Andy Chen

As of the September 18 close, CrowdStrike (CRWD) has posted a remarkable year-to-date gain of 102%, with its stock price surging an impressive 177% from its February low of $85.68. In a year when software stock valuations have been broadly compressed, this doubling rally was driven not by earnings reports, but by the market re-pricing AI cybersecurity demand: a leap in model capabilities has rapidly expanded the attack surface, turning endpoint protection from routine procurement into non-discretionary spending; whichever company shields artificial intelligence enterprises from next-generation threats captures the valuation premium in the cybersecurity sector first.

As memory prices continue to rise, market concerns over supply shortages are intensifying. Jason Chen, Chairman of PC and IT hardware giant Acer, provided a starkly contrasting assessment of the current price-hike narrative in the memory market. He stated bluntly that repeated claims by the top three memory suppliers—Samsung, SK Hynix (SKHY), and Micron (MU)—that "price increases will persist into 2027" are not factual. Instead, constrained by antitrust regulations that forbid direct price coordination among manufacturers, they are using public statements to signal one another. "Anyone who has been through this cycle will understand that this is actually just signaling."

In a phone interview with Fox News reporter Trey Yingst, U.S. President Trump stated that he is deciding whether to launch a catastrophic military strike against Iran, saying, "My question is, whether and when I level the entire country? They had better watch themselves." The threatening remarks came a day after Trump returned early to the White House from Camp David, cutting short his scheduled weekend trip. He noted that he is currently in "decision mode" regarding Iran and that "very major events will happen in the not-too-distant future."

Apple's (AAPL) stock price has steadily rebounded since its autumn product launch event on September 9. Currently hovering around $334, it has recovered most of its losses since peaking in late July and sits less than 3% below its all-time high of $344.26. The market is banking on sales of the new product lineup to push the stock past its previous record high. Global delivery lead times tracked by JPMorgan for the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max have expanded more than during the same period last year, while a consumer survey by Evercore ISI also points to a better-than-expected upgrade cycle. Meanwhile, delivery lead times in the Chinese market remain significantly shorter than last year, which JPMorgan views as a primary concern in tracking current demand.

U.S. Treasury yields rose again, weighing on equities and leaving U.S. stocks mixed. AI hardware stocks surged late in the session, with memory and cryptocurrency stocks leading the gains. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.18% to 51,682.64; the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.39% to 26,522.55; and the S&P 500 Index gained 0.17% to 7,650.50.

On September 18, Eastern Time, Micron (MU) shares reclaimed the $1,000 mark after one week. RBC Capital noted that Micron's current valuation barely reflects its exposure to the wave of AI-driven memory demand, leaving "significant" room for valuation multiple expansion.

On September 18, Eastern Time, cryptocurrencies generally gained today, with Bitcoin (BTC) rising 6% to break through the $80,000 mark; Ethereum (ETH) gaining 5.62% to $2,587; and XRP rising 7% to $1.38. The market attributed the primary catalyst for this rally to a regulatory development: the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has submitted a new regulatory proposal targeting crypto asset trading and markets to the White House for review, moving to accelerate rulemaking under its existing authority after a digital asset bill failed to advance in the Senate this week.

On September 18, US Eastern Time, Netflix (NFLX) fell more than 6% in early trading before narrowing its decline to around 4% as of press time. The stock hit a low of $70.11, its lowest level since late July. Reportedly, Wells Fargo downgraded Netflix from "Hold" to "Underweight" and sharply cut its price target by 28% from $80 to $57, citing weakening user engagement trends and challenges facing its content strategy.

As the Federal Reserve's rate hike materialized, falling U.S. Treasury yields and oil prices supported market trading sentiment. U.S. equities rose, led by gains in AI-related shares such as tech and memory stocks. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.61% to 51,778.04, the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.69% to 26,418.30, and the S&P 500 Index advanced 1.14% to 7,637.76.

Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that SpaceX (SPCX) has internally discussed purchasing customer data and operational information from distressed or defunct startups to acquire data resources at lower costs and improve the performance of its artificial intelligence models.

Intel (INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan recently delivered a keynote speech at the Splunk.conf26 conference in Denver, Colorado, where he addressed the market's three top concerns—CPU supply and demand, process node progress, and foundry strategy—during a fireside chat. He noted that the bottleneck in AI computing power is expanding from GPUs to CPUs.

On September 17, GlobalFoundries (GFS) and Marvell Technology (MRVL) jointly announced today that the two companies will expand their multi-year partnership to increase SiGe technology capacity at GlobalFoundries' facility in Burlington, Vermont, to meet growing demand for next-generation optical connectivity.

On September 17 ET, the day after the Federal Reserve announced a rate hike, Micron (MU) surged over 5%, with its stock price reclaiming $980. Citi noted in its latest research report that as AI transitions from simple training and inference to an era of "continual learning," demand for HBM, server DDR5, and enterprise solid-state drives (eSSD) will experience simultaneous explosive growth starting in 2027.

The Federal Reserve announced a 25-basis-point interest rate hike, with Warsh pointing out that inflation is too high and has persisted for too long, weighing on U.S. equities. Bank stocks led the declines, while select chip stocks bucked the trend to post gains, and optical communication stocks were among the top performers. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.21% to 51,461.90; the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.01% to 25,978.42; and the S&P 500 Index dropped 0.45% to 7,551.81.

On September 16, Eastern Time, the Federal Reserve stated in its latest rate decision statement that it decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00%, marking its first rate hike since July 2023. The decision was passed unanimously with a 12–0 vote, while keeping the monetary policy framework of ample reserves in the banking system unchanged.

On September 16, Eastern Time, Dell Technologies (DELL) rose to an intraday high of $576.75, setting another all-time high. Recently, Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, noted that amid the AI boom, prices for computing equipment and personal computers will continue to rise, and the "structural shortage" of hardware chips is highly likely to worsen further in 2027.

On the second day of the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Salesforce (CRM) suffered a service disruption affecting parts of its cloud software suite, leaving customers unable to gain normal access. The software leader, whose core narrative centers on "customer relationship management," exposed service availability issues precisely during the key window when it was showcasing its products to clients.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly surged to its highest level since 2007, while international crude oil prices surpassed $100, both weighing on market sentiment as U.S. equities extended their decline, though chip stocks bucked the trend to post gains. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.63% to 52,093.11; the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.78% to 25,981.57; and the S&P 500 Index slipped 0.45% to 7,585.73.

On September 15 ET, voting on the CLARITY Act in the U.S. Senate concluded with 50 votes in favor and 50 against, falling short of the 60-vote procedural threshold required to initiate full floor debate.

Micron Technology (MU) announced on September 15 that it has successfully demonstrated the world's first 512GB DDR5 RDIMM module across multiple server platforms, achieving speeds of up to 9,200 MT/s. According to Micron's official press release, the module utilizes advanced vertical interconnect packaging technology, enabling a single 24-slot dual-socket server to support up to 12TB of DDR5 memory while reducing operating power consumption by over 60% compared to four 128GB RDIMMs.