Two powerful currents swept through global markets on Thursday, lifting equities and reshaping risk appetite. Micron Technology reported quarterly profit of $28.2bn—fifteen times the year-earlier figure and $4bn above consensus—and forecast fourth-quarter revenue of up to $51bn. Simultaneously, Brent crude slid below $72.48 a barrel, the level it closed at on 27 February, the day before the US and Israel began bombing Iran, as tankers resumed passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The immediate effect was a broad-based rally: the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a fresh all-time high, Europe’s Stoxx 600 gained 0.7%, and South Korea’s Kospi surged 5.4%.

The mechanism behind the tech surge was a dramatic easing of fears that hyperscaler spending on artificial intelligence would fail to generate returns. Micron, the only US-based manufacturer of high-bandwidth memory chips essential for Nvidia’s AI processors, disclosed that customers had committed $22bn through 16 strategic agreements—including take-or-pay clauses and cash deposits—to secure supply. Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said scarcity conditions would “persist beyond 2027,” a signal that the memory upcycle is far from exhausted. Qualcomm added fuel by projecting $15bn in data-centre revenue by 2029. In Frankfurt, Infineon and ASML rose more than 2%, while in Milan, STMicroelectronics jumped 4.4%. Asian chip giants SK Hynix and Samsung also advanced sharply.

The oil price decline acted as a parallel tailwind. Maritime tracking firms reported dozens of ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz, fuelling expectations that Gulf crude would return to global markets. Analysts in London noted that the drop eased stagflationary fears and reduced the probability of aggressive central-bank tightening. The US personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4.1% year-on-year in May, a three-year high but in line with forecasts, while first-quarter GDP was revised up to 2.1%. With energy costs falling, traders bet the Federal Reserve would not need to raise rates beyond already anticipated levels, pushing short-dated Treasury yields lower.

Not all corners of the market shared equally in the gains. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.5% lower as megacap importers of memory chips—Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta—fell on concerns that soaring component costs would squeeze margins. Apple slid 6.1% after raising MacBook and iPad prices. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index, by contrast, rose 1.9%, and the Dow, heavy with industrial names, added 0.2%. In Europe, defence stocks bucked the trend, with Leonardo down 3.9% in Milan, as the easing of Middle East tensions removed a geopolitical risk premium.

The next factual milestone for markets is the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting in late July, when updated economic projections will show whether officials share the benign inflation trajectory implied by falling energy prices. Until then, the twin narratives of insatiable AI chip demand and normalising oil supply are likely to frame trading.