US stocks rise as Wall Street shows it's still hungry for AI winners
[July 11, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks ticked higher Friday after Wall Street
showed its appetite is still big for winners of the
artificial-intelligence boom.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to close out its fourth winning week in the last
five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 149 points, or 0.3%, and
the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%.
SK Hynix, a giant South Korean maker of memory chips, shone in the debut
of its stock trading on the Nasdaq. After raising roughly $26.5 billion
by selling American depositary shares at a price of $149 each, it jumped
immediately after trading began in the midday hours and finished with a
gain of 13.1%.
SK Hynix’s stock in Seoul has already surged 634% over the last year
thanks to euphoria around AI. The boom has created real profits due to
surging demand for computer memory. But it’s also raised worries that AI
stock prices have shot have too high and that all the world’s spending
on chips and data centers won’t be able to produce enough productivity
and profit growth to make it worth it.
That’s led to sharp recent swings for AI stocks, which have grown into
some of Wall Street’s most influential because of their huge sizes.
Nvidia was the strongest single force lifting the S&P 500 Friday after
rising 4%.
Beyond the uncertainty about AI, the focus on Wall Street is shifting to
the upcoming reporting season for companies’ profits during the spring.
Delta Air Lines said it was able to absorb higher fuel prices from April
through June because of strong demand from customers to fly, including a
wide range of corporate travelers. That helped it report profit and
revenue for the spring that topped analysts’ expectations, and it gave a
forecasted range for upcoming profit in the summer whose midpoint was
above analysts’ expectations.
Delta’s stock fell 1.8%, though, after coming into the day with a strong
28.2% rise for the year so far.
Companies across industries will need to produce big growth in profits
to justify the big moves for their stock prices, which are broadly near
records. Next week will feature earnings reports from many of the
biggest U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan
Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo on Tuesday alone.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Circle Internet Group rose 5%. The company
behind the USDC cryptocurrency, which is supposed to keep the value of
$1, said it won U.S. regulatory approval to establish a bank. It will
operate under the name Circle National Trust, and CEO Jeremy Allaire
said the move “marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology
and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system.”
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 WD-40’s stock jumped 10.6% after
reporting much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts
expected.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 31.75 points to 7,575.39. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average gained 149.60 to 52,367.01, and the Nasdaq
composite climbed 74.72 to 26,281.61.
In the oil market, prices continued to pare jumps from earlier in
the week on worries about how the war with Iran will affect the
global flow of crude.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international
standard, dipped 0.4% to $76.01.
That’s above its $72 price from the start of the week, but it’s
still well below its wartime peak of nearly $120. The worry is that
continued fighting could block oil tankers from the Strait of Hormuz
and prevent the delivery of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers
worldwide.
President Donald Trump said on his social-media platform that he
agreed to continue talks with Iran but also that the United States
told Iran “that the Cease Fire is OVER!”
In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher. The yield on the
10-year Treasury rose to 4.56% from 4.54% late Thursday.
High yields have weighed on financial markets worldwide. Yields have
climbed on worries about expensive oil and high inflation, which
could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise
interest rates.
Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the
economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed. South Korea’s Kospi
jumped 2.5%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% for two of the world’s
bigger moves, but stocks fell 1% in Shanghai.
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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this
report.
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