0717 | Chips Sink, Apple Tops Nvidia, Iran Strikes Kuwait Plant

Mia: From Bri, this is After Market.

Milo: I'm Milo.

Mia: And I'm Mia. Coming up: chip stocks sink toward a bear market as that 105 percent AI rally fizzles.

Milo: Apple retakes the crown from Nvidia as the world's largest company. Oil prices climb after Kuwait says Iran struck a water desalination and power plant. And a CNBC survey finds the economic outlook is worsening, and Trump is getting the blame.

Milo: A closely watched semiconductor index is on the verge of falling into a bear market.

Mia: This is unwinding a huge chunk of the blistering, memory-led rally that saw the gauge more than double in just three months. We're talking a 105 percent run that has now fizzled.

Milo: And that rout is feeding into a broader decline in world equities. The pain is not staying contained to chips.

Mia: Meanwhile, in currencies, the cost of hedging against swings in the US dollar has dropped to its lowest level this year.

Milo: That signals traders see little chance of a major catalyst disrupting the dollar, even with the uncertain Fed outlook and the renewed conflict in the Middle East.

Mia: The dollar is steadying on safe-haven demand but is still on track for a weekly decline. So you have oil rising on the Middle East escalation as equities sell off.

Milo: Apple has retaken the position of world's largest company from Nvidia.

Mia: Nvidia had held that title since May 2025, so this is a notable shift. It reflects a broader tech rotation as Nvidia shares have underperformed in 2026.

Milo: Wall Street is increasingly turning toward companies powering the infrastructure buildout for artificial intelligence, and Apple is benefiting from renewed analyst confidence.

Mia: HSBC upgraded Apple to buy on Friday, citing the company's agentic AI strategy and its hardware product pipeline.

Milo: That upgrade landed just as many AI-related trades have been faltering.

Mia: Oil prices are rising after Kuwait reported that Iran attacked a water desalination and power plant.

Milo: This escalation is targeting critical civilian infrastructure directly. Iran, for its part, says its own civilian infrastructure was hit by the latest US strikes and that it has expanded attacks to Syria and Bahrain.

Mia: The fragile truce signed last month is showing further signs of unraveling.

Milo: The Strait of Hormuz has become a focal point of danger. A seafarer was killed and three were injured when the crude oil tanker Al Bahyah was attacked off Oman's coast on Tuesday.

Mia: A maritime risk CEO described the situation for oil tankers in the Hormuz area as a, quote, worst case scenario, as Iran stepped up attacks on ships.

Milo: Some efforts are underway to bypass the strait. Iraq and Syria have signed an agreement to restore an oil pipeline that would provide an alternative route.

Mia: ConocoPhillips is also buying a 42 percent stake in an Iraqi unit from BP, as the US seeks to weaken Iran's energy hold. But analysts caution that pipelines around the Strait of Hormuz will not end the threat Iran poses to Middle East crude exports.

Milo: Sweetgreen shares rose on Friday, snapping a four-day decline.

Mia: That move pared a 26 percent drop. The recovery came after US regulators traced a parasite outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants.

Milo: The cyclosporiasis outbreak has sickened thousands across several states, and the CDC link to Taco Bell had rattled restaurant stocks.

Mia: But analysts say Taco Bell will likely recover soon from this health safety scare and do not expect a long-term impact.

Milo: Netflix says it will cut back on the frequency of its What We Watched engagement reports.

Mia: The streaming giant had been offering a regular look at viewing data, and now it's stepping back from that cadence. This disclosure came alongside a disappointing earnings forecast that weighed on the stock.

Milo: In a separate corner of the market, SpaceX shares have cratered nearly 23 percent since the company joined the Nasdaq-100 index.

Mia: The decline accelerated after SpaceX aborted a Starship test flight at the last second. Both retail and Wall Street investors are now holding underwater positions, though many are holding on rather than selling.

Milo: The CNBC All-America Economic Survey finds the public is as depressed about the economy as it has been since the years just after the pandemic.

Mia: And Trump is getting blamed for the worsening outlook. Meanwhile, import prices posted a surprise 0.3 percent monthly gain as costs of goods from China hit their highest since 2008, even as a drop in energy partially offset other increases.

Milo: On housing, a homebuyer affordability index shows affordability slipped for a fifth straight month, with both home prices and mortgage rates climbing since earlier this year.

Mia: That's After Market from Bri. I'm Mia.

Milo: And I'm Milo. Thanks for listening.