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June 24, 2026 - 07:03
8 minutes
(Bloomberg) — Global stocks failed to hold onto early gains following Tuesday’s tech-led rout, as a fresh bout of selling weighed on the sector ahead of highly anticipated results from memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc.The MSCI All Country World Index fell 0.1%, while Asia’s equity benchmark dropped 0.4% following an early advance of nearly 1%. Shares of bellwether Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which accounts for more than 10% of the Asian gauge, lost over 3% after having largely weathered Tuesday’s broader rout. South Korea’s Kospi Index pared early gains, with Samsung Electronics Co.’s stock supported by a report that the firm may announce a buyback. US equity futures edged higher.Elsewhere in markets, a gauge of the dollar climbed to a seven-month high as weakness in stocks supported haven demand. Brent crude slipped to approach $76 a barrel as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz became more visible following an interim peace agreement between the US and Iran.The volatile equities backdrop has sharpened the focus on Micron’s results, which may provide crucial cues on whether demand for AI infrastructure remains strong enough to sustain this year’s rally. The stock dropped 13% on Tuesday but is still up more than 250% in 2026. Veteran strategist Louis Navellier said the report will be the grand finale to a “stunning” earnings season.“The AI bubble is by far the biggest stock-market bubble that mankind has ever seen — both in scale and scope, in terms of the leverage that’s in there and in terms of the sheer excessive exuberance that’s driven valuations,” Paul Gambles, managing partner at MBMG Group, said on Bloomberg TV. “But, we don’t think the markets have actually thrown in the towel yet. It’s got a lot lot further to go down before it gets to chip-wreck.”Shares of Cerebras Systems Inc. lost about 11% in late US trading after the newly public chipmaker gave an annual sales forecast that disappointed investors looking for the company to take a bigger slice of the AI data center market.The moves point to renewed concerns that the AI-driven rally may have run too far, too fast. The Asian benchmark slumped 3.6% on Tuesday, the most since early March, while the Kospi tumbled 10%. The selloff spread to US markets, with the Nasdaq 100 plunging 3.3% and the S&P 500 losing 1.4%. A closely watched semiconductor gauge — which had more than doubled from its war-driven lows — lost about 8%.What Bloomberg Strategists say:“This week’s main event for US stocks is Micron earnings after Wednesday’s market close and it will need an extremely optimistic outlook to trigger a major rebound for Nasdaq futures. The consistent failures of the contract near the 31,000 line recall previous peaks in October and January.”— Mark Cranfield, Markets Live strategist. Click here for the full analysis.Worries over whether the massive spending commitments by technology firms will generate sufficient returns, coupled with elevated valuations and crowded positioning, have triggered sharp pullbacks in AI-linked stocks from time to time. Even so, equity markets look set to close out the first half of 2026 with some blockbuster gains. Up almost 13% since the end of March, the MSCI All Country World Index is on course for its best quarter since the period ended Dec. 31, 2020.In other AI-related developments, Chinese model maker Zhipu is considering a share sale to raise several billion US dollars in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said, after soaring 2,000% since its listing in January. Separately, ByteDance Ltd., the developer of TikTok, is in preliminary talks with banks for a borrowing of about $20 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the firm’s largest offshore loan yet at a time when it’s boosting investments in AI.‘Volatility Amplifiers’For the Kospi, Tuesday’s rout was one of its steepest in history as a turnaround in investor sentiment toward the chips sector sparked a rapid unwind of leveraged positions in the world’s best-performing equity market.“Volatility amplifiers like outflows from levered products probably went into over-drive and became quickly exhausted yesterday, paving the way for today’s rebound in South Korea. But the same is not true for Taiwan, which, in hindsight, was relatively calm in yesterday’s session despite having the same sensitivity to global tech hardware narratives,” said Homin Lee, strategist at Lombard Odier in Singapore.Meanwhile, Indonesian stocks were down about 1.6% as MSCI Inc. again delayed its review of the nation’s equity market, saying it needs more time to assess whether recently announced transparency reforms are working. MSCI had in January warned of a possible downgrade to frontier status due to investability concerns.The New York-based index provider also retained South Korea in its emerging-markets basket.The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% to head for a third straight day of gains. Gold fell for a second session, under pressure from a stronger greenback and the tech-led selloff in equities that prompted investors to cut bullion holdings and cover losses elsewhere.In fixed income, Treasuries advanced for a second day as the equity selloff and falling oil prices were seen as easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to contain inflation.An auction of two-year Treasury notes drew strong demand on Tuesday, about a week after Kevin Warsh’s first press conference as Fed chair spurred a sharp increase in yields as traders priced in more tightening in response to rising inflation. Focus now turns to Thursday’s personal spending data for more cues.Warsh’s commitment to lowering inflation bolsters the Fed’s credibility, supporting long-dated Treasury yields and a lower term-premium, as per Citadel Securities.Trading in the $31 trillion US Treasury market since last week’s Fed meeting has been defined by relatively more stable long-dated yields versus the policy sensitive two-year sector, and “a hyper-credible Fed should be good for long end rates,” according to Nohshad Shah, the firm’s head of EMEA fixed-income sales.Corporate Highlights:SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son said he plans to hold onto the top spot at the technology group he founded for another decade or more, shredding his long-held plan to hand over the reins in his sixties. Chinese artificial-intelligence model maker Zhipu is considering a share sale to raise several billion US dollars in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said, after soaring 2,000% since its listing in January. FedEx Corp. posted quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street expectations and said profit would grow this year, a boost for the courier’s effort to simplify its business. SpaceX has drawn about $89 billion of demand for its debut US bond sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter, setting the stage for one of the biggest deals in the investment-grade market this year. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. equity traders are on the cusp of setting another record in the second quarter, with that business on track to generate more than $5 billion of revenue, according to people familiar with the matter. Apollo Global Management Inc. is once again limiting withdrawal requests from its largest non-traded private credit fund for retail investors, as broader concerns about the asset class persist. Some of the main moves on markets:StocksS&P 500 futures rose 0.2% as of 2:01 p.m. Tokyo time Japan’s Topix fell 0.8% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was little changed Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed The Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% Euro Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.2% CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1363 The Japanese yen was little changed at 161.56 per dollar The offshore yuan fell 0.2% to 6.8075 per dollar The Australian dollar fell 0.1% to $0.6910 CryptocurrenciesBitcoin rose 0.5% to $62,692.62 Ether rose 0.4% to $1,668.45 BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.49% Japan’s 10-year yield was unchanged at 2.665% Australia’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.77% CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6% to $72.75 a barrel Spot gold fell 1.3% to $4,064.85 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.–With assistance from Charlotte Yang, Shery Ahn and Carmeli Argana.©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
