01 Stock Market

As of Feb 25, the U.S. major indexes closed as follows:

The U.S. major indexes closed as follows: Dow Jones up 0.76% at 49,174.50; S&P 500 up 0.77% at 6,890.07; NASDAQ up 1.04% at 22,863.68. Strength in semiconductor and megacap tech shares helped lift the tape, with AI hardware leaders and selected platforms advancing into the close.

Chip and megacap moves stood out among unusual movers. AMD up 8.77% at $213.84; NVDA up 0.68% at $192.85; INTC up 5.71% at $46.12; TSM up 4.25% at $385.75; MSFT up 1.18% at $389.00; AAPL up 2.24% at $272.14; TSLA up 2.39% at $409.38. Among platform names, META up 0.32% at $639.30, while GOOG down 0.25% at $310.92 and PLTR down 1.35% at $128.84.

Memory, storage, and materials saw notable swings alongside high-beta ETFs. SNDK down 4.20% at $638.52; WDC down 3.51% at $270.57; MU down 0.70% at $418.01. Materials-linked MP up 4.92% at $58.44. Leveraged and benchmark proxies were active: SOXL up 4.05% at $68.53, TQQQ up 3.19% at $49.78, QQQ up 1.07% at $607.87, and SPY up 0.73% at $687.35; safe‑haven proxies GLD down 1.39% at $474.61 and SLV down 1.85% at $79.08. Elsewhere, AVGO down 1.47% at $325.49 and CRWV up 9.31% at $99.30.

02 Other Markets

U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose by 0.00%, latest at 4.03%.USD/CNH rose 0.0000%, at 6.88; USD/HKD fell 0.0038%, at 7.82.U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.0061%, at 97.88.WTI crude futures rose 0.72%, at 66.10 USD/bbl; COMEX gold futures fell 0.61%, at 5,144.50 USD/oz.

03 Top News

1. AMD agreed to sell up to $60 billion of AI chips to Meta, lifting AMD shares. The multiyear arrangement includes a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million AMD shares and mixes GPUs with customized CPUs for Meta’s infrastructure. Investors viewed the deal as validation of AMD’s roadmap while rivals saw near-term pressure.

2. Apple will shift part of Mac Mini production to Houston, expanding U.S. manufacturing. The company said the buildout includes a training center and will create thousands of jobs as it diversifies supply chains. The move underscores Apple’s efforts to manage tariff exposure and operational resilience.

3. AES signed power-supply agreements for a new Google data center in Texas. The deal supports incremental energy generation for a hyperscale facility in Wilbarger County. AES shares climbed as investors welcomed long-duration demand visibility from a marquee customer.

4. Intel and SambaNova formed a multi‑year collaboration to scale cost‑efficient AI inference on Xeon‑based systems. The partnership integrates CPUs, GPUs, networking, storage, and SambaNova’s AI platform, with Intel Capital joining SambaNova’s latest financing. The effort targets heterogeneous data centers and enterprise inference workloads.

5. Intuit partnered with Anthropic to embed customized AI agents across its financial ecosystem. Using Anthropic’s Claude Agent SDK, Intuit plans to bring secure, compliant AI capabilities to TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp experiences. Shares of Intuit advanced as investors anticipated new monetization pathways.

6. Anthropic unveiled new enterprise plug‑ins with partners to extend Claude into key workflows. Integrations span investment banking, wealth management, HR, and engineering with collaborators including LSEG, FactSet, Slack, and DocuSign. Partner stocks such as Thomson Reuters and DocuSign saw gains as the ecosystem broadened.

7. The U.S. administration plans to use a Pentagon‑created AI program to set reference prices for critical minerals. The OPEN initiative aims to counter alleged market distortions and provide pricing certainty across a planned trading bloc. Rare earth and critical mineral names rallied on prospects of improved profitability for Western projects.

8. Citron Research disclosed a short position in SanDisk, citing memory cycle and competition risks. The short seller argued the market is overvaluing a commodity business and flagged Samsung’s aggressive playbook. Storage peers slipped as traders reassessed margin sustainability and supply dynamics.

9. Home Depot beat quarterly sales estimates and reaffirmed its outlook, supported by professional demand. Management noted resilient contractor activity and steadier lower‑cost repair trends, offsetting softer big‑ticket remodels. Shares rose on the combination of solid execution and maintained guidance.

10. ASML announced an EUV light‑source power breakthrough that could lift wafer throughput materially. Management highlighted stable 1,000‑watt performance with a roadmap to higher outputs, reinforcing leadership in advanced lithography. The advance supports medium‑term supply for cutting‑edge AI chip production.

--- Sources: Reuters, Dow Jones, Tiger Newspress, public market data Disclaimer: This content is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.