Memory chips just became Wall Street's favourite story again. Micron Technology, one of the world's biggest makers of the memory chips that power everything from laptops to AI data centres, blew past earnings expectations so convincingly that it sent a jolt of relief through markets from Seoul to Santa Clara. The Daily Business Index — our daily 0-to-100 reading of global business health, where 50 is neutral — sits at 51.7 today, a step back from yesterday. The reason: even as chipmakers partied, Apple and Microsoft were busy passing rising memory costs on to customers, and Washington got a hotter-than-hoped inflation reading to chew on.