Wall Street closes mixed: AI-linked stocks drag down the Nasdaq while the health sector limits losses

By Infobae · June 26, 2026.

U.S. stock markets closed Friday's session with mixed results, weighed down by a new round of selling in the major technology stocks tied to artificial intelligence. The S&P 500 shed between 3.47 and 19.81 points according to preliminary and final readings, settling in a range of between 7,337 and 7,354 units and thus posting its second negative week of the last thirteen. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell between 44 and 125 points, while the Nasdaq Composite shed between 61 and 121 points.

The striking figure is that nearly two out of every three S&P 500 stocks ended the day higher. The problem is the disproportionate weight that the large technology stocks have in capitalization-weighted indexes: their decline amplifies the negative effect on the market as a whole, even though most stocks rise.

**The question that won't go away: do the profits justify AI valuations?**

The backdrop to the correction is the structural debate over the return on massive investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, especially in data centers. After years of large-scale gains and undisputed market leadership, AI-linked stocks are going through a phase of growing turbulence.

David Stubbs, chief investment strategist at AlphaCore Wealth Advisory, summed it up cautiously: 'It's too early to conclude that a major correction is brewing in the tech sector, but what I would say is that doubts about profitability and the question of capital-expenditure investment are certainly not going to disappear.' Stubbs himself warned that Wall Street could prove especially vulnerable to any sign that companies fail to meet the high earnings expectations the market assigns to them.

This dynamic is relevant to the agentic AI ecosystem: large-scale language models and agentic systems require computing infrastructure —memory chips, GPUs, data centers— whose cost is passed directly onto the income statements of manufacturers and suppliers. When the market questions the return on that investment, the pressure spreads across the entire value chain.

**Micron Technology: AI drives up chip prices and Apple passes on the bill**

The biggest decline of the day among the sector's benchmarks belonged to Micron Technology, which plunged 6.7%. The company had quadrupled its share price so far this year thanks to the AI boom and the consequent demand for high-performance memory. However, Apple announced price increases on laptops and other products, arguing that it was passing the higher cost of memory chips on to consumers. The news stoked fears of a contraction in demand that could directly affect Micron.

This episode illustrates one of the central tensions of the current AI cycle: the cost of physical components —memory chips, specialized processors— rises driven by sector demand, but at a certain point that cost becomes a brake, either because device makers pass it on in higher final prices, or because cloud providers' margins tighten.

**SpaceX and xAI: extreme volatility in their first week of trading**

SpaceX was the star of one of the day's most turbulent sessions. The company fell as much as 2.9% in the first hours of trading, brushing $149, before rebounding to gain 3.5% and finally finishing with a marginal gain of 0.2%. The stock had debuted on the market at $135 at the start of the month and briefly topped $225 in its first days of trading.

The specific interest for the agentic AI follower lies in the fact that SpaceX groups together, in addition to its aerospace business, the artificial intelligence division xAI —the company that created the Grok model. The stock's volatility partly reflects the uncertainty over how to value a company that combines space launches, satellite communications and the development of large language models under a single market umbrella.

**OpenAI delays its IPO: the impact on SoftBank and Asian markets**

One of the news items with the greatest impact in Asia was the publication of a New York Times article suggesting that OpenAI is considering postponing its initial public offering to next year, instead of carrying it out in the second half of 2025 as had been expected. The news directly hit SoftBank Group Corp., one of OpenAI's main investors, which slumped 12.5% and dragged the Nikkei 225 index down 4.2%.

The effect spread across the entire AI semiconductor supply chain: in South Korea, SK Hynix shed 8.4% and Samsung Electronics lost 5.3%, pushing the Kospi index down 5.8% in the session. Even so, the Kospi still holds a 99.6% gain so far this year, a reflection of how much South Korean memory-chip makers have appreciated in the AI bull cycle.

The possible delay in OpenAI's IPO is significant beyond the anecdotal. OpenAI is the benchmark of the foundational-model ecosystem and its market debut was seen as a milestone of the sector's maturity. A postponement may reflect less favorable market conditions, valuations that are harder to justify to institutional investors, or regulatory complexities. In any case, the message the market takes away is one of greater uncertainty.

**ON Semiconductor: the market punishes the Synaptics acquisition**

The biggest loss in the S&P 500 during the session was not a pure-play AI stock but ON Semiconductor, which plunged 23.7% after announcing a deal to acquire Synaptics in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $7 billion. The market harshly penalized the implied dilution for current shareholders and the premium paid in an environment of valuations under pressure.

**The healthcare sector offsets: Eli Lilly rises 7.1% and Moderna hits highs since 2024**

The counterweight to the technology declines came from the healthcare sector, which was the best performer of the session. A committee of the European Medicines Agency recommended the approval of several drugs and the expansion of therapeutic indications for more than a dozen of them. Among the beneficiaries was Eli Lilly, whose stock soared 7.1%. Moderna also hit its highest level since 2024 after an investor event at which it presented its pipeline of products in development.

The healthcare sector's advance acted as a cushion against the market's general losses and explains why, despite the declines in technology, nearly two-thirds of S&P 500 stocks ended in positive territory.

**Oil and geopolitics: easing tensions in the Middle East lower energy prices**

The price of Brent crude fell 3.8% to $72.60 per barrel, a level lower than that recorded before the United States and Israel attacked Iranian military facilities in an episode that had led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the disruption of oil shipments worldwide. The geopolitical de-escalation allowed companies with high fuel bills to recover ground: American Airlines Group rose 1.7%.

The drop in oil prices is significant news for the operating costs of data centers, large energy consumers, and for the airlines that in recent weeks had suffered from the rising price of jet fuel.

**Debt and inflation: the Federal Reserve keeps its dilemma**

In the debt market, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell to 4.37% from 4.40% on Thursday, after a report showed that consumers' inflation expectations for the coming year dropped to 4.6% from the 4.8% recorded in May. Even so, inflation in the United States exceeded 4% in May for the first time in three years, driven by the rising cost of energy associated with the conflict in the Middle East, which keeps open the possibility of a new rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

**Implications for the agentic AI ecosystem**

What this session reflects, taken as a whole, is that the market is beginning to discriminate more finely within the universe of AI stocks. The generic narrative of 'exposure to artificial intelligence' is no longer enough to sustain any valuation. Investors are demanding to see concrete profits, sustainable margins and real returns on infrastructure spending.

For the companies developing agentic AI platforms —which require a costly layer of computing infrastructure, foundational models expensive to train and maintain, and sales cycles still maturing—, this shift in market expectations may make financing more difficult and raise scrutiny of business models. Venture capital investors and the public markets are sending a similar signal: capital no longer flows indiscriminately toward everything bearing the 'AI' surname; now companies are required to demonstrate when and how it translates into real revenue.