This Again. Semiconductor stocks aren't feeling the love, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF ended Thursday in the red for the second day in a row.

The ETF shed 5.6% today, led by losses in Teradyne, KLA, Entegris, Lam Research, and Marvell Technology. It's the latest sign that Wall Street is shifting away from AI plays as a part of a broader rotation into more defensive sectors, notes my colleague, Connor Smith.

That transition is showing up in the way different indexes performed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 594 points, or 1.1%, to a fresh record on Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.8%. The S&P 500 was flat, but eight out of its 11 sectors actually gained on the day.

Major indexes didn't open on such a dour note -- all three got an early boost in response to June's jobs report, which found that unemployment ticked down to 4.2%. The numbers missed expectations, and hiring slowed: the economy added just 57,000 jobs last month -- about half the gains economists anticipated. But investors took the data as a sign that the labor market is cooling, which eases pressure on Federal Reserve officials to raise interest rates.

"Overall, this is a goldilocks report for the Federal Reserve and for markets," writes Tiffany Wilding, an economist at PIMCO. "It will allow more time to assess the situation as additional data becomes available. It should also alleviate some of the market expectation for imminent rate hikes."

Indeed, according to the CME's Fed Watch tool, odds for a rate hike dipped to about 18% after the report, compared to 29% the previous day.

Not a bad way to start the long weekend. Happy Fourth, everyone! Review & Preview will return on Monday morning. Watch our TV show on Fox Business on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. ET. This week, the movies that are lifting box-office receipts back near prepandemic highs. Plus, Meb Faber, founder of Cambria Investment Management, on 250 years of capitalism.

The Hot Stock: Genuine Parts +13.0% The Biggest Loser: Sandisk -14.1%

Best Sector: Healthcare +2.7% Worst Sector: Information Technology -1.5%

India Is Becoming a Data-Center Hub, Whether Communities Like it or Not

As U.S. municipalities across the country fend off data-center projects, Big Tech is already setting its eyes on the next data-center frontier: India.

There, tech companies have found a government more than happy to accommodate data-center buildouts, offering an array of government incentives like cheap land, tax incentives and discounts on water and electricity bills, my colleague Karishma Vanjani reports.

   The sugar trap is working. Microsoft and   Alphabet have both invested over $15 billion in Indian data centers. Meta Platforms, Amazon.com, and OpenAI are also adding capacity. Setting up shop in India makes sense because the closer a data center is to customers, the faster the data travels, Karishma notes, and India has the second-highest number of ChatGPT and ClaudeAI users globally. 

Locals are already chafing at the concept of having to share sparse resources, such as water and electricity, but they're struggling to make their complaints heard. Most of the projects have forged ahead without public hearings, and public officials have been less than receptive.

To read more about how some communities are fighting back, read Karishma's full story here.

This Weekend's Magazine

The Calendar

Traders can catch their collective breaths next week as economic data releases are light and only two S&P 500 companies announce earnings. The respite will be brief however as second-quarter earnings season kicks off when the big banks release their results on July 14.

The Institute for Supply Management releases its Services Purchasing Managers' Index on Monday, while the Federal Open Market Committee publishes the minutes from its June confab on Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors reports existing-home sales on Thursday.

PepsiCo announces quarterly results on Thursday and Delta Air Lines reports on Friday.

-- Dan Lam

What We're Reading Today

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   -- 3 Small Nuclear Reactors Hit a Milestone, but There's a Long Road From 
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   -- Philip Morris' Smoke-Free Products Are Winning With Regulators. They'll 
      Win With Investors Too. 
 
   -- OpenAI Eyes 5% Stake for U.S. Government Ahead of IPO. 3 Ways the Company 
      Could Benefit. 
   Join   Barron's Live on Monday at noon for a deep dive into all things China -- from Chinese consumers' reluctance to spend and Beijing's push for self-reliance to how AI is transforming China's economy and the challenges China's export dominance is creating for global rivals. Associate Editor Reshma Kapadia speaks with Tiffany Hsiao, a veteran Asia investor who has invested in private companies in China and now manages $1.3 billion across various strategies at Matthews Asia. 

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July 02, 2026 19:55 ET (23:55 GMT)

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