Wall Street fell Friday as traders unwound this week’s rush out of Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and into rival chipmakers, sending Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) down 10.5% and wiping out about $100 billion of its market value by midday. Stocks opened higher after a cooler-than-expected wholesale inflation report, then reversed as the scandal around Jensen Huang‘s exit from Nvidia deepened.
A new report said 22 servers built by Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) and packed with restricted Nvidia H800 chips were sold to Singapore-based Aperia Cloud Services, then installed at a Shanghai data center tied to a company founded by Alice Huang. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Treasury had favored blacklisting Nvidia partner Megaspeed.
“The real story here should be, did Nvidia know their client,” Bessent told CNBC on Friday.
AMD traded at $524.11, on track for its worst session since Nov. 5. The stock had rallied nearly 45% over the previous five sessions, and Friday’s drop erased about a third of that gain.
The S&P 500 fell 0.7% to 7,536, down 57 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 48 points, or 0.1%, to 52,249. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) led blue-chip decliners with a 6.4% drop, erasing about $26 billion of its market value, as a 250-basis-point squeeze in adjusted gross margin overshadowed record first-quarter revenue and a higher fiscal 2027 outlook.
The Nasdaq 100 dropped 488 points, or 1.7%, to 27,801. Within the Magnificent Seven, Nvidia fell 3.3% to $160.69 ahead of Tuesday’s results, its first report without Huang. The Russell 2000 lost 0.7% to 2,780, while the CBOE Volatility Index jumped 6% to 19.83.
The Treasury curve steepened.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose 3 basis points to 5.14%, and the 30-year yield climbed 4 basis points to 5.47%. The 2-year yield eased 1 basis point to 4.85%.
Gold was little changed at $3,885 an ounce, while silver fell 2.1% to $49.02. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) slid 3.4% to $68,984, below $70,000. West Texas Intermediate crude edged down 0.2% to $88.54 a barrel, and Brent was flat at $95.82.
On the data front, the producer price index for final demand rose 0.3% in October, below the 0.4% forecast and down from 1.4% in September. Annual producer inflation reached 6.5%, the highest since November 2022.
Read Also: Huang Is Out of the Game: Now 20% of Nvidia's Asian Revenue Could Be at Risk
Friday’s Performance In Major US Indices
| Index | Last | % Change | MTD | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,535.54 | -0.75% | -0.59% | +10.08% |
| Dow Jones | 52,249.39 | -0.09% | +0.93% | +8.71% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 27,800.79 | -1.73% | -2.06% | +10.10% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,780.46 | -0.66% | -1.12% | +12.03% |
According to the Benzinga Pro platform:
- The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) fell 0.8%.
- The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) edged down 0.1%.
- The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) dropped 1.7%.
- The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) slipped 0.6%.
Chipmakers Sink As Investors Hide In Consumer Staples
The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) was the weakest sector, down 2.7% as AMD, Nvidia and Cisco fell, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) dropped 4.1%.
The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) led with a 1.3% gain as money rotated into defensive shares.
Communication services, financials and utilities posted modest gains, while industrials, consumer discretionary and materials slipped.
Dell fell 8.4% after the report traced its servers to Shanghai. AI cloud providers Applied Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:APLD) and IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN) each lost more than 8% after a report that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is reviewing its contracts with so-called neoclouds and plans to work with fewer of them. Optical component makers Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) and Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) each slid 8.3% as the selloff spread across AI hardware.
Modine Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:MOD) soared 30.7% after a report that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) is in talks to buy the data center cooling maker.
Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NU) jumped 11.3% after third-quarter net income hit a record $1.1 billion, up 31%. Revenue of $5.82 billion topped the $5.68 billion estimate, while earnings of 22 cents a share matched forecasts.
Shift4 Payments Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) rose 6.3%, leading a rally in payment stocks alongside Toast Inc. (NYSE:TOST) and Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN).
Almonty Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:ALM) gained 5.7% after third-quarter results confirmed that its Sangdong tungsten mine in South Korea produced its first concentrate in September, though earnings of 12 cents a share missed the 16-cent estimate. Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) added 5.9% with no company-specific news.
Read Also: AMD Stock Rallies as 'Godfather of AI' Jensen Huang Leaves Nvidia
Looking Ahead
No major companies report after Friday’s close. Nvidia reports on Tuesday.
Friday’s Russell 1000 Top Gainers
| Name | % Change |
|---|---|
| Modine Manufacturing Co. | +30.72% |
| Nu Holdings Ltd. | +11.28% |
| Shift4 Payments Inc. | +6.28% |
| Viking Therapeutics Inc. | +5.88% |
| Almonty Industries Inc. | +5.70% |
Friday’s Russell 1000 Top Losers
| Name | % Change |
|---|---|
| Advanced Micro Devices Inc. | -10.45% |
| Applied Digital Corp. | -8.68% |
| Dell Technologies Inc. | -8.37% |
| Coherent Corp. | -8.33% |
| Fabrinet | -8.29% |
Photo: Shutterstock