Chip Stocks Crater 11% as Qualcomm Miss, Midterm AI Fears Slam Semis
SOX sits 52% above its 52-week low of $6,160.045.
Summary
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 11% Thursday, its worst session in this stretch, as Qualcomm shares fell 11% on smartphone chip sales that missed estimates and midterm election results raised fears a Democrat-controlled Congress will slow AI infrastructure spending. The drop could be the sharpest since 2020. The Nasdaq dropped 5.2% and is on track to confirm a correction from its record close; the S&P 500 fell 3.4% and the Dow 2.2%. This extends a rough run for semis — the index fell 5% on September 14 after Anthropic's CEO comments and was down 3.3% on October 15 amid AI-spending worries — but an 11% single-day drop is a different order of magnitude and forces real portfolio action. Candidates who opposed data center expansion won in Texas and Georgia, adding a policy overhang to the AI buildout thesis. Qualcomm is the primary driver here; the SOX index is the broader casualty.
At the time of this announcement, SOX was trading at $9,392.25 on NASDAQ in the Technology sector. The 52-week trading range was $6,160.04 to $14,655.29. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 9 out of 10. Source: Reuters.