S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record closing highs on AI optimism, Micron joins $1 trillion club

S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record closing highs on AI optimism, Micron joins $1 trillion club

By Saeed Azhar, Twesha Dikshit and Utkarsh Hathi

Tue May 26, 2026  

AI optimism is back in full swing with Micron suddenly becoming a trillion $ company when UBS today tripled its price target on the stock. It was more than enough for investors to start transferring money from industrials to any of the major AI players, bringing the Dow down but the tech indexes way up. Even the disappointing war news went on the back burner with the market ignoring it in favor of the continuing AI fever and an upbeat Q1. In fact Q1 has been so solid that the earnings growth forecast as it now nears its completion has been doubled from 16% a month ago to 29% today.  

The question is – is this a repeat of the late 90s tech boom and bust or do we now have the safeguards in place to avoid such a calamity? At least on the war, one expert is very upbeat, “There is a very high likelihood that the situation will resolve itself in a peaceful manner sooner rather than later.” But if I can editorialize a bit here —how many times have we heard that sentiment in the past couple of months? Both the S&P and Nasdaq have once again reached new records. At 18.85 billion, volume was right in line with the 18.71 average. 

DJ: 50,579.70  +294.04        NAS: 26,343.97  +50.87         S&P: 7,473.47  +27.75         5/22

DJ: 50,461.68  -118.02         NAS: 26,656.18  +312.21       S&P: 7,519.12  +45.65         5/26

Tue 5-26-26 4:45 pm S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record closing highs on AI optimism, Micron joins $1 trillion club | Reuters