Markets
US Chip Stocks Fell for a Fifth Straight Session as Micron Closed Below $1,000
The semiconductor ETF lost 2.05% on October 12 to its lowest close since September 18, while the Dow rose 0.38%. Micron fell 3.88% to $989, its first close below $1,000 since mid-September.
Monday, October 12 was a split day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.38% to 51,850.55, helped by a 2.09% gain in Salesforce after an analyst upgrade. The S&P 500 slipped 0.06% to 7,807.24 and the Nasdaq Composite 0.44% to 27,245.90. Underneath, one group kept falling.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) dropped 2.05% to $590.99, its fifth straight losing session and its lowest close since September 18. It has now fallen 6.6% from its October 6 close. Memory was the weak spot: Micron lost 3.88% to $989.04, its first close below $1,000 since September 17, after reports that China's CXMT had made progress on a new, denser memory design. Nvidia fell 1.29% to $226.32.
Technology as a whole (XLK) lost 1.22%, while defensive and income sectors rose: consumer staples gained 1.17%, energy 1.43%, communication services 0.97% and real estate 0.75%. The move came on Columbus Day, when the US bond market was closed and volumes were lighter than usual.
Five consecutive declines don't make a bear market, but they do show how quickly sentiment around AI hardware has turned since the start of October, when the group was rising toward its June high. The overnight crash in Korean chip stocks suggests the pressure hasn't eased, and TSMC's results later this week will be the first earnings test for the group.