A semiconductor wafer (file photo; not a specific company’s product). Photo: Syced, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Semiconductor stocks led Thursday’s Wall Street plunge, with Advanced Micro Devices down 15.08% to $415.06 as of about 12:50 p.m. ET on Yahoo Finance chart data. The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 10.56% to 9,184.24, and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) dropped 9.88% to $454.46. Memory and storage names were even harder hit: Sandisk sank 19.61% to $833.92, Western Digital fell 16.78%, Seagate lost 15.06%, and Micron Technology declined 14.73% to $678.11. Nvidia traded at $182.67, down 8.72%.
Why chips are at the center of today’s selloff
AP News said another wipeout in stocks tied to AI data-center buildouts was overwhelming the stock market and more than erasing Wednesday’s post-election gains. Yahoo Finance reported the semiconductor index diving about 11% as Nvidia, Micron and other chip names sank, helping drag the Nasdaq Composite down roughly 5% midday. MarketWatch separately described heavy losses across AI-linked memory and storage shares, citing Sandisk down about 20% and AMD, Micron, Western Digital and Seagate each off more than 15% in Thursday trading.
Reporting across AP, Yahoo Finance and 24/7 Wall St. linked the move to investors reassessing AI infrastructure risk after Democrats’ midterm victories, including potential tighter rules and local resistance to new data centers. That policy debate landed on a sector already digesting mixed company news: Qualcomm’s handset outlook, detailed in The Boston Report’s morning Qualcomm stock story, remained a separate pressure point, with Qualcomm down 10.92% to $154.28 at the same midday stamp.
By the numbers: the chip tape at midday
Yahoo Finance prices as of about 12:50 p.m. ET put the damage in hard dollars and percents. AMD’s $73.72 decline left the stock at $415.06 versus a prior close of $488.78. Micron’s $117.12 drop took shares to $678.11 from $795.23. Broadcom fell 8.39% to $298.16, and Intel slipped 7.43% to $53.94. Oracle, often traded as an AI-infrastructure proxy, was down 7.70% to $114.21. Tesla, which midday reports also grouped with risk-off tech selling, fell 11.24% to $341.91.
Index damage: Nasdaq near correction, SOX double-digit red
Chip losses translated directly into index math. At ~12:50 p.m. ET the Nasdaq Composite was down 4.92% at 24,470.88, the S&P 500 was off 3.71% at 7,403.13, and the Dow was down 2.83% at 51,847.74 — a sharp reversal from the mixed stock market open when the Dow was still higher. Yahoo Finance said the Nasdaq’s roughly 5% slide put it on track to close in a correction. Technology sector ETF XLK fell 7.06%, underscoring how concentrated the selling was in growth and semiconductors versus more defensive groups.
24/7 Wall St., writing earlier Thursday, said AMD was down about 13% in morning trade even after recent strong results, and that Nvidia was lower as traders priced political risk around AI spending. Those earlier prints have since deepened: TBR’s midday Yahoo Finance snapshot shows AMD’s loss near 15% and Nvidia near 9%. TradingNews similarly described the PHLX Semiconductor Index’s roughly 11% plunge as among its worst sessions since March 2020.
What is next for the semiconductor complex
Near-term catalysts sit outside any single ticker. Friday’s October jobs report will reset rate expectations for the Federal Reserve and could either amplify or interrupt today’s risk-off move. The 10-year Treasury yield was softer at 4.839% around 12:35 p.m. ET on Yahoo Finance, while WTI crude held a 2.68% gain near $90.48 — a mix that keeps inflation and growth debates alive alongside AI policy headlines.
For Boston-area readers following national business news, the semiconductor rout matters because chip and AI-capex stocks have been central to 2026 market leadership. Memory suppliers and GPU makers are tightly linked to data-center build schedules; any sustained slowdown in that pipeline would show up first in names like Micron, Sandisk, Nvidia and AMD before it fully registers in broader U.S. economy data. Watch whether SOX can claw back from its double-digit midday deficit into the close, and whether AppLovin’s 27.80% surge — a rare large gainer on strong guidance — remains an isolated earnings outlier.
Until then, the verified midday tape is unambiguous: AMD −15.08%, SOX −10.56%, Sandisk −19.61%, Micron −14.73%, Nvidia −8.72%, with the Nasdaq Composite off nearly 5% as of about 12:50 p.m. ET on Nov. 5, 2026.
Sources
- Yahoo Finance chart API — AMD, NVDA, MU, SNDK, SOX, SMH and peers (~12:50 p.m. ET, Nov. 5, 2026)
- Yahoo Finance — live markets: SOX dive; Nasdaq correction track (Nov. 5, 2026)
- AP News — AI sell-off and S&P 500 slide (Nov. 5, 2026)
- MarketWatch — Micron, Sandisk and other AI stocks falling hard (Nov. 5, 2026)
- 24/7 Wall St. — AMD/Nvidia morning chip-rout context (Nov. 5, 2026)
Additional sources
- The Boston Report — Qualcomm handset outlook (Nov. 5, 2026)
- TradingNews — SOX worst-day framing and midday path (Nov. 5, 2026)
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