#semiconductors

US stocks had their steepest one-day drop since April 2025 on Thursday, November 5. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% and closed more than 11% below its October record, which puts it in correction territory; the S&P 500 lost about 4.4% and the Dow about 1,833 points, or 3.4%, according to CNBC.

AI-linked stocks led the decline as investors weighed whether Democratic wins in Tuesday's midterms, including a Texas governor-elect who campaigned on a data center moratorium, could slow data center construction. The tech sector fell 7.3%, its worst day since March 2020; the iShares Semiconductor ETF dropped 12%. The 'Magnificent Seven' lost more than $1 trillion in market value, with Nvidia down more than 9% and now negative for the year. The VIX volatility index posted its biggest point gain since April 2025.

CNBC notes that across 10 Nasdaq corrections in the past decade, the index averaged a 9.41% gain over the three months after the bottom, with 2022 the main exception.

AMD reported third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 3, with adjusted earnings of $2.09 a share against $1.95 expected by analysts polled by LSEG, and revenue of $13.38 billion against $13.09 billion expected. CEO Lisa Su said server revenue is expected to double in 2027 and that data center AI growth should accelerate faster than AMD forecast three months earlier. Analysts said stronger AI revenue could offset softness in PCs, and the stock rose about 4% in premarket trading on Wednesday after falling roughly 24% over the prior month.

The bounce did not last. In Thursday's AI and chip selloff after the midterms, AMD fell about 14%, CNBC reports, as investors worried that Democratic wins could slow data center construction.

Chipmaker Marvell Technology agreed on Monday, November 2, to buy optical components maker Lumentum in an all-stock deal. Lumentum shareholders will get 4.5 Marvell shares for each share they own; Marvell put the implied enterprise value at $115 billion, though the final value depends on Marvell's share price. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2028.

Marvell CEO Matt Murphy told CNBC the combination will create 'a new category of company' by making semiconductors and optical connections work together for AI systems, which increasingly use light to link chips. Investors were not convinced on day one: Marvell fell 13% and Lumentum nearly 19%. CNBC notes both had been big AI winners, with Marvell more than doubling over the past year and Lumentum quadrupling before Monday.

Intel shares fell more than 20% in extended trading on October 29 after the company forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion and adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share; analysts expected $17.1 billion and 43 cents, per LSEG.

Third-quarter revenue rose 21% from $13.7 billion a year earlier. Data center and AI revenue jumped 78% to $7.3 billion, while the client computing group fell 5% to $8.1 billion. Finance chief David Zinsner said the PC slowdown should continue at least through the first half of next year. He said an explosion earlier this month at a fab in Israel, which killed two workers, will cost about $600 million in lost revenue over two quarters.

CNBC notes the stock was up about 150% this year before the report, though down roughly 23% in October.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6% to 26,008.86 on October 22, its worst session since June, and the S&P 500 lost 1.21%, its worst since July. The Dow ended slightly higher. CNBC and Yahoo Finance tie the drop to renewed worries about AI spending after Meta's results, and to oil.

AMD fell more than 8%, Micron 6% and Nvidia about 4%. Neocloud CoreWeave dropped 10%. Power and equipment names linked to data centers fell hard: GE Vernova and Bloom Energy each lost more than 11% and Vistra more than 10%, CNBC reports.

Investors moved into bonds: the 10-year Treasury yield fell more than 17 basis points to about 4.97%, CNBC reports; Yahoo Finance said it was on track for the biggest one-day drop in more than two years.

ASML's third-quarter revenue rose 55% to €11.7 billion with a 57.5% gross margin, and operating profit more than doubled to €5.2 billion. It guided fourth-quarter sales to €14.2–15.2 billion and narrowed its 2026 forecast to €44–45 billion. Hargreaves Lansdown's review notes customers expect demand to outstrip their supply until at least 2028 and some want to order for 2029 and 2030, and that management says its planned 30% capacity increases for 2027 and 2028 won't be enough. The shares rose 2.2% in early trading.

World stocks edged lower on Tuesday as concerns about AI spending weighed on chipmakers, which fell more than 1% on Wall Street; the Dow lost 0.31%, the S&P 500 0.10% and the Nasdaq 0.26%. Traders cited progress by Chinese memory maker CXMT and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan likening some flows into AI to "casino gambling." One portfolio manager said Nvidia and AMD usually trade down before the hyperscalers report because of uncertainty over their capital spending. Earnings season opened with JPMorgan up slightly and Wells Fargo down 2.1%.

Samsung Electronics' preliminary guidance for the third quarter of 2026 is about 195 trillion won in consolidated sales and about 107.4 trillion won in operating profit. These are unaudited estimates (the midpoints of narrow ranges, as Korean rules require); final results come after the audit.

Advanced Micro Devices crossed $1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time as AI-chip stocks rallied.

AMD shares rose about 9.6% during Monday's session to a record high, extending a powerful 2026 rally and making AMD only the fourth U.S. chipmaker to surpass the $1 trillion mark.

Why it moved

Investors rotated back into AI infrastructure stocks as spending signals remained strong and Meta's Muse launch renewed enthusiasm around future compute demand.