[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

Wall Street closed mixed Monday as a broad selloff in semiconductor stocks weighed on the market. Investors are closely watching major Big Tech companies' second-quarter earnings reports and capital expenditure plans due this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 262.83 points, or 0.51 percent, to close at 52,210.08 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday (local time).

The S&P 500 edged up 1.20 points, or 0.02 percent, to finish at 7,413.18. The Nasdaq Composite, however, fell 43.74 points, or 0.18 percent, to 24,932.08.

A sharp drop in crude oil prices — after the United States halted airstrikes against Iran over the weekend — helped lift investor sentiment, but persistent selling in AI-related semiconductor stocks capped gains across the major indexes.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks 30 major semiconductor stocks listed in the United States, fell 2.23 percent on the day.

Nvidia tumbled 4.99 percent, while AMD fell 5.17 percent, Western Digital 4.21 percent, Micron 2.25 percent and SanDisk 11.02 percent, as major chipmakers declined across the board.

SK Hynix's American depositary receipts also tumbled 7.47 percent.

The Information, a technology news outlet, reported that China has begun developing deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing, citing sources familiar with the matter. Shares of Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML listed in the United States tumbled 5.8 percent on the news.

"Semiconductor stocks fell sharply during trading after reports that a Chinese company would begin supplying domestically developed DUV lithography equipment to major Chinese chipmakers starting this year, and as Nvidia's circular trading issue resurfaced," said Seo Sang-young, a managing director at Mirae Asset Securities' WM Innovation Division.

Apple rose 1.17 percent, pushing its market cap to $4.95 trillion. The gain allowed Apple to reclaim the title of the world's most valuable company by market cap for the first time in 15 months.

Markets are focused on Big Tech earnings due this week. Meta and Microsoft are set to report second-quarter results on Wednesday, followed by Amazon and Apple on Thursday. Investors are paying close attention not only to earnings but also to capital expenditure plans that could signal whether companies intend to expand AI investment.

"There is just enormous uncertainty in the technology space," Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, told CNBC. "There's a lot of uncertainty about how things are going to play out and whether investors are going to want to reallocate capital."

Oil prices fell sharply after the United States halted its airstrikes on Iran. Brent crude futures settled at $88.36 per barrel, down 8.7 percent from the previous session, while West Texas Intermediate futures closed at $82.61 per barrel, a decline of 7.5 percent.


moon@heraldcorp.com