Applied Materials and Lam Research lead chip equipment surge on Micron's blowout quarter, SOXX +3.94%

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) surged 13.4% Thursday, its largest single-session gain since 2023, after Micron Technology's third-quarter earnings confirmed that AI-driven memory demand is accelerating far beyond earlier projections, lifting chip equipment stocks across the board. The Philadelphia Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) rose 3.94%, a sharp reversal from Tuesday's 7.88% rout, even as the S&P 500 was essentially flat at -0.01% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.46%, underscoring a distinct bifurcation between hardware and software within the AI complex.

Today's biggest movers

Applied Materials surges 13% on new memory chip system and Micron catalyst

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) closed at $668.00, up 13.42%, after the company unveiled a new chipmaking system engineered for AI memory processors alongside a sector-wide re-rating triggered by Micron Technology's blockbuster third-quarter results. Micron reported revenue of $41.46 billion, more than four times the year-prior level of $9.3 billion, with adjusted EPS of $25.11 against a $20.78 consensus, and guided the current quarter to approximately $50 billion. For equipment vendors, the logic is direct: that volume of memory revenue requires sustained fab investment, and AMAT is the largest supplier of deposition and etching tools to memory fabs globally.

Analysts moved quickly. Bank of America raised its price target to $720 from $540 with a Buy rating. Wells Fargo lifted its target to $715 from $520 with an Overweight designation. Citi analyst Atif Malik raised his target to $710 from $550. All three cited the multi-year CapEx visibility that Micron's guidance implies for memory equipment spending. AMAT's next earnings report is scheduled for August 13. As noted in yesterday's recap, the market had been holding its breath for the Micron print; today's reaction in equipment names is the exhale.

Lam Research gains 7% as memory equipment re-rating broadens

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) added 7.21% to close at $401.82, as investors extended the Micron-driven equipment trade to LRCX, which is the dominant supplier of etch systems for NAND and DRAM production. Micron's $50 billion revenue guide for the current quarter implies a sustained and growing consumable and tool spend at memory fabs, directly in LRCX's addressable market. Bank of America raised its LRCX price target to $480 from $330; Cantor Fitzgerald moved its target to $425 from $320. LRCX is now up 117% year-to-date, reflecting a full rerating of chip equipment multiples as AI infrastructure spending proves more durable than investors feared after the June 23 sector rout.

ASML climbs 4% ahead of Q2 earnings on July 15

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) gained 4.45% to $1,841.18, participating in the equipment rally while investors position ahead of a Q2 earnings print due July 15 before the open. Consensus estimates point to revenue of roughly $10.16 billion with normalized EPS near $7.85. Bank of America raised its ASML price target to $2,345 from $2,268; Wells Fargo analyst Joe Quatrochi lifted his target to $2,200 from $1,750. A lingering risk remains the proposed MATCH Act, which would extend U.S. chip export controls and could affect ASML's China sales, currently about 19% of net revenue. For now, the demand signal from Micron is outweighing that regulatory overhang in the market's calculus.

Dell slides 6% as memory shortage reaches the PC supply chain

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) fell 5.67% to $409.45 Thursday, with pressure arriving from an unexpected direction: Apple Inc. announced price increases on its MacBook and iPad lines, citing an acute shortage of memory and storage components driven by AI infrastructure demand. Microsoft Corp. simultaneously disclosed price increases on Xbox hardware for the same reason. The implication for Dell is a squeeze on two fronts simultaneously: the same memory demand that underpins its AI server business is now inflating component costs across its client division. Dell remains up 220% year-to-date; stocks with that kind of run require flawless demand narratives, and any friction registers hard.

Palantir falls 5.5% to 52-week low as software selloff deepens

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) dropped 5.49% to $107.27, touching a fresh 52-week low intraday, as enterprise software continued to reprice under what market participants have taken to calling the "SaaSpocalypse": a thesis that AI agents could structurally compress per-seat subscription economics across the enterprise software stack. There was no company-specific catalyst. Palantir is simply the highest-profile, highest-multiple name in the segment, and when that thesis turns, it leads the move lower. PLTR is now down 36% year-to-date and 19% over the past month. As last Monday's recap noted, the split between AI hardware beneficiaries and AI software casualties has widened materially through June, and today's session extended that divergence.

Notable but quieter

$MSFT -3.46%: Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) closed at $352.83 after the Xbox price announcement compounded the day's pressure on the name. MSFT is now down 25% year-to-date, trading at a trailing P/E of 21.8x on reduced forward estimates.

$NOW -4.56%: ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW) extended its June slide to $89.52, down 39% year-to-date. A consensus "Strong Buy" from 48 analysts with a $141 price target offers cold comfort while the SaaS repricing narrative runs.

$AMD +2.47%: Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) added $12.95 to $532.57, carried by the chip equipment tailwind and continued AI GPU pipeline momentum. AMD is up 138% year-to-date.

$BIDU -3.55%: Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) slipped to $103.99 as cautious sentiment toward China-exposed AI names persisted. Ongoing autonomous driving trials and investor attention on the company's Kunlunxin chip unit ahead of a potential IPO provide long-term interest, but neither catalyst offset the day's risk-off tone in Chinese ADRs.

What to watch this week

ASML's Q2 2026 earnings on July 15 will be the next major read on chip equipment demand; any color on China order trends under the proposed MATCH Act will be closely watched. The broader Q2 reporting season begins in earnest the week of July 13, when several hyperscalers and enterprise software vendors are expected to report. Until then, Micron's print has reset the bar for memory and equipment names, and the market will spend the next two weeks determining whether the AI CapEx cycle is genuinely accelerating or whether Q3 guidance will start to reflect front-loading fatigue.

Not investment advice.