Markets
Six Straight Losses for the Chip ETF, but This Time AMD and Nvidia Went the Other Way
The VanEck semiconductor ETF fell 0.49% on October 13, its sixth decline in a row and 7.2% below its October 5 close. Micron lost another 3.62% to $953.19, while AMD rose 1.90% and Nvidia 0.97%.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) closed at $588.12 on October 13, down 0.49%. It has now fallen six sessions in a row, from $633.90 on October 5 — a drop of 7.2% — and sits at its lowest close since September 18.
Tuesday's loss was the smallest of the streak, and the reason was a split inside the group. Memory stocks kept falling: Micron lost 3.62% to $953.19, its fourth decline in a row and its lowest close since September 16, after opening at $934.07. Processor makers bounced. AMD rose 1.90% to $605.53 after trading as low as $570.60, and Nvidia gained 0.97% to $228.52.
That divergence matters because the selling of the past week had been broad. When every chip stock falls together, the move is usually about the whole theme — in this case, doubts about how long AI spending can keep growing. When the group splits, investors are starting to separate companies by their own exposure. Memory makers depend most directly on prices for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory, which swing with supply, while designers such as AMD and Nvidia are judged more on their product cycles.
Korea, home to the two largest memory makers, had already shown how sensitive that corner of the market is: the Kospi fell 5.95% on October 13 and broke below 6,000. Samsung and SK Hynix were at the centre of that selling.
One day of divergence is not a trend, and losing streaks end eventually either way. The more useful sign of a turn would be the memory names stabilising, since they led the decline. Until then, the gap between AMD and Micron is the thing to watch.