On Wednesday (January 7), U.S. stock futures were mixed in pre-market trading.
As of press time, Dow Jones futures were up 0.16%, S&P 500 futures were down 0.02%, and Nasdaq futures were down 0.02%. The S&P 100 futures fell 0.22%.
In terms of individual stocks, rare earth concept stocks strengthened, with Critical Metals rising nearly 7% pre-market and MP Materials rising over 1%. Biopharmaceutical company Ventyx surged approximately 56%, reportedly following a move by Eli Lilly. A deal to acquire the company for over $1 billion is close to being finalized.
Recently strong storage concept stocks have weakened, with Micron Technology among them. SanDisk and Seagate Technology fell 1.5% in pre-market trading. Falling by more than 1%. Affected by precious metals . The pullback led to a pre-market decline in mining stocks, with Newman Mining down about 3% and Barrick Mining also falling. It fell by more than 2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed at record highs in the previous trading session. Despite the deteriorating geopolitical environment, including the US military action against Venezuela, market optimism persisted.
Edward Jones senior global investment strategist Angelo Kourkafas commented that while the situation in the US and Venezuela is a high-profile geopolitical event, it does not have a significant direct impact on oil supply—the factor that the market is really concerned about.
European stock markets are mixed, with the German DAX index up 0.68%, the UK FTSE 100 down 0.65%, and the French CAC40 up 0.02%.
Company News
Micron launches its first PCIe 5.0 QLC SSD for client computing.
Micron Technology announced the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD, its first PCIe® 5.0 QLC SSD for client computing. This product features a compact single-sided M.2 2230 form factor and is the world's first to offer a 4TB capacity. The Micron 3610 SSD is currently being sampled to select OEM partners and is available in various form factors and capacities ranging from 1TB to 4TB.
Reports indicate that Micron's HBM4 production will increase by nearly 30% of its total capacity this year.
Micron plans to increase its HBM4 production capacity to 15,000 wafers per month this year. Industry estimates suggest Micron's total HBM capacity is approximately 55,000 wafers per month, meaning this 15,000-wafer increase represents nearly 30% of Micron's total capacity. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra revealed in a recent earnings call that plans to increase HBM4 production starting in the second quarter, and that HBM4 yield growth will exceed that of HBM3E. Micron expects to complete its partnership with Nvidia... After performance evaluation, mass production of HBM4 began in the second quarter.
Nvidia and Lenovo collaborate to launch artificial intelligence. Cloud Super Factory will use Vera Rubin
During CES 2026, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang jointly announced a collaboration to launch the "Lenovo AI Cloud Super Factory," with NVIDIA's newly released Vera Rubin being a key component of this partnership. Yang stated that this initiative will significantly reduce the "time to first token" AI deployment time for cloud service providers, while also enabling rapid scaling to hundreds of thousands of GPUs to support trillions of parameters in intelligent agents and large language models.
[Related to the 2nm process competition , Qualcomm] Samsung manufacturing is expected to resume after 5 years.
During this week's CES, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told the media, "Among many foundries, we were the first to initiate discussions with Samsung Electronics regarding manufacturing using the latest 2nm process. Our current goal is to commercialize it as quickly as possible, and the design work is already complete." This means that Samsung is likely to secure a foundry order for Qualcomm's most advanced chips again after a five-year hiatus. The first order may be placed with TSMC , currently the foundry for Qualcomm 's most advanced chips. The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which was originally manufactured using a 3nm process, has been changed to be manufactured using a 2nm process.
JPMorgan has reportedly cut ties with all agency advisors and is now using its own AI platform for decision-making.
Reports citing an internal memo indicate that JPMorgan Chase... The bank's asset management division has immediately severed all ties with all agency advisory firms. The upcoming agency season typically begins in March and lasts until June, culminating in the companies' annual shareholder meetings. During this period, the bank... We will begin using an internal AI- powered platform called "Proxy IQ" to assist with voting matters for U.S. companies.
Chevron Eleven oil tankers were dispatched to Venezuela to transport oil.
A small fleet of ships ordered by Chevron is en route to Venezuela, where it has become the sole oil exporter after the U.S. raid that took the president hostage. Preliminary data suggests that Chevron 's Venezuelan crude oil exports this month are poised to surpass last month's figures, with at least 11 tankers scheduled to arrive at the Venezuelan government-controlled ports of José and Bajo Grande. Under U.S. sanctions, Chevron is the only Western company authorized to produce and export crude oil in Venezuela, holding an operating license issued by the U.S. Treasury Department. The company produces nearly 25% of Venezuela's crude oil production and is responsible for shipping it to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast and East Coast markets.
Berkshire Hathaway raises new CEO Abel's salary to $25 million, 250 times that of Buffett.
Berkshire Hathaway announced Tuesday that it has increased the compensation of its new CEO, Greg Abel, to $25 million, a figure far exceeding the $100,000 annual salary his predecessor, Warren Buffett, received for over four decades. Abel, 63, officially assumed the role of CEO on January 1st. He previously served eight years as the company's vice chairman, responsible for managing Berkshire's non- insurance businesses. business.
Game Station [The goal of awarding the CEO long-term performance bonuses is to drive the company's market capitalization to $100 billion]
GameStop announced that it has granted CEO Ryan Cohen a long-term performance award. The award includes options to purchase 171.5 million shares of the company's stock, with the first tranche of options granted if the company's market capitalization reaches $20 billion. The overall plan aims to incentivize management to drive the company's market capitalization toward a target of $100 billion.
[Ming-Chi Kuo: NVIDIA VR200 and NVL72 will both use microchannel cold plates, potentially increasing coolant flow by 100%]
Renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has published an article stating that NVIDIA's VR200 NVL72 GPU cooling upgrade will utilize a Microchannel Cooling Plate (MCCP) paired with a gold-plated lid. The highly anticipated Microchannel Cover Plate (MCL) is not expected to enter mass production until the second half of 2027 at the earliest. Kuo points out that the VR200 NVL72's cooling design will rely more heavily on liquid cooling, with the rack coolant flow rate increasing by almost 100% compared to the GB300 NVL72. This will benefit upgrades to the CDU, manifolds, water cooling plates, and QD specifications or quantities.
Palantir's first-mover advantage in GenAI supports a high valuation; Truist is bullish, with a target price of $223.
Despite Palantir's high valuation, Truist Securities When initiating our research on this analytics and data-driven software company, we maintained our "buy" rating with a target price of $223.
Key events to watch in the US stock market (Beijing time)
January 7
23:00 US December ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI, US November JOLTs Job Openings, US October Factory Orders (MoM), US December Global Supply Chain Stress Index
23:30 US EIA Crude Oil Inventories for the Week Ending January 2
January 8
00:00 White House Press Secretary Levitt holds a press briefing
03:30 US President Trump signs executive order
05:10 Federal Reserve Governor Bowman speaks at the California Bankers Association's 2026 Bank Presidents' Symposium.
(Article source: CLS)
