Analysis

Memory stocks extended their decline, with SK Hynix tumbling over 5% to lead losses in the semiconductor sector.

TradingKey - As of the market close on October 12, Eastern Time, Visa (V) stock rose 0.99% to $389.27, reaching an intraday high of $391.81, marking its eighth consecutive session of gains and setting another all-time high. Notably, Visa announced today that it has received approval from the People's Bank of China to officially begin preparations for establishing a domestic bank card clearing institution in China. This advances a new regulatory step toward its entry into China's domestic payment clearing market, potentially providing further momentum for the stock price.

TradingKey - JPMorgan (JPM) will report its third-quarter FY2026 financial results before the U.S. market open on October 13, Eastern Time, and host an earnings call at 8:30 a.m. ET on the same day.

U.S. supermarket chain operator Kroger (KR) plans to eliminate approximately 3,000 corporate and functional roles over the next three years, representing about 37% of its headquarters staff. If fully implemented, the company's corporate headcount will decline from around 8,200 to about 5,200, making it one of the largest workforce adjustments in Kroger's 143-year history.

TradingKey - ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) recently disclosed progress on its 4F² DRAM architecture and plans to launch related DDR5 RDIMM server memory by the end of 2026.

TradingKey - On October 12, Seoul time, Samsung Electronics closed down 4.39% at 250,500 won. In early trading on October 13, as of press time, the stock fell further by approximately 7.78%, dropping to near 231,000 won at one point and losing the key 250,000 won level.

TradingKey - Shares of Micron Technology (MU) fell 3.88% on Monday to close at $989.04, declining for a third consecutive trading day and breaking below the $1,000 mark. Technological advances by Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, coupled with market concerns over future memory pricing trends, are putting fresh pressure on the industry.

TradingKey - On October 12, Eastern Time, as tensions in the Middle East escalated, the three major U.S. stock indices posted mixed results, with memory stocks falling after Chinese DRAM manufacturer Changxin Memory Technology announced a new memory architecture.

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPCX), stated on the social media platform X that once China masters the manufacturing process of a product, its ability to scale production far surpasses the rest of the world. Citing lithium batteries and solar products as examples, he noted that China holds a clear advantage in manufacturing scalability. He added that SpaceX is a rare exception, as the United States still delivers significantly more mass into orbit than the rest of the world in rocket launches.

Escalating tensions in the Middle East conflict left the three major U.S. stock indices mixed, while memory stocks fell after Chinese DRAM manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) unveiled a new memory architecture. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.38% to 51,850.55 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.44% to 27,245.90 points; and the S&P 500 Index dipped 0.06% to 7,807.24 points.

Microsoft (MSFT) said it plans to deploy its next-generation in-house AI chip, Maia 300, in data centers starting next year and expand the deployment scale of the Maia series to several gigawatts, aiming to power its AI software primarily with in-house hardware and reduce reliance on Nvidia GPUs. The Maia chip is specifically designed for AI inference—using existing models to perform tasks such as summarizing meetings and answering research questions. Microsoft expects that compared to leading GPU systems, Maia 300 will generate 40% more tokens per megawatt. A token is the basic unit of measurement for AI output, typically corresponding to a word or part of a word; this metric measures output capacity per unit of power.

Meta Platforms (META) launched its AI model Muse Wonder on Monday, claiming it possesses "frontier capabilities." The release will test the technological results of Meta’s multi-billion-dollar AI restructuring and reflects the company's push to generate AI revenue beyond its core advertising business. Internally codenamed "Watermelon," Muse Wonder is the company's most capable model since Mark Zuckerberg aggressively recruited talent and overhauled its AI operations. Meta stated that the model rivals OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude in handling coding, financial, and legal tasks, and outperforms Claude Opus 5.5, Fable 5.1, and GPT-6 Astra on certain benchmarks.

Prominent venture capitalist Deedy Das cited Sensor Tower data on X, stating that Meta's (META) standalone AI assistant Muse, launched in September this year, has demonstrated strong user stickiness, with its user retention rate closely trailing market leader ChatGPT (OpenAI).

TradingKey - T-Mobile heads into October 28 earnings after a 13.27% selloff sparked by SpaceX's spectrum deal, even as service revenue, EBITDA and free cash flow remain strong.

On October 12, US Eastern Time, memory stocks tumbled broadly as the market grew concerned over a new-generation DRAM architecture unveiled by Chinese DRAM maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). The company's plans to launch related server memory products by the end of the year have sparked fears of intensifying competition in the server memory market. According to data from market research firm Counterpoint, based on global DRAM vendor revenue, ChangXin Technologies held a 7% market share in the second quarter of 2026, ranking fourth globally. If the technology is successfully commercialized, CXMT is expected to lower unit storage costs, thereby putting pressure on the market shares and profit margins of incumbent manufacturers.

TradingKey - Johnson & Johnson heads into October 13 earnings with raised guidance, strong Innovative Medicine growth and fresh two-year ICOTYDE data supporting its immunology franchise.

As Johnson & Johnson is set to release its earnings report, market expectations of steady revenue fail to conceal profit pressures, yet Wall Street remains generally bullish on its stock.

TradingKey - According to a report by The Information, Anthropic has entered into a multi-year cloud services agreement with IREN (IREN). While the two companies have not yet officially disclosed the contract value, compute capacity, or specific duration, the report indicates that the deal is part of Anthropic's recent large-scale expansion of AI computing resources. Following the news, IREN's stock rose more than 5% at one point in pre-market trading as of October 12, Eastern Time.

TradingKey - Tesla heads into October 21 earnings with stronger Q3 deliveries, rebounding China and Europe sales, rising AI spending and $384.59 resistance in focus.

TradingKey - SpaceX expands Starlink Mobile with an $8 billion spectrum deal while Starlink growth and a $40 billion AI-financing plan raise the stakes for SPCX.