Stocks fell on Thursday as a selloff in tech stocks overshadowed a string of solid earnings reports.
The S&P 500 was last down 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.7%, as the major tech indexes struggled with semiconductor weakness. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 249 points, or 0.5%.
Chip stocks fell after Taiwan Semiconductor announced an increase in its spending forecast, which overshadowed better-than-expected second-quarter reports. The firm expects capital expenditures to be between $60 billion and $64 billion for the year, up from previous guidance of a range of $52 billion to $56 billion. The stock was last down 3%.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell more than 4%, led by Arm Holdings’ drop of more than 7%. Shares of Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices fell more than 6%. Broadcom fell more than 4%. Shares of US-listed SK Hynix fell by more than 11%.
Elsewhere in the technology sector, shares of Alphabet fell more than 4% as the firm reportedly delayed the release of its most powerful artificial intelligence model known as the Gemini 3.5 Pro. Other “Magnificent Seven” names, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and Amazon, were also in the red, SEEbiz reports.
That said, the earnings season is off to a strong start this week. Of the 40 S&P 500 firms that have already reported, more than 87% reported positive surprises. Major banks, seen as indicators of economic activity, beat second-quarter earnings expectations earlier in the week.
