-centric memory now projected to absorb a staggering 70% of global hardware production. Management at both SK Hynix and Micron recently confirmed that their total production capacities are fully booked and sold out, while Samsung warned that legacy memory shortages will likely persist until 2027.
The resulting scarcity forced hardware titans like Apple, Microsoft and Nintendo to announce sweeping price hikes across their device line-ups to defend profit margins. Investors immediately panicked over potential consumer demand destruction, and triggered stock routs across these consumer hardware brands. Pressured by the coordinated capacity squeeze, Apple is reportedly seeking US government approval to buy alternative, cheaper memory components from China's ChangXin Memory Technologies to bypass the expensive bottleneck imposed by the dominant Western and South Korean incumbents.
The week’s volatility across major technology stocks served as a stark realization that AI's insatiable resource demands are tightening semiconductor supply, driving up component costs, and crowding out traditional consumer tech supply chains.
☕️ Quick fire happenings to note
🌏 Global macro
- US core PCE price index in May remained elevated at 3.4% y/y annually, its highest level since late 2023, while the headline PCE inflation rate accelerated to 4.1% y/y. On a monthly basis, headline PCE inflation rose 0.4% m/m, below expectations of 0.5% m/m, while core PCE increased 0.3% m/m, in line with market forecasts. The data reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will maintain a cautious, higher-for-longer policy stance. US Treasury yields initially moved higher following the release, reflecting persistent inflation and resilient consumer spending, but later retraced those gains as the figures broadly met expectations and falling oil prices, driven by progress in US–Iran negotiations, helped ease longer-term inflation concerns.
- US economy expanded at an annualised rate of 2.1% y/y in the final estimate for Q1 GDP, underscoring continued economic resilience despite elevated interest rates. Growth was supported by a robust 10.4% surge in business fixed investment, driven largely by ongoing AI-related spending on data centres, semi-conductors, and digital infrastructure, which more than offset a moderation in consumer spending growth to 1.4%. The data reinforced the view that corporate investment remains a key pillar of US economic growth, even as household demand begins to normalise.
- China’s industrial sector remained resilient in May, with industrial profits rising 21.1% y/y. While growth moderated slightly from April’s 24.7% increase, profits for the January-May period were still up 18.8%, suggesting that corporate earnings remain on a solid footing despite softer manufacturing activity and external demand. The data points to continued resilience in China’s industrial sector, supported by ongoing policy measures and strength in high-value manufacturing industries.
🏦 Individual stocks/companies
- Micron Technology Inc (-5.14% past 5D) shares surged sharply following a strong earnings report and upbeat guidance, that reinforced investor optimism around AI-driven memory demand. The stock briefly surpassed the US$1 trillion market capitalisation after management highlighted robust demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators and data centres. Investor confidence was further supported by a series of bullish analyst upgrades, as several sell-side firms raised price targets on expectations that tight memory supply and accelerating AI-related spending will continue to support earnings growth over the coming quarters.
- Apple Inc (-4.71% past 5D) shares tumbled over 6% in a single session last Thursday, marking their steepest single-day drop in over a year. The sharp sell-off was triggered by Apple’s announcement of hefty price hikes across its Mac and iPad lineups, with the MacBook Pro jumping by $300, as the company passes on the escalating costs of a severe global memory and storage chip storage to consumers. While flagship iPhone prices remained unchanged, investors grew concerned that higher prices across Apple's broader product portfolio could weaken consumer demand and weigh on future sales.
- Microsoft Corp (-0.51% past 5D) shares endured a volatile week before surging a powerful 5.71% in a single session on Friday. Early in the week, the tech giant faced continuous selling pressure as investors panicked over a staggering US$190 billion fiscal 2026 capital expenditure forecast alongside rising memory component costs and an EU antitrust probe into Azure. This pushed shares down from an opening price of $375.74 on Monday to hit a low of $349.20 on Thursday. Sentiment completely flipped on Friday as the stock skyrocketed to close the week at $372.97, erasing nearly all its weekly losses on the back of broader market rotation into software leaders, a more benign PCE inflation data, and news that Michael Burry opened a bullish position via call options on the stock.
🇸🇬 Singapore related
- Singapore’s core inflation held steady at 1.4% y/y in May, missing market expectations by coming in cooler than the anticipated 1.6% y/y. Headline inflation remained unchanged at 1.8% y/y for the third straight month, while on a month-on-month basis, headline consumer prices grew by 0.7%. The softer inflation reading was driven by easing services inflation more specifically telecom costs, which offset higher private transport, food and retail goods prices. With overall price pressures remaining contained, there might be little urgency for MAS to tighten monetary policy at its July meeting, allowing the central bank to remain on hold while monitoring global supply chain risks.
