Today’s Market Recap: Nasdaq Hits Record High, Memory Stocks Rally, SanDisk Up Over 6%, Micron Up 5%
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As of Eastern Time September 22, the Nasdaq hit a record closing high, led by memory stocks, while the Dow declined and the S&P 500 closed flat. The U.S. Dollar Index rose to a seven-week high, oil prices fell amid eased geopolitical supply concerns, and gold rebounded. In policy, Trump maintained pressure on Iran while opposing global AI development restrictions at the UN. Major tech developments featured SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot reaching 418,000 weekly active users, Anthropic launching Claude Opus 5.5, and OpenAI introducing GPT-6 Sol and Luna. Additionally, South Korea and the U.S. discussed a major Texas gas plant project.
TradingKey - As of the close on September 22, Eastern Time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.36% to 51,863.69. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.45% to 27,244.28, setting a record closing high, while the S&P 500 edged down by less than 0.01% to 7,764.64.
Memory stocks outperformed. Sandisk (SNDK) rose 6.82%, Micron Technology (MU) gained 5.00%, Seagate Technology（STX） advanced 4.85%, Western Digital (WDC) climbed 3.67%, and SK hynix (SKHY) added 3.45%.
The U.S. Dollar Index rose for a second consecutive session, reaching a seven-week intraday high of 100.667. Bitcoin retreated to around $85,000, below the nearly eight-month high reached in the previous session.
Reports of U.S.-Iran diplomatic engagement and the possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz eased supply concerns, sending oil prices lower during the session.
WTI crude fell nearly 4% at one point before settling down 1.24% at $94.59 a barrel. November Brent crude declined 1.09% to $99.25 a barrel. Gold reversed an intraday decline of more than 1% and moved higher.
Market Headline
Trump’s UN Speech: Pressure on Iran, Opposition to Restricting AI Development
At the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, Trump said the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and called on other countries to deepen Iran’s economic isolation. He said the U.S. still had to choose between reaching an agreement and continuing military action. If the conflict ends, oil prices could fall below prewar levels, he added.
Trump’s remark that oil prices might decline after the midterm elections came during a September 9 exchange with reporters, not during his UN speech. He also denied that U.S. stockpiles of advanced weapons were running low.
On AI policy, Trump opposed international agreements that would impose uniform restrictions on AI development, saying the U.S. would not slow AI development. He also proposed replacing “artificial intelligence” with “superintelligence” in government documents, although the White House has not issued a formal order implementing the change.
SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot Reaches 418,000 Weekly Active Users
About one month after its launch, SpaceXAI’s enterprise AI agent Grok Bot reached 418,000 weekly active users as of September 14, up 24% from the previous week. The figures came from internal materials presented at an industry event and have not been formally released by SpaceXAI.
Designed primarily for enterprise customers, Grok Bot can handle tasks involving email, sales databases, invoices and scheduling. The product is positioned as an always-on digital employee.
Anthropic Launches Claude Opus 5.5
Anthropic has introduced Claude Opus 5.5, its first new model since calling for a more measured pace of frontier AI development. The company said the model performs at a level comparable to Claude Fable 5.1 on most tasks, generates output more than 30% faster than Opus 5 and lowers typical workload costs by around 40%.
API pricing is $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, both 20% lower than Opus 5. In an automated behavioral audit, the model made 85% fewer attempts to circumvent established boundaries.
Anthropic confirmed that it would raise the five-hour usage limits for certain paid plans but did not disclose the size of the increase. Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 are scheduled for release in the coming weeks.
OpenAI Launches GPT-6 Sol and Luna
OpenAI launched GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna less than three weeks after the release of GPT-6 Astra. The two models focus on improving professional work, coding, computer use and caching efficiency.
Sol’s API pricing is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. Luna is priced at $0.10 and $0.50, respectively. OpenAI said the prices are around 50% lower than the promotional pricing for the corresponding GPT-5.6 models.
Both models are available through the API, ChatGPT Work and Codex, but have not yet been released in the standard Chat interface.
South Korea and the U.S. Discuss Texas Gas Plant; Investment Terms Remain Undecided
South Korea and the United States are reportedly discussing a gas-fired power plant in Encinal, Texas, as one of the first projects under South Korea’s $350 billion U.S. investment program. The proposed 6.3-gigawatt project is estimated to cost about $22.3 billion and would primarily supply electricity to local AI data centers and semiconductor plants.
The two countries are also discussing nuclear power and liquefied natural gas projects. The South Korean government said the investment amount, financing structure and construction arrangements have not been finalized. The project therefore cannot yet be described as approved or funded.
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