US Stocks Close: Nasdaq Rises 1.1% as Tech Stocks Rebound, Memory Stocks Lead Gains With Micron Up Nearly 3%

CoreWeave (CRWV) reversed gains to fall 0.44% to $61.12.

Following last week's sell-off in both stocks and bonds at CoreWeave, institutions including Jefferies, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan Chase sequentially reiterated their bullish stances. Among them, JPMorgan Chase deemed the relevant concerns overdone, while Deutsche Bank viewed the recent decline as a buying opportunity. Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating from "Neutral" to "Buy" this time, while lowering its price target from $139 to $106 and reducing its forward EBIT valuation multiple from 22x to 18x. This adjustment reflects that the firm recognizes a buying opportunity following the steep stock drop, but still demands a valuation discount for risks such as high debt levels.

Mega-cap tech stocks' performance on October 19 is shown in the chart below:

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.61% to 11,316.34 points. Among its 30 constituents, 26 advanced and 4 declined.

Among memory stocks, Western Digital (WDC) rose 6.09%, SanDisk (SNDK) gained 5.53%, SK Hynix (SKHY) rose 4.67%, Seagate Technology (STX) advanced 3.41%, and Micron Technology (MU) climbed 2.97%.

BofA stated that after undergoing a deep correction of about three and a half months, valuation multiples for memory stocks have bottomed out. This adjustment was led by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, both of whose share prices have fallen by more than 50% from their June peaks. BofA analysts including Simon Woo stated that based on consensus earnings estimates for 2027 to 2028, P/E ratios are down to just 2x to 3x. The report noted that market concerns over the AI memory boom turning into a slump are overdone, and recent share price corrections have largely decoupled from fundamentals. BofA added that a price-to-book (P/B) ratio close to 1x typically appears at the trough of a memory industry cycle, which is characterized by high inventory levels, DRAM average selling prices falling over 50%, substantial operating losses for companies, and high financing costs. BofA believes current operating conditions do not match this combination.

Apple Confirms Oct. 28 Event, First Touchscreen MacBook Pro Expected to Debut

Apple confirmed Monday that it will hold a product launch event themed "Pro and tell" in Los Angeles on October 28. According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to introduce its first touchscreen MacBook Pro at the event, which is expected to feature an OLED display and introduce an interactive interface similar to the iPhone's "Dynamic Island." The report said the touchscreen models will be powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Apple also plans to release an entry-level MacBook Pro powered by the M6 chip, an updated iMac, and a new iPad mini with a sharper display. While the company officially confirmed the event date, specific product details remain based on media reports. Earlier reports noted that Apple retail stores are preparing to start selling the new products on November 6.

Anthropic Reportedly Preparing New Model to Enhance Reasoning and User Intent Understanding

Anthropic is preparing to release a new model focused on enhancing reasoning capabilities and discerning users' underlying intentions and goals when provided with limited information, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The report said the model is also better at proposing out-of-the-box solutions. The model has not yet been officially released, and descriptions of its capabilities remain subject to verification through official launch and external testing.

Nvidia Claims Completion of 104-Qubit Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing Simulation to Reduce Error Correction Overhead

Nvidia announced on October 19 that researchers completed a 104-qubit fault-tolerant quantum computing simulation using 8,192 GPUs on the JUPITER supercomputer at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany. The study modeled the execution of fault-tolerant quantum computing by quantum processors under realistic noisy environments, helping researchers evaluate and optimize designs prior to hardware manufacturing. Nvidia said the research also validated a technical approach that could potentially reduce the required number of physical qubits for relevant schemes by about 90%, lowering the resource overhead for quantum error correction.

Amazon Launches TorchNeuron to Lower Barrier for PyTorch Developers Using Trainium Chips

Amazon announced that with TorchNeuron, developers' PyTorch code can run on AWS Trainium AI chips with only a single configuration tweak, without needing to rewrite business code. According to Amazon, the tool is designed to reduce the workload of modifying and re-validating code when developers migrate to the new chip, lowering the barrier to Trainium adoption. TorchNeuron is scheduled to be released under an open-source license at the PyTorch Conference North America on October 20.

Hassett: September Inflation Rebound Warrants Attention; More Data Needed to Assess Cooling Trend

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an interview with CNBC that although prices for certain goods such as beef and eggs have stabilized or fallen, overall inflationary pressures still warrant attention, and price declines in individual items should not be equated to inflation being under control. The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6% month-on-month in September, marking its fastest pace in nearly five months, while core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.3% month-on-month. Hassett noted that data over the coming months will help determine whether the September rebound represents an interruption of the previous downward trend or merely a single-month fluctuation. He also pointed out that the U.S. economy and consumer demand remain strong, which, while supporting growth, may also delay the cooling of inflation. Regarding monetary policy, Hassett stated that the White House respects the Federal Reserve's independence and believes Chairman Kevin Warsh will make decisions based on economic data.

This content was translated using AI and reviewed for clarity. It is for informational purposes only.