The AI-memory trade just had its scariest day in months, and tonight it gets its verdict.

Memory chipmakers cratered Tuesday after South Korea's SK Hynix and Samsung both plunged more than 12%, dragging the Kospi down 10% and knocking 2.2% off the Nasdaq. Micron fell over 13%, and it reports earnings tonight after the bell. This print that will tell us whether AI memory demand is still red-hot or whether valuations simply got ahead of reality.

Everywhere else, the day was just as loud. Oil cratered below $75 (its cheapest since before the Iran war), Japan unveiled a $2.3 trillion bet on AI and chips, SpaceX slipped under its IPO price, and WallStreetBets decided its next main character is, of all things, Wendy's.

But we're opening today somewhere quieter and closer to home. For the first time since 2023, most Americans say it's a better time to buy a house than rent. So why are so few of them actually doing it? That's our main story.

🏠 Most Americans now think it's better to buy than rent. Most still aren't.
📰 Chips crater before Micron's make-or-break earnings tonight, and oil breaks $75
🌏 Japan unveils a $2.3 trillion AI plan, and SK Hynix files a $29 billion Nasdaq listing
🍔 WallStreetBets adopts Wendy's as its next meme-stock cause
🤖 Alphabet joins the Dow, Meta builds a prediction-markets app
🧠 Alaskans spend $1,249 a head on alcohol, Korean BBQ heads toward $13.2 billion

Let's get into it.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.

In partnership with Immersed

Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Meta partnered with this startup built by an engineer to improve productivity. 

Today, 1.5M professionals spend up to 60 hours a week on the Immersed platform. 

Now they've added an ultra-lightweight headset comfortable enough to wear all day, with a built-in AI assistant that makes every hour more productive. The future of work is here.

Lock in the $0.79 share price before the round closes

Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Immersed Regulation A+ offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.immersed.com

For the first time since 2023, most Americans think it's better to buy a home than rent. Fifty-three percent of Bank of America survey respondents said buying now makes sense, up from 48% last year and 47% in 2024, as housing affordability improves slightly from its post-pandemic lows.

The shift comes as home price appreciation has dropped below inflation and wage growth in much of the country. The median US home listed for $429,500 in May, down from $440,000 a year earlier but still 34% higher than the $319,500 median in May 2019, according to Realtor.com. Mortgage rates have hovered around 6.5% in recent weeks, slightly lower than the past three summers.

But sentiment hasn't translated to action. Only 32% of survey respondents said they're confident they could buy this year, and a growing share cited high prices or rates as reasons for delaying. Seventy-one percent of potential buyers are waiting for prices and rates to fall before pulling the trigger.

They could be waiting a while. Mortgage rates jumped to 6.66% on Monday as US-Iran talks stalled, and mortgage experts told Yahoo Finance that rates react quickly to bad news but take much longer to improve. The memorandum of understanding would need to hold for at least 60 days before markets price in meaningfully lower rates.

The Bottom Line: Buyer sentiment is improving, but the vast majority are sitting tight, betting that better entry points are coming. With the Fed now priced for a potential 2026 rate hike, that bet looks increasingly expensive.

US stocks tumbled Tuesday as a global chip sell-off hammered the AI trade and investors questioned whether semiconductor valuations have stretched too far.

Memory chipmakers got destroyed after South Korean giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both plunged more than 12%, dragging the benchmark Kospi index down 10%. The rout spread to Wall Street, with Micron tumbling over 13% ahead of its earnings report on Wednesday. All eyes are on whether demand for AI memory chips remains as red-hot as advertised, or if valuations have simply gotten ahead of reality.

All of which sets up tonight's main event. Micron reports earnings after the close, and it has become the referendum on the entire AI-memory trade. Just two days ago the stock hit a record high after announcing a sweeping partnership with Anthropic to co-design memory for Claude, supply its data centers, and take a stake in Anthropic's latest funding round, before Tuesday's selloff erased much of that pop. Analysts expect revenue near $35.5 billion, up almost 281% from a year ago, so the print and the guidance will either confirm the memory boom or feed the valuation fears.

Even as its stock plunged, SK Hynix is doubling down on that same boom. The Korean memory giant and key Nvidia supplier filed to raise about $29 billion through a Nasdaq listing of American depositary receipts, targeted for July 10. Price it near that range and it would rank among the five largest share sales in history, rivaling Saudi Aramco's record IPO. The proceeds go toward new fabs in Korea and advanced packaging for the high-bandwidth memory that AI servers run on.

Japan made one of the biggest national bets on AI we have ever seen. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi unveiled a plan to invest more than $2.3 trillion (370 trillion yen) over the next 14 years across three pillars, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and space, with roughly 100 trillion yen earmarked for AI and chips alone. The goal is to claw back ground in technologies where Japan has fallen behind the US and China, including a target of capturing 30% of the global AI-robotics market by 2040.

SpaceX stock dipped below its $150 market debut price before recovering to close up less than 1%. The psychologically important level briefly erased all of the space company's post-IPO gains, marking its third straight day of losses. At current levels, SpaceX has lost around $400 billion in market cap and is threatening to slip below the $2 trillion threshold. The stumble is dragging down the entire space sector, with Bespoke Investment Group noting those stocks are down an average of 17% since SpaceX priced its shares on June 11.

WallStreetBets found its next mascot, and it’s Wendy's. Shares jumped as much as 29% before the open as Reddit traders piled into the fast-food chain, drawn by roughly 23% short interest that sets up a potential squeeze and by the long-running "working behind the Wendy's" meme that has been a punchline for retail losses for years. The frenzy has little to do with fundamentals: Wendy's just named a new CFO and is down on the year with activist Nelson Peltz pushing for change. A classic meme-stock setup, with real risk in both directions.

FedEx sank 5% in after-hours trading despite beating fourth quarter earnings estimates with adjusted earnings of $6.31 per share versus expectations of $5.97. The problem? Operating margin shrank to 8.4% from 9.1% last year as shifting global trade policy created headwinds. Higher transportation costs and wages offset gains from package volumes, a warning sign for the broader economy given FedEx's bellwether status.

Cerebras fell 8% in extended trading after the AI chipmaker forecast its gross margin would shrink to between 36% and 38% in the second quarter from 46.5% in the first. The company, which went public last month and saw shares pop to $350 before tumbling 28%, reported revenue that nearly doubled to $191 million and narrowed its net loss, but the margin compression spooked investors.

In partnership with Shield AI

This company is becoming impossible for the Pentagon to ignore.

For better or worse, the world is rearming. One company has become the de facto standard for autonomy software, and accredited investors can now get direct cap-table access.

The company is called ​Shield AI​, and it's the "brain" inside military drones and aircraft.

This enables drone missions with no pilots or remote controls — even when GPS and radio links are jammed.

Shield builds its own aircraft, including a VTOL drone already flying real missions.

Express Interest Now →

Your feedback matters to us! Let us know what you liked or didn’t like about today’s edition.

That’s all for today. Did we miss anything? Smash the reply button to let me know.

Cheers,
Brandon & Blake of Invested Inc