Bad news is still bad news... Iran-U.S. talks take a step back... This part of the AI boom is still in full swing... Reshaping a nation's economy... The changing fabric of emerging markets...
'Some news' was 'bad news'...
Yesterday, as stocks rose and oil prices edged lower, I (Corey McLaughlin) wrote that "we may have entered the 'no news is good news' part of the war in Iran."
The sentiment was confirmed today, when "some news" broke...
Over the past 24 hours, there have been reports of Iran attacking tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Qatari government confirmed today that one of its liquefied natural gas tankers was attacked, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported another tanker was struck by a projectile east of Oman.
This was during the 60-day negotiation window that's part of the 14-point "memorandum of understanding" that both the U.S. and Iran signed last month. The two sides are working out the big subjects of Iran's nuclear program and frozen Iranian funds. In the meantime, Iran pledged to ensure the free and safe passage of commercial shipping through the strait for 60 days.
That clearly isn't happening. This afternoon, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was revoking the license that allows for the sale of Iranian oil, which the U.S. offered near the start of this round of negotiations. And yesterday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. will win the war "one way or another," suggesting more military activity is likely if talks don't go well.
The market took this as bad news...
Today, Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up by around 5%. Bond yields were up too. And the major U.S. stock indexes were lower, with the tech sector of the S&P 500 Index down by roughly 2.5%. Energy stocks were up about 3%.
In the other major war still going on, Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian oil refinery in western Siberia, about 1,500 miles from Ukraine's border. And Russia launched missiles and drones at the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
On top of that, there was more geopolitical news, as Trump suggested at a NATO conference that the U.S. should pull troops out of Europe because of continued opposition to the idea of the U.S. "controlling" Greenland.
Is this a one-day spate of war-related volatility, or the start of something bigger that will dash the good market mood that we've experienced lately? We'll know soon enough. In the meantime, other powerful trends are still at work...
The memory-chip boom is still in full swing...
Last night, Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics reported preliminary results for the second quarter. The business is growing rapidly... Revenue more than doubled from the same quarter last year, and the company's operating profit soared more than 18 times from the same period a year ago.
For a company with a market cap of about $1.3 trillion, that's an incredible growth rate for revenue and earnings.
It's something we've noted a few times throughout the AI boom. With hyperscalers pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in capital expenditures, the "picks and shovels" companies like chipmakers are seeing a huge wave of demand.
And it's fueling a hypergrowth phase for large companies, the kind we typically would only see in small caps. For example, U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology (MU) is up roughly 225% year to date. Emerging market leaders are enjoying the same treatment.
Last month, we noted that Samsung's chief rival SK Hynix – which is also up about 225% in 2026 – is going public on U.S. markets to take advantage of the demand for memory stocks. The company is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange this Friday.
Samsung, SK Hynix, and AI have reshaped the South Korean economy...
As we wrote in the June 2 Digest, South Korea's stock market is in the middle of a "Melt Up." And it's all thanks to memory-chip stocks like Samsung and SK Hynix. These chips are essential to the AI boom.
From that Digest...
South Korea's KOSPI Index – which tracks the largest companies on the country's exchange – has already more than doubled so far in 2026. Over the past 12 months, the index has more than tripled.
It's all thanks to AI – specifically, memory chips.
South Korea accounts for more than 60% of the global memory-chip manufacturing market.
In June, South Korean exports soared more than 70% year over year to $102 billion. Semiconductor exports tripled, helping South Korea become only the fourth country to cross above $100 billion in monthly exports.
As our colleague Brett Eversole wrote in the latest issue of True Wealth Systems, that's shifted the composition of Korea's market. From Brett...
To see it, we can look at how the top three holdings in the iShares MSCI South Korea Fund (NYSE: EWY) have changed since the AI bull run kicked off.
These were the top three companies back in 2021, before the AI boom started...
Samsung made up about 23% of Korea's market in 2021. SK Hynix was a distant second with only a 5% weighting. And software company Naver came in third, at 4%.
Today, SK Hynix accounts for 25% of the South Korea Fund (EWY). And Samsung is still a big part, too – at a 22% weighting – for better or worse.
Having almost 50% of a country's stock market in just two stocks can help or hurt. Today, it hurt South Korea.
In the Korean markets today, Samsung's stock fell 7%, dragging SK Hynix down more than 6%. As a result, the KOSPI Index fell about 5%.
The story is the same for emerging markets as a whole...
The memory-chip Melt Up has helped South Korea go from a 13% weighting in the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Fund (EEM) – which tracks an index of large- and mid-cap emerging market stocks in 24 different countries – to almost 24% today.
Taiwan – which has a near-monopoly on advanced semiconductor manufacturing – has gone from a 16% weighting in EEM in 2021 to nearly 30% today.
More from Brett...
Tech exposure surged within these countries, too. Taiwan's tech sector now weighs in at 75%. Korea's economy is 55% tech. And China's tech weighting is now 13%. Only India's tech sector slipped – settling at 6%, an 11-percentage-point fall.
In short, the character of the emerging market index has fundamentally shifted. Old-school businesses are shuffling down the ladder as tech innovators rise.
The AI supply chain has even been enough to offset a significant economic headwind for emerging markets – the relative strength of the U.S. dollar.
As Willie Delwiche of Hi Mount Research shared, the iShares MSCI ACWI ex U.S. Fund has now outperformed the MSCI USA Index for 70 straight weeks. That's the longest streak of emerging and foreign market outperformance in nearly 20 years.
Again, that's in the face of a rising dollar, which Brett writes "usually spells trouble for foreign stocks." But so far in 2026, the U.S. Dollar Index is up around 3%. And emerging markets are still going strong. The shift toward AI and technology is to thank. More from Brett...
Again, this shows emerging markets shaking off their former old-school profile. When the dollar rallies, we normally see declines in EEM. But now, the dollar is trending higher... and the fund has kept surging.
These economies are leaving the U.S. dollar's shadow. EEM is now full of vital AI plays.
In that issue of True Wealth Systems, Brett named his favorite way to take advantage of the emerging market shift to a technology-based economy.
Existing True Wealth Systems subscribers and Stansberry Alliance members can read Brett's full report here. And if you don't have access, click here to learn more and get started with a subscription today.
New 52-week highs (as of 7/6/26): AXA (AXAHY), Alpha Architect 1-3 Month Box Fund (BOXX), Canadian National Railway (CNI), Equity Residential (EQR), iShares MSCI Spain Fund (EWP), GCM Grosvenor (GCMG), Global X MSCI Greece Fund (GREK), Ideaya Biosciences (IDYA), Illumina (ILMN), ChipMOS Technologies (IMOS), iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense Fund (ITA), Lamar Advertising (LAMR), LXP Industrial Trust (LXP), Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Snap-on (SNA), State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Value Fund (SPYV), Union Pacific (UNP), Valero Energy (VLO), and State Street Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI).
In today's mailbag, feedback on yesterday's Digest about AI spending (and how it is projected to surpass national defense spending next year)... Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.
"I was stationed in Berlin from 1978-1980 and returned as a civilian for four more years in the early 80s.
"The current AI buildup reminds me a lot of the Cold War back then. The USA and USSR were in an arms [race] that eventually ended in a de facto bankruptcy of the USSR. Your charts showing AI spend out to 2031 makes me wonder if we aren't watching the early innings of the next major world collapse or will it be limited to a few countries." – Subscriber Terry D.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin and Nick Koziol
Baltimore, Maryland
July 7, 2026
