U.S. Stocks Close Higher on July 10; Meta Surges 6% to Lead Nasdaq
Claire Weston
US stocks closed higher across the board on July 10, with Meta up nearly 6% on the day and over 14% for the week, driven by its in-house AI chip production timeline and a new paid model launch; biotech sold off sharply, and the capital concentration in AI and memory names is now hard to ignore.
Why did Meta rally 14% this week?
Facebook plans to begin mass-producing its in-house AI chip in September. The market expects this to push Meta's compute costs below Wall Street's prior forecasts. This means → Meta is shifting from "Nvidia's biggest customer" to "a platform that builds its own chips," and the Street is repricing accordingly.
On the same day, Meta released a new paid frontier model. Research firm SemiAnalysis published a positive report assessing its AI compute business outlook. In plain terms = chip self-sufficiency plus model monetization — two catalysts firing at once, pulling capital in.
The weekly gain topped 14%, the largest single-week advance since early 2024.
How did SK Hynix's ADR debut go?
SK Hynix's American Depositary Receipt began trading on the Nasdaq on July 10 at an opening price of $170, roughly 14% above the $149 offer price, and climbed about 17% intraday.
The listing raised approximately $26.5 billion, earmarked for new fabs and critical equipment. This means → US investors now have a direct channel into South Korea's second-largest company by market cap, significantly widening the funding funnel for the memory-chip sector.
SK Hynix's strong debut pressured peers — Marvell and Intel both fell about 3% intraday, a clear rotation within the chip space.
Why did biotech sell off so hard?
Moderna (MRNA) dropped 10.83%, the steepest decline among companies valued above $10 billion. Ionis Pharmaceuticals fell 9.37%; Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals fell 9.05%.
Goldman Sachs attributed the move to factor-level technical unwinding, not fundamentals or single-stock catalysts. The biotech ETF (XBI) fell 3.8% on the day. In plain terms = XBI had rallied 25% over the prior 30 days, and profit-taking pressure hit a tipping point.
The next key catalyst is Johnson & Johnson's earnings next Wednesday.
What other single-stock moves stood out?
AI chip maker Cerebras Systems (CBRS) rose 8.34%, topping the day's leaderboard among $10 billion-plus companies. Crypto infrastructure firm Circle (CRCL) rose 5.03% after receiving approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a crypto-focused bank.
WD-40 surged 10% intraday after reporting Q3 adjusted EPS of $2.33, well above the $1.56 consensus, and raising full-year guidance. Vodafone gained 13% after French billionaire Xavier Niel acquired a roughly $6 billion, 16% stake, becoming its largest shareholder.
Netflix fell about 3%. Reports indicated the company is discussing adding live TV channels and exploring bundling with other streaming services, while user engagement showed signs of decline.
What signals came from the macro side?
The 10-year US Treasury yield rose to 4.566%, approaching the widely watched 4.60% resistance level. This means → a breakout above 4.60% would push borrowing-cost expectations higher and significantly increase pressure on richly valued tech stocks.
Brent crude slipped 0.03%, gold futures fell 0.52%, and Bitcoin edged down 0.11% to $63,806 — commodities were largely flat, with capital still concentrated in equities.
Goldman's trading desk rated the day's activity just 4 out of 10, with overall sentiment leaning bearish — yet indices kept climbing. This reflects a rally driven by a narrow set of AI and memory names, not a broad risk-on move.
Can this tech rally last?
The capital concentration in AI and memory was unmistakable this week: Meta, SK Hynix, and Cerebras — all AI- or memory-linked — swept the top of the leaderboard.
But small caps lagged — the Russell 2000 fell 0.42%, and Goldman's high-beta momentum basket (GSPRHIMO) dropped 1.4%, with both long and short legs pulling back. In plain terms = money is funneling into top-tier AI names while mid- and small-caps and high-beta strategies are left behind.
Whether the 10-year yield breaks through 4.60% will be the key variable testing whether this rally can hold.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.