Rebels Edge · Tue, Jun 23, 2026

AI Panic Hits Chip Stocks

Summary

Jon and Pete Najarian discuss a technology-led market sell-off tied to concerns about AI memory-chip pricing, followed by a partial rebound. They review Micron's earnings outlook, a reported takeover proposal for Edgewell Personal Care, heavy options trading in a stock identified as SpaceX, and IBM's bounce after a prolonged decline.

The hosts attribute chip-stock weakness to concerns about Korean memory producers, pricing pressure, and valuations.
The VIX traded roughly between 19 and 20.5, retreating from its early high as stocks recovered.
Micron's decline is framed partly as profit-taking after substantial gains, with Wednesday earnings expected to clarify its AI memory outlook.
Edgewell reportedly rejected a private-equity takeover proposal near $30 per share, seeking a higher valuation.
The transcript identifies SpaceX as a recently listed stock with a sharp rebound and options volume exceeding 1.5 million contracts daily; that listing claim is not verified here.
Earlier bearish IBM options activity preceded a substantial decline; the hosts interpret a double bottom and rebound as signs that the sell-off may be ending.
The hosts also attribute IBM's bounce to a reported OpenAI partnership and cybersecurity investment involving Red Hat.

MU EPC IBM DELL

Full transcript

Welcome back to another Rebel's Edge.
Today, we're seeing the market down hard, but a certain stock that took off like a rocket fell from the sky and now is rebounding. And if you want to know why, tune in to today's Rebel's Edge.
>> [music] [music] [sighs] >> Well, welcome back everybody, including you, Pete.
>> [snorts] >> Yeah, good stuff.
>> in the state.
>> I got to tell you something. You guys uh it looks magnificent where you are, wherever the heck it is you guys are.
>> [laughter] >> It looks great, man. I'll tell you what, that's that does probably not such a bad way to see a lot of parts of the country, right?
>> Right. Yeah, cruising down the river on one of these, you know, I don't know if it's 2 or 300 ft, but it's a long, you know, it's one of those like Viking river cruises.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and it's pretty cool. And uh anyway, a lot of good wine and uh some cigars here and there, Pete. You you'd definitely like it, I think.
>> [laughter] >> It sounds pretty good.
>> Let's dive right into macro, shall we?
>> Yeah, let's do it.
>> Macro today, I'm going to say downturn largely attributed to uh tech companies over in Korea. They really kicked off today, folks, uh because Samsung uh was one of the big ones over there and uh
uh as as they said demand for chips, as strong as it is, uh might not be as strong at certain price points. And all of a sudden, everybody started talking about, "Oh my gosh, they're going to cut prices on chips." And so valuations of the companies and blah blah blah. So, anyway, uh Korea was down
10% double digits overnight. And so that was the backdrop for us. It hit us hard, but then we bounced a bit, right?
>> Yeah, we've had a pretty nice bounce. It it it's looked it's looked good. Now, it's a matter of do we hold after this bounce? And that's something, you know what? We'll find out over the next several hours, but it's going to be it's going to be interesting. It definitely hit the markets pretty hard, obviously the NASDAQ. And when you're talking about the chip stocks, you're talking about, you know, technology and
all the rest of it, John. It's uh it's a big deal. Um AI still, you know, what people are talking about, the memory chip, something people are talking about, all of that. And what will it really look like? And we don't and we don't really know the answers yet, but um I think that as we get through the day, we're going to see a little bit more interesting moves.
We've we've got some volatility here, but we are well off of the high volatility that we hit right out of the gate early on, John.
>> Yeah, and we've got some pretty interesting earnings coming our way tonight as well, Pete. So, yeah. Again, it won't all be about what happens during the day. Some of it'll be on what happens after the bell.
All right, Pete, [clears throat] what do you got as far as VIX?
>> Well, it's it's been in a pretty tight range given the fact of what what we've been looking at this morning, John. I mean, when you look at the market itself, you'd say, "Wow, uh you know, this thing's, you know, all over the place." Really hasn't been.
It's been in a fairly tight range, call it 19 all the way up to like 2050 or something like that for today. Uh I know that the graph is showing, you know, like a week or whatever it is, but yeah, 19 to 2050, 2050 being the high, pulled right back off of that. It's been sitting in the 19 cents. And so, we'll see if that that can hold on, John. I
mean, there's been some pretty substantial movement. There's no doubt about it. This is a a warranted move to the upside because of the fact that the S&P has been all over the place from being, you know, on the downside, down more than 1%, and then kind of coming back a little bit. So, we'll see. Uh a lot of bouncing going
on. So, the volatility is definitely there, but it's in this tight box of a range.
>> All right. Well, let's take a look, Pete, at uh the prediction market. And uh Pete said he was hoping to see his name on this list because it's who's going to be the next trillionaire.
And the list looks like this. Jensen Huang, 50% chance.
Mark Zuckerberg, 24%. This is based on the bets, folks. And Michael Dell, 6%.
>> Hm.
>> What do you think of those, Pete? Or would you add somebody else or take one of them off the list?
>> I think that looks fairly legitimate. I would say that and I think it in in the proper order, quite frankly. So, um you know, based on everything that we've seen so far over the last couple of years, it sure seems like Jensen Huang is moving into that direction. I could see where he'd be the leader. Um
I think the world of Zuckerberg and you know what? The guy the guy's been more right than wrong on a lot of different things. Michael Dell, I did The only reason I would say Michael Dell maybe not just because I don't know how much longer he's going to stick with this whole thing. I mean, at some point he might want to walk away. I don't know.
What do you think?
>> Yeah, he's already kind of done that once, Pete, so you're right. Then they came back with a tracking stock and then listed the stock and so forth. Uh yeah, he could. Uh the guy definitely understands tech though. There's no doubt about that. Yep. All right.
We dive into Micron, Pete?
>> Let's do it.
>> All right, Micron folks. Um this is uh one of our favorites. Uh and as I said, South Korea's Kospi index dropped when Hynix and uh I think it was Samsung were talking about AI memory production and people started worrying about prices of
memory chips and so forth, and Micron fell pretty hard because of that. But, um the stock is only up a couple couple hundred percent this year, Pete. It's understandable that when you see a little weakness, MAYBE PEOPLE SAY, "AH, LET me take off a little piece here and
lock in some profits." Is that what you think's happening?
>> Absolutely, and I think it makes sense for the people that, you know, decided, you know, how risky do they want to stay, John, is the thing. I mean, it was one thing when you're buying this back in February and March, and all of a sudden April takes off, right, and starts ripping to the upside. So, that, you know, it's a great trade for anybody who was fortunate enough to be a part of
that whole thing. But, um you know, you do have to look at things that people are all talking about, which is valuations. Now, it is funny though. I've heard a lot of characters on different um television outlets, John, that are all boy gung ho and then all of a sudden they tell you, "Oh yeah, I got out." Well, wait a minute.
>> [laughter] >> Did you or did you not? I mean, that's the thing. The partnership with Anthropic though, John, um they've got earnings Wednesday. So, we will be waiting for Micron to tell us what things really look like, you know, the expansion of things and AI memory production and all the rest of it like you were talking about at the very start.
Um there's a lot of things that they're going to go through, I think, when they deliver those earnings. And I'm not saying it as a negative, I'm saying it as more as a positive.
>> It's do they have the capability for this to keep on running the way it has? And And if And people talk about valuation over valuations all the time, John. If you're talking about Micron, um take a look at what their PE is, their forward PE.
As much as this thing has ripped to the upside, um they've maintained because of all of the revenue and everything else.
I think it's going to be a very interesting quarter for Micron.
>> Well, let's talk about one where according to Bloomberg, things might be getting to use your phrase, interest.
Um, and that is EPC. It stands for Edgewell Personal Care Company. And these guys, Pete, um, might get bought by a private uh, equity firm. They're basically, um, valuing this at about 30 bucks >> a share. And this is the legacy
Energizer entity. Uh, they renamed it Edgewell. Why?
Go figure. You spend all the money to get the thing called Energizer Bunny and all the rest, and then you go with Edgewell? I don't get it. But according to Bloomberg, somebody else might be getting it. So, we got to keep our eye on it.
>> Yeah, this one's pretty interesting, John, and how EPC, uh, created themselves was exactly in this same category. I mean, they they've done some, uh, some acquisitions, and that's been something that they've been building and building and building, and it's a very nice-looking chart, right?
Over the last not too terribly long.
We're only talking about 3 4 weeks, right? And this move to the upside that we're getting. But I I can understand why they think their value might be above what the bid was for them at 30 bucks a share, John. I I I can see it.
Um, I I don't know it well enough to say it's absolutely ridiculous, but, um, you know, the pure play for personal care and all the rest of it. There's a lot of positives that I think come with this company as they've bolted on to the to where they started. So, um, I think it's
pretty gutsy move on their part that they decided to reject this takeover.
>> Well, um, it's always a little bit gutsy when you reject a takeover that's above where you're trading.
>> Yeah.
>> Um, this wasn't a take under, but apparently uh, they don't think it's enough yet, Pete. So, they'll see what they can get it sweetened up a little bit. Let's now dive over to SpaceX because rarely a day that goes by that somebody on this
cruise, Pete, doesn't ask me about SpaceX.
Time to buy? Is it time to sell? And I guess both.
Basically, you know, I I said, you know, when I was on with Charles a week ago, Charles Payne, said, "What I think we're going to see retrace from whence it came, and maybe not to 130, but into the 1 40s. I'm not saying
I have in the pre-market or something, Pete, 147 in the regular.
And then it bounced at that level. And that was almost the exact same level that it got to after the 150 print on the 135 pricing the day before. The first trade was 150, and then it eased into the 140s, and we bounced damn near at that same level, Pete.
>> Yeah, and and you know what? I think there's a lot of people out there, John, that never got the opportunity to be part of the IPO, obviously.
But even then, after the after the stock was delivered out there, you know, we run up to those highs of 225 you were just mentioning. We got to the lows today, the public close anyway, at 147.
It's interesting to see that. It's you know, there's people like Cathie Wood out there who I think will probably defend it to some degree because they want to buy it, and they're looking at it not as a 5-minute or a 5-week or, you know, whatever.
They're looking 5 to 10 years out, somebody like Cathie Wood. So, you know, there there will be some buyers, and there certainly are. I think the most interesting part about it for you and I probably John is wherever it's going we're we've been monitoring the calls. We've been monitoring the puts as they've been coming in there and I think that's something very very interesting
because the volumes alone John are absolutely outrageous in SpaceX and people are all over the place and a lot of the reason for that is we're seeing spreads and we're seeing rolls and rolls meaning you own something here and you're rolling it either up or down to somewhere else and
maybe even out in time for a little bit longer but right now John they're averaging about just north of 1.5 million contracts per day just in SpaceX trading. So a lot going on there. It's going to be interesting and is it volatile? Yeah, this is a pretty
volatile stock actually and probably because they've been around exactly one week today.
>> Yeah. Well, with the options that is one week today.
>> You're exactly right.
>> Yeah. Well, let's maybe turn it to IBMP.
>> Mhm.
>> Because IBM it was bearish and we actually even had some unusual activity to the bearish side. Most of you guys know that means put options and they were indeed buying put options just a couple weeks back the
literally two to three weeks ago right at the beginning of June they were buying puts and they were right. Stock was 327 ish today after a 4% bounce it makes it back into
what the 250 something range range Peter whatever but boy were those puts prophetic back at the beginning of June because people and the reason we show you this one folks you can can the steady progression down there from the June 1st when it was
practically the high for IBM in the past several years.
Then that steady progression, the slide down, um it bounces up today. That's told you, as you can see those two bottoms there, um you can say, "Why would I stay short?" You know, if you were rolling down, just like Pete said about rolling up, folks, if you were rolling down, um
and you rolled to the 300s and then to the 280s and then to the 260s or whatever, as the stock kept falling, this gave you the signal, "That's over." >> Mhm.
>> Doesn't mean it can't ever go down again. It just means that that sell-off is over. The fact that we saw that double bottom right there, those two price points where we hit, bounced, hit again, and then made a bigger bounce, tells me, Pete, that uh the uh bears have probably had their best run with IBM.
>> Yeah, I would I would say that's true.
And I think also that they bounced um also for the partnership that they've they've made with OpenAI. I think that's going to be something very interesting for them. We always talk about cybersecurity, how important that is, the responses that they're getting, and IBM wants in. As a matter of fact, they're talking about they've committed about $5 billion John to this whole
thing.
Um and it's IBM as well as the the Red Hat section of of IBM. So, it's pretty interesting to see how things are are playing out here. Obviously, cyber threat is always something that, you know, we're going to have to deal with, I think, over time. I think it's pretty smart move for IBM to decide to go into that field. And a lot of people
obviously saying the same thing with not just with their words, but with the stock. I'm looking at the stock right now. It's up approximately 5%. It's trading about, call it 264 and change.
So, a nice move to the upside, like you were just talking about. And maybe that turn is something that's going to turn and burn to the upside. We'll see over time, but I think it's a very smart well well-placed time for this partnership.
>> Well, let's dive into some sports, Pete.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and I know that we've got a good clip of some kid that's an absolute freak show. When you see the stats on this kid, folks, you'll say, "Are they already giving Heismans in high school?" Cuz watch this. This is a prep player.
>> He's a Heisman dark horse, and he's going to be doing 360 throws for touchdowns this year. This is SMU quarterback Kevin Jenner. Even Nick Saban believes he's the best athletic quarterback in college football. 45-in vertical >> Coach loves the kid. He allows him to do stuff like that in practice, John.
>> [laughter] >> It's just phenomenal.
>> 45-in vertical >> [music] >> right out of high school >> That arm looks pretty good, too. Hell, the guy could be a wide receiver, for crying out loud. You see how he's catching that ball?
>> [laughter] >> Oh, yeah. They say he's They say he's better than Beckham, Pete.
>> I'll tell you.
I know we've seen him once before or twice before, John, but I'll tell you what, this kid is really, really special. It would be a lot of fun to be able to watch some SMU games down there, man. I'll tell you. We might have to put that on the docket. They get a hold of Jerry Jones for a follow-up with a Dallas game or something.
That could be pretty fun.
>> [laughter] >> He is a freak. What else you got for sports, Pete?
>> Look at that, 80 yards. My gosh. All right. For sports, John, I'm going to start off with this one. You and I talk about this all the time. You've been in full agreement with me since the first time I ever mentioned it, but Shohei Ohtani This guy is absolutely magnificent, anyway, and I've always said, "The guy comes by in the near your town or city or
whatever, you know, I think it's a really good idea to to get up there and be exposed to exactly what this guy looks like. Even if he has a off game, the guy's unbelievable.
Well, he didn't really have much of an off game yesterday, Johnny. He was right up just a couple miles over here, not too terribly far. And Shohei Ohtani shows up and uh he he's the designated hitter.
Gets one pitch, takes a look at it, kind of smiles back at the court at at the pitcher, and he on the second pitch knocks the thing out of the entire Target's field. So, all of a sudden it's it's one zip, right? And and he's moving along. The guy is so special and unbelievable, John. It was
his 17th home run so far this year, not so bad. Um and by the way, this team, I know that they put a lot of money into it, but they've put a lot of money into the Yankees and seen some good, not all good, but some good. And you do the with the Mets, and you and I were talking about yesterday, a lot of money, not so good. I'll tell you what, you know who's
pretty damn good?
>> [laughter] >> The LA Dodgers. They're the first one to get 50 wins.
They're absolutely on fire. Um and but John, their run differential is 134.
So, they don't just beat people, they beat people up. And I think that's what makes them so fun and so great to watch.
And I'll tell you what, Shohei Ohtani, he's a big dude, John. I mean, he he goes a legit 6'4 at least, and maybe 225, 230, something like that. So, when he does hit the ball, um if he hits it right, it's going out.
>> [laughter] >> So, if he comes to your town, I'm telling people, you have to go see this guy cuz he's as special as it gets in all of baseball.
>> I agree. Nothing else to add, Pete. What do What do you got for the NBA versus the NFL?
>> All right, so here's what we got for the NBA.
I don't know for anybody out there if they're you're enough to remember there was a there was a trade the Vikings made years ago with Dallas for Herschel Walker.
>> Herschel.
>> One of the biggest blow ups of all time.
It killed the Vikings for years because they gave up draft picks, they gave up players, they did all the stupid things that teams can do.
Well, I'm starting to wonder a little bit and I like Pat John down there in Miami. Been a great coach for a long time. He was with the Lakers forever, did a great job. He's done an unbelievable job with Miami at times.
But let me tell you this. This reminds me of the Herschel Walker trade. And when I say that, Giannis, by the way, 31 years old. At least Herschel was only 27. So Giannis is 31 years old. They gave up three first round picks and four ballers from the team.
I don't see how that works. I don't see how that turns them around. He is a big great player. I would agree with that. I think he's fantastic. But I don't want to give away the entire draft picks for, you know, three separate years. And by the way, the NBA draft is tonight. That's why they wanted to ink this deal. They
wanted to get it done. And it's going to be pretty interesting. But I'll tell you what, I I like the Miami I No, I don't like the Miami side of it. I like the Milwaukee side of this one far better, John, because they will be able to build a pretty decent dynasty, I think, with the picks and the players that they got.
>> Yeah. And uh like you've said many times, once you get a player, doesn't matter. I mean, you know, there's a real exception out there, Pete, somebody like Messi.
>> Yeah.
>> Somebody like Brady, you know, two of the goats. But other than that, you don't see a lot of guys playing that well into their 30s.
>> Mhm.
>> Um that's usually their last contract.
And it might be his. I mean, I know, you know, uh LeBron or LaFlop uh plays into his late 30s and early 40s, but he shouldn't be. He shouldn't be. He's hurting his legacy uh by doing that because he has to rest too much. He just doesn't have
the zip that he used to have. Giannis is younger, but like you said, I don't know if I want to give up the franchise for that.
>> Younger, taller, that you know, you you get beat up out there, John, sometimes I think running up and down the the court the way you do, especially they've been pretty com- competitive and all the rest of it, but you know what? When you're that tall, it's just a different way of your body, you know, how how it actually functions and so forth. So, he can be in
great shape and everything else, but it's still 7-ft body, and that that that makes it wear out a little bit faster than probably the guys that are 6'3" and 6'4".
>> Yep.
Well, um I guess we'll uh hit another Rebel's Edge tomorrow, Pete, and uh knowing the market in the heartbeat that it's been in lately, we'll likely be to this level instead of that level tomorrow. But, that's why we trade them cuz you don't know from day to day. Uh he's Pete
Najarian, I'm Jon Najarian. You can follow us at our handles right under our names there or right under us, actually, at @JonNajarian and at @PeteNajarian.
And we hope you join us at 1:00 p.m.
tomorrow.
>> See you then.
>> Thanks.
>> [music]

Transcript from the show's YouTube captions; automatic captions may contain errors. Educational content, not investment advice.