Key points
- Micron (MU) fell about 5% and dropped back under $1,000, after touching $1,064 earlier in the morning.
- The scare started overnight in Korea. The Kospi fell almost 8%, SK Hynix dropped around 14%, and Samsung about 9%.
- It stayed a chip story. The Dow held up about 0.7% higher, Apple (AAPL) rose 4%, and healthcare names like Eli Lilly (LLY) and Merck (MRK) gained roughly 3%.
- AeroVironment (AVAV) jumped about 8% on a $500 million counter-drone contract.
The morning started out fine. Futures were steady, the June jobs report came in soft, and stocks opened green. Micron (MU) even ran past $1,064 in the first half hour. Then around 10 a.m. Eastern, the floor gave out under the chip stocks.
If you wanted to see this one coming, you had to be up watching Korea overnight. It got ugly over there. The Kospi, South Korea's main stock index, fell almost 8 percent in a single session. That is a rough day for an entire market. The two giant memory-chip makers led it lower. SK Hynix dropped around 14 percent and Samsung lost about 9 percent. The selling moved so fast that the Korea Exchange briefly hit the brakes and paused program trading.
What set it off? Reports that Meta (META) is thinking about renting out access to its own AI computing power. That sounds dull. It isn't. If Meta has spare AI capacity to sell, maybe the big spenders built more than they actually need. For chip stocks priced on the idea that AI demand never slows down, that is a scary thought. It is the same worry that knocked the chips down yesterday, and it came back with more force.
The turn after 10 a.m.
That fear crossed the ocean and sat on our market until the chips finally cracked. Semiconductors took the worst of it. The main chip ETF (SMH) fell more than 3 percent. AMD (AMD) dropped over 4 percent, and Meta itself slid about 4 percent. Micron was the headline. It slid from that $1,064 high straight through $1,000 and kept going, down close to 5 percent and trading near $982. A big round number broke, and once it did, the selling picked up speed. Micron makes the fast memory chips that AI servers lean on, so it trades like a bet on AI demand itself. There is more on that memory in our plain-English glossary, and Micron's SEC filings sit on its filings page.
Where the money went instead
Here is the part that should keep you calm. The money did not run for the door. It just moved. The Dow actually held the morning about 0.7 percent higher, and the S&P 500 sat close to flat. Apple (AAPL) climbed 4 percent. And look where the nervous cash landed. It went into healthcare, the classic hiding spot when investors get jumpy about growth.
| Stock | Move (intraday) |
|---|---|
| Novartis (NVS) | +4.1% |
| AbbVie (ABBV) | +3.6% |
| Merck (MRK) | +3.0% |
| Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) | +3.0% |
| Eli Lilly (LLY) | +2.9% |
Eli Lilly (LLY) traded above $1,225. AbbVie (ABBV) and Novartis (NVS) each ran up 3 or 4 percent. The healthcare sector ETF (XLV) was up close to 3 percent, so this was the whole group and not one or two names. When Lilly and Merck are green on a day Micron is red, that tells you something. People were not fleeing the market. They were changing seats. That is what a rotation looks like.
AVAV throws its own party
One stock ignored the whole mood. AeroVironment (AVAV) jumped about 8 percent and tapped $200 earlier before easing back. The reason is a $500 million government contract to supply counter-drone systems. That is gear built to knock enemy drones out of the sky, and the Pentagon keeps spending on it as cheap drones spread. The Army Contracting Command runs the award, and it stretches out to 2029. A few other defense names got a lift too. Kratos (KTOS) and Palantir (PLTR) each rose about 3 percent. AVAV's filings are on its filings page.
Before the long weekend
Quick housekeeping. The U.S. stock market is closed Friday, July 3 for the Independence Day holiday, since July 4 falls on a Saturday this year. Trading opens back up Monday, July 6. The bond market shuts early today. So this is the last full session of the week, and thin holiday volume can make the afternoon swings a little wilder than usual.
The bottom line
Do not let "Micron under $1,000" trick you into thinking the whole market fell apart. A worry about too much AI chip capacity started in Korea and hammered the semis. The Dow held, healthcare caught a bid, and a defense stock ripped on real news. Some days the scary headline and the actual market are telling two different stories. This was one of those days.
Prices are intraday as of about 11 a.m. Eastern on July 2, 2026 and are still moving. This is market news, not investment advice.
