U.S. stock indices closed higher on Thursday as chipmaker shares rebounded ahead of SK Hynix's Nasdaq debut, and investors looked past a second day of U.S. military operations against Iran. The S&P 500 rose 0.8%, the Nasdaq 100 gained 1.3% and the Dow added 0.3%.
Chipmaker stocks pulled Wall Street higher on Thursday, and the S&P 500 closed 0.8% higher at 7,542.76. The rally came as traders positioned ahead of SK Hynix's Nasdaq listing and shrugged off mounting geopolitical risk involving the U.S. and Iran.
The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.3% to 29,618.40, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% to close at 52,477.72. The small-cap Russell 2000 added 1.2%.
Semiconductor shares drove the move. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) added 2.5% on gains in Broadcom and Micron Tech, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose nearly 3%. Support also came from Meta, Tesla, Amazon and Apple, which lifted the Vanguard Information Technology ETF about 2%.
The chip trade now faces a test. SK Hynix is scheduled to debut on the Nasdaq on July 10, and the South Korean memory maker's U.S. listing was reportedly more than seven times oversubscribed, according to Bloomberg. Yet South Korean equities entered bear market territory on Wednesday, a bear market that saw both Samsung and SK Hynix shares fall significantly.
Geopolitics stayed in the background even as the United States carried out a second consecutive day of military operations against Iran, according to U.S. Central Command. The wave of strikes followed Tehran's attacks on commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping has slowed. Matt Maley at Miller Tabak told Bloomberg that markets were still fixated on corporate results: "Investors are much more focused on the upcoming earnings season than they are on the geopolitical front."
Source: TradingView
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