Korea Pulled the Chip Ripcord
Presented by
CLOSING BELL

The market split Tuesday after the AI trade met a levered exit while everything outside Technology quietly kept working.
The Nasdaq fell 3.3% and Technology lost 4.1%, yet seven sectors rose and the Dow held flat. It was less a market sell off than an AI margin call, with Consumer Staples up 1.9% while chips, optics, cooling, and power names got liquidated together.
Korea provided the accelerator. Its regulator said overnight that leveraged single-stock chip ETFs had been approved too quickly, sending Samsung and SK Hynix down more than 12%, triggering a trading halt and exporting the unwind into U.S. memory stocks.
On Stocktwits, $CBRS, $NKE, and $FDX led the chatter, while quantum-security name $BTQ drew the loudest operating-company message volume.
Today’s Briefing:
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After the Bell: Cerebras sold the revenue beat on margin worries while FedEx’s beat lost to weaker profitability
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Stocks: Korea’s rout slammed Micron before earnings, Nike limped toward its print, and pharma caught the defensive bid
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Pops and Drops & More

AFTER THE BELL
Cerebras Sells the News 📉

Cerebras Systems, the AI inference chip company that IPO’d in May as a challenger to Nvidia’s data-center dominance, delivered its first quarterly earnings after the bell Tuesday with revenue that nearly doubled year-over-year. Shares fell in after-hours trading, as investors focused on a wider EPS miss and a FY26 gross margin guide that stepped down from Q1’s pace.
The RIP: $CBRS ( ▲ 1.02% ) fell 9% after-hours. Q1 GAAP revenue was $193.4M, up 94% YoY. GAAP EPS was a loss ($0.22) vs. ($0.14) estimate. OpenAI deal valued at $20B. FY26 revenue guided $855-865M; gross margin guided 38-41%, below Q1’s 47%.
Cerebras is approaching its all-time low of $196.73 on lock-up pressure. The FY26 gross margin guide of 38-41% vs. Q1’s 47% whows OpenAI and AWS deals are coming with margin concessions. Customer concentration (86% of 2025 revenue from two UAE entities) is the structural risk the bull thesis still has to clear. 📉
Community is 66% bullish, message volume is extremely high across ~10.5K watchers.
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@AdamantiumBull said: “$CBRS Chill baby. They announce one more big deal and it changes the game.” (post)
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@BreakoutLife said: “$CBRS had a solid print, no question, but the Nvidia challenger narrative feels like a stretch. NVDA is ~425x larger in revenue.” (post)
Sound off in $CBRS: all-time low or bounce →
FedEx Beats, Then Slides 📦
FedEx, the global package-delivery and courier giant, reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after Tuesday’s close that topped Wall Street’s profit estimate, but shares dropped in after-hours trading as a slipping profit margin and a warning about global trade-policy costs outweighed the beat.
The RIP: $FDX ( ▼ 3.51% ) fell, after closing the regular session down 3.5%. Adjusted EPS hit $6.31 vs. the $5.97 estimate, revenue reached $25B vs. $24.03B consensus, and profit margin came in at 8.4%, below expectations. Community is bullish at 73%, message volume is high across ~31.3k watchers. 📦
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@howardlindzon said: “$FDX damn you … are they blaming Iran?” (post)
Take it to $FDX: barometer or bargain →
SPONSORED BY VIRTUIX
Virtuix is now “Made for Meta,” opening up a market of 20 million headsets.
Virtuix ($VTIX) launched Omni One for Quest, a plug-and-play 360-degree VR treadmill now certified in the Meta ecosystem and featured in the Meta Store, putting $VTIX in front of the world’s largest XR user base.
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Walk, run, crouch, strafe, and jump in 360° inside Meta Quest games
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Compatible with all Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets
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Rated 4.8/5 stars, burns up to 700 calories per hour
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Already live with titles including The Boys, Star Trek: Infection, and more
Virtuix already reported double-digit revenue growth, and this Meta partnership just supercharged it.
*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.
STOCKS
Micron’s Korea Gut Check 🧠

Micron, the memory-chip maker supplying AI data centers, plunged 13.2% Tuesday after South Korea’s regulators issued a warning on leveraged tech ETFs. The news triggered a 10% KOSPI crash, and a 20-minute market-wide halt. Samsung and SK Hynix, which represent more than half the index, each sank over 12%. The forced unwind crossed the Pacific, knocking Micron 13%, SanDisk 14%, Western Digital 8%, Seagate 5%, and the Roundhill Memory ETF 14%.
The RIP: $MU ( ▼ 13.18% ) fell 13.18%, then gained 2.49% after hours. For tomorrows report, consensus calls for $20.39 adjusted EPS on $35.5B revenue, with DRAM at $27.5B, NAND at $7.7B, and adjusted gross margin at 81.83%.
Bank of America still raised its price target 58% Tuesday, from $950 to $1,500, arguing AI demand visibility extends into 2028. Micron also signed a memory, storage, and investment agreement with Anthropic, but Wednesday’s guidance must prove Korea’s collapse was a leveraged positioning shock, not an early warning that the memory cycle has peaked. 👀
Stocktwits sentiment is neutral with low message volume across roughly 202K watchers.
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@MBSB said: “$MU forward guidance is what matters here” (post)
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@whatevermyguy said: “$MU anyone else read the SK Hynix news and actually think it’s bullish for Micron?” (post)
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@Liuyilong said: “$MU Back to $900 after earnings tomorrow… demand is down” (post)
Make your $MU case: cycle or rerating →
Nike Limps Into Earnings 👟
Nike, the sneaker and athletic-apparel giant, is also sliding toward its fiscal fourth-quarter report after a wave of analyst downgrades, even as the company tried to steady nerves Tuesday by pre-announcing in-line guidance and naming a new finance chief.
The RIP: $NKE ( ▼ 1.88% ) closed down 1.9% at $42.38, near its 52-week low of $41 and far below the $78 high, then ticked up 1.2% to $42.89 after hours. Nike pre-announced fiscal Q4 results “generally in line” with prior guidance and named David Denton CFO, effective Aug. 17.
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@bertier31 said: “$NKE if you are doing anything other than holding or buying right now, you are wrong. Nike’s margins are about to expand wildly.” (post)
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@Advancedo said: “$NKE crooks Goldman and Evercore loaded cheap shares. See you at +50 after ER.” (post)
Make your $NKE case: bottom or value trap →
Pharma Hides From Tech 💊
Merck jumped 3.6% and Johnson & Johnson gained 3.4% Tuesday as investors rotated toward defensive drugmakers during the tech rout. Merck brought the fresher catalyst: its experimental ulcerative colitis treatment tulisokibart met the primary and key secondary endpoints in a Phase 3 study.
The RIP: $MRK ( ▲ 3.57% ) closed at $119.60, up 3.57%. $JNJ finished at $239.08, up 3.37%. Tulisokibart strengthens Merck’s effort to build growth beyond Keytruda, although Roche’s competing TL1A program keeps the commercial race open. 👀
Both Stocktwits streams are neutral. Merck has normal message volume, while Johnson & Johnson has high message volume. Make your $MRK case: rotation or pipeline rerating →
TRENDING ON STOCKTWITS
Pops & Drops
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$BLZE ( ▲ 43.6% ) Backblaze ⚡: soared +44% after CoreWeave signed a five-year cloud storage contract
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$IBM ( ▲ 5.04% ) IBM: climbed +5% after JPMorgan upgraded shares on AI and software growth
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$OSCR ( ▲ 4.87% ) Oscar Health ⚡: popped +5% after management flagged healthy tailwinds and possible guidance upside
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$VZ ( ▲ 3.02% ) Verizon ⚡: gained +3% after investors rotated into defensive dividend stocks
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$SLV ( ▼ 5.4% ) Silver Trust ⚡: sank -5% after renewed rate-hike bets strengthened the dollar
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$SOUN ( ▼ 6.4% ) SoundHound ⚡: tumbled -6% after Cramer called shares a four-dollar stock
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$ASML ( ▼ 7.82% ) ASML: tumbled -8% after the global chip rout reached equipment makers
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$VRT ( ▼ 11.07% ) Vertiv: cratered -11% after the AI infrastructure trade sharply reversed
This heatmap is sorted by relative size of % move
PRESENTED BY VIRTUIX
20 million headsets. One new certified partner.
Virtuix ($VTIX) just launched Omni One for Quest, a “Made for Meta” certified full-body movement system now featured in the Meta Store and compatible with Quest 2 and Quest 3.
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Plug-and-play omni-directional treadmill meets the full Quest game library
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Burns up to 700 calories/hour, the “Peloton for Gamers” 4.8/5 star rating, 2025 Auggie Award winner
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Meta Quest has 20M+ headsets sold and ~6M active users
Full-body gaming is going mainstream. $VTIX is building it with Meta.
*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.
ST EDITOR’S PICKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🌐
🤑 GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Forgoes Performance Award To Focus On EBay Acquisition
😨 Factory job cuts in June neared financial crisis and Covid levels, S&P says
💰️ Nvidia, Micron, AMD lead tech sell-off as AI trade cools
📺️ SpaceX raises $25 billion in debt sale less than two weeks after IPO
🥸 Meta announces new smart glasses starting at $299, as Zuckerberg keeps pushing wearables
WHAT’S ON DECK
Tomorrow’s Top Things 📋
Macro: New home sales (10:00 AM ET). 📊
Pre-Market Earnings: $WBA Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, $MNY MoneyHero Ltd – Ordinary Shares – Class A, $NG Novagold Resources Inc, $PAYX Paychex Inc, $MKC Mccormick & Co Non-Voting Inc. ☀️
After-Market Earnings: $MU Micron Technology Inc, $NKE Nike Inc Class B, $AREC American Resources Corporation – Ordinary Shares – Class A. 🌙
P.S. You can listen to all of these earnings calls on Stocktwits.
Get In Touch 📬
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