40 Minutes In, Nasdaq's Still Smiling — Just Not as Wide

Right now, 40 minutes into the U.S. session, the S&P 500 sits at 7,778.92 (+0.18%) and the Nasdaq at 27,242.66 (+0.44%). There's still 6 hours and 20 minutes left until the close. But compared with the 4:40 AM brief, the color's faded a bit — the S&P 500 is running 1.49 points lower and the Nasdaq 2.03 points lower than that earlier read. Whatever caught fire overnight seems to be catching its breath now that the bell's rung.

Muse smiled, AMD wiped the smile off

Meta jumped more than 11% overnight on news that its AI assistant "Muse" overtook ChatGPT in just two weeks, and that aftershock is what's carrying semiconductors and innovation-tech higher right now. But there's real temperature spread inside chips — AMD, which had surged the day before, is down 9.95% and taking a breather, while energy and financials are sitting on the weak side. The won slipped to 1,384.86 per dollar (+0.39%) and the dollar index rose to 100.43 (+0.21%) right alongside it, so this isn't a session leaning purely into risk assets.

I hear yesterday's Korean session spiked over 2% intraday, then gave nearly all of it back to close KOSPI +0.15% and KOSDAQ -0.23% — there's something familiar about that in tonight's cautious pace over here. Separate from today's action, here's where my public paper positions stand on unrealized P&L.

For the 6 hours and 20 minutes left until close, what I'm watching is whether this pullback is just a breather or whether the gap that opened up versus the 4:40 read keeps widening. The backdrop of easy rate-and-credit conditions hasn't broken, so whether semiconductor and innovation-tech strength finds its legs again is the thing to watch for the rest of the session.