The AI trade cooled and oil sank. A closer look at Wall Street's volatile week

An important development from the financial markets: Wall Street spent the week debating who the biggest winners and losers of the artificial intelligence boom will ultimately be. Memory chipmaker Micron's blockbuster earnings reinforced the fervent demand for computing resources, but it also led investors to question whether the AI buildout is becoming too expensive for the hyperscalers funding it. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.

6% for the week, while the S & P 500 slipped 1. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the trend, edging up 0. 6%, as lower oil prices benefited economically sensitive names and a rotation away from AI lifted healthcare stocks.

Economic Details

Here's a closer look at what drove the market this week. Micron reignites the AI trade — for a day Semiconductor stocks came under pressure on Tuesday after a brutal sell-off in South Korea's Kospi Index spilled over to Wall Street. Shares of Korean memory giants Samsung and SK Hynix plunged overnight, dragging AI stocks on Wall Street lower and fueling concerns that the chip trade had finally run too far, too fast.

Micron fell roughly 13% on Tuesday alone, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2. Those fears eased Wednesday evening when Micron reported earnings. The company delivered a blockbuster quarter , more than quadrupling revenue from a year ago and issuing guidance for the current quarter well above Wall Street's expectations.

Micron also announced 16 long-term supply agreements spanning data center operators, automakers and other customers, giving investors greater confidence that the memory upcycle has years to run. In response, Micron soared 16% Thursday, lifting peers across the memory-and-storage complex. That includes chipmakers SanDisk and Western Digital , as well as companies that make equipment used to build chips, such as Applied Materials and Lam Research .

Analyst Views

The report reinforced one of Jim Cramer's biggest themes in this market : AI-related companies with product shortages continue to benefit from extraordinary demand and pricing power, boosting profits. The excitement spilled over to Club holding Corning , whose fiber-optic products have become increasingly critical to AI data centers. Shares climbed to fresh record highs Thursday, prompting us to trim a small portion of our position and lock in a gain of roughly 160% on shares purchased in October 2025.

The stock also had a strong day Wednesday for reasons we couldn't fully explain . We remain bullish on Corning's long-term prospects, but our discipline is to take some profits when a stock's advance seems to outrun its current fundamentals. The enthusiasm for many chip stocks didn't last.

A basket of chip stocks fell over 5% Friday after reports that OpenAI is considering delaying its initial public offering until next year raised fresh questions about the durability of funding for the AI infrastructure boom. Investors worried that pushing back one of the market's most anticipated IPOs could make it harder for AI companies to fund their massive spending plans.

Economists are analysing what the news means for the markets.