Major indices are higher across the board as investors continue to buy the recent dip in hardware and semiconductor names. On the other hand, software names are showing notable weakness.

The strong performance in semiconductor names is supported by bullish commentary from Applied Materials’ (AMAT) CEO and strong pockets in memory names after reports that SK Hynix’s (SKHY) ADR debut is more than seven times oversubscribed.

Oil is lower today despite the U.S. and Iran continuing to exchange fire. As a result, the Energy (XLE) sector is giving back some of yesterday's profits.

Meta Platforms (META) CEO announced the release of its Muse Spark 1.1 artificial intelligence model, a significant upgrade from the recently released Muse Spark. The company said the new AI model performed better in some areas when compared to Anthropic and OpenAI.

The stock initially dipped but has reversed higher in the past two hours as investors believe META could capture some market share from Chinese AI models.

Economic Data

Initial and continuing claims continue to see small moves. Initial claims edged down -2k to 215k, and still in a narrow range since November 2021.

Continuing claims rose +8k to 1.814M, the highest since March 21^st.

Existing home sales for June slipped -2.4% MoM to 4.09M. Sales though remain up YoY for the third consecutive month at +2.8% but are still historically low.

Notably, median sales prices rose to $440.6k, a new all-time record high with median prices gaining in all regions.