Markets
Lam Research Fell 17% in a Week and Reports on Wednesday. Four Chip Companies Face the Market After an 11% Index Drop
Lam Research lost 17.22% in the week to October 16, Western Digital 16.43%, Micron 14.59% and Intel 14.18%, as the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 11.41%. Lam and Texas Instruments report on October 21, Western Digital on October 22 and Intel on October 29.
The semiconductor index has fallen for nine sessions in a row and the companies in it now have to say something. Lam Research, which makes the equipment that etches and deposits the layers of a chip, closed Friday at $263.94, down 4.87% on the day and 17.22% on the week, and reports third-quarter results after the close on Wednesday, October 21. Analysts expect $2.17 a share against $1.26 a year earlier, a 72% increase, which is the kind of growth the stock was priced for at $352 a few weeks ago and is being repriced away from at $264.
Texas Instruments reports the same evening. Its shares have held up better, down 0.95% on Friday to $276.48 and 2.56% on the week, because analogue chips for cars and factories are not the AI trade; the consensus of $2.39 a share compares with $1.48 a year ago. Western Digital follows on Thursday, October 22, after a week in which it lost 16.43% to $332.00, its lowest close in three months, and in which the Roundhill Memory ETF fell 5.5% on Friday alone. The estimate for Western Digital is $3.97 a share against $1.64 a year earlier.
Intel comes later, on October 29, but Friday was its worst day of the five: down 5.79% to $89.85, 14.18% lower on the week and 29.5% below its $127.44 high of the past three months. The consensus is $0.39 a share. Micron, which reported in September, fell 5.63% to $878.84 and 14.59% on the week; AMD lost 5.95% to $528.75 and 13.05%; Nvidia, the least damaged of the group, fell 1.43% to $214.13 and 6.61%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed at 11,137.29, down 3.83% on Friday and 11.41% on the week, its worst since April 2025. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) lost 10.53% and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) 11.80%.
The reports will be read in a particular way. Nobody doubts that Lam's or Western Digital's third quarter was strong; TSMC said as much on Thursday with a record quarter and a raised forecast, and the stocks fell anyway. The question is the fourth-quarter guidance and, above all, what the equipment makers say about orders from the memory and logic customers who are themselves funded by the AI data-centre spending now under scrutiny. A beat with cautious guidance is the outcome the market is positioned for; a beat with raised guidance is the one that would hurt the funds that have been selling for six days.
The index is about 16% below its early-October high. Streaks of nine consecutive losses are rare and usually end with a sharp one-day bounce, which is not the same as a bottom. Wednesday evening, with Lam, Texas Instruments, Meta and Tesla all reporting within an hour of each other, is the first scheduled chance for that bounce or for the tenth loss.