The U.S. New York stock market, which closed on the morning of the 26th Korean time, recorded mixed results across major indices, as solid earnings from semiconductor company Micron Technology provided some support to investor sentiment, but weakness in large-cap tech stocks led by Apple weighed on the market.

On this day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 51,920.93, up 72.03 points (0.14%) from the previous trading day. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index closed at 7,358.01, down 0.21 points (0.00%), essentially flat, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index recorded 25,358.60, down 118.03 points (0.46%). The Russell 2000 Index, composed of small- and mid-cap stocks, showed a relatively strong trend, rising 20.39 points (0.68%) to 3,007.02.

The market evaluated Micron's earnings announcement positively. The company's better-than-expected earnings and guidance, driven by robust demand centered on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, supported investor sentiment in the semiconductor sector. However, profit-taking continued mainly in tech stocks that had recently seen sharp gains, limiting the overall upward momentum of the indices. Weakness in large-cap tech stocks acted as a major factor in the Nasdaq's decline, offsetting the gains in some AI- and semiconductor-related stocks.

Macroeconomic indicators also posed a burden. On the 25th (local time), the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the May Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose 4.1% year-over-year and 0.4% month-over-month. The market focused on forecasts that inflationary pressures remained higher than expected, which could delay the timing of monetary policy easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed). Treasury yields faced upward pressure following the release of the inflation data, which weighed on interest rate-sensitive tech stocks. On the other hand, buying interest flowed into defensive stocks and some value stocks, allowing the Dow to maintain a slight upward trend.

The market views the continued expansion of AI-related investments and expectations for a semiconductor industry recovery as ongoing themes, while identifying inflation trends and interest rate outlooks as key variables that will determine the direction of the stock market.

[This article was written with the assistance of AI. Investment decisions are the responsibility of the investor, and the value of stocks and financial assets may fluctuate depending on market conditions.]