Chip Stocks Sink and Meta Slides as AI Selloff Hits the Nasdaq; P&G Jumps

It's Thursday, October twenty-second. This is Trade and Ticker, the lunch report. Here's your midday check on U.S. stocks.

Three things still matter into the afternoon. First, chip and A-I stocks are in a steep selloff, and the Nasdaq is down more than two percent. Second, investors are moving into safer corners, like consumer staples, health care, and Treasury bonds. Third, Western Digital and Newmont report after the close.

Here's the picture at midday. This is a tech selloff, not a broad one. Just before one o'clock Eastern, the Nasdaq is down about two and four-tenths percent. The S-and-P is down about one and a quarter percent. And the Dow is nearly flat, down only about sixty points. The Russell two thousand is down about three-tenths of a percent. That's a sharp turn from Wednesday, when the Nasdaq led the market higher.

Technology is the worst group in the S-and-P, down more than three percent, and communication services is down about one and a half. On the other side, consumer staples are the best group, up nearly three percent. Utilities and health care are each up more than one percent.

The chip stocks are taking the hardest hit. The Philadelphia chip index is down more than six percent. Lam Research is down about eleven percent after its outlook for this quarter fell short of high hopes. The company said supply limits kept its forecast lower than it would have been. Intel and A-M-D are each down more than seven percent, Micron is down about six, and Nvidia is down about four. Memory and storage names are lower too, with Seagate down about nine percent.

Meta is down more than seven percent, even after revenue beat forecasts last night. Investors are focused on how much more it plans to spend on A-I, and on a new class of non-voting stock that could help pay for it. Tesla is down almost two percent after cutting this year's spending plan to about twenty billion dollars. SpaceX is down almost seven percent, giving back much of Wednesday's jump. Amazon is down about four percent, and Alphabet and Microsoft are lower too, ahead of their reports next week.

Now the winners. Procter and Gamble is up more than six percent after sales rose four percent to about twenty-three-point-three billion dollars, beating forecasts. Spotify is up almost nine percent on a stronger revenue outlook for the holiday quarter. Lockheed Martin is up more than five and a half percent after raising its forecast for the year. The railroad C-S-X is up almost seven percent after beating forecasts. Blackstone is up more than six and a half percent after its earnings topped estimates. American Airlines fell in early trading on a bigger loss forecast for the year, but now it's up almost three percent.

Now oil and rates. Oil is higher again on Middle East tensions. U.S. crude is up almost two percent, near ninety-nine dollars a barrel, and Brent is up almost three percent, near one hundred twelve dollars. Bonds are rallying as investors look for safety. The ten-year Treasury yield has dropped below five percent for the first time in nearly a month, to just under five percent. Weekly jobless claims also fell, a sign the job market is holding up.

After the close today, the big one is Western Digital. Its stock is down more than seven percent today with the rest of the storage group, so its outlook could set the tone for memory and storage names tomorrow. Gold miner Newmont also reports. Its shares are down more than four percent today.

Watch three things into the close. First, whether the chip index can cut its six percent loss, or the selling spreads. Second, whether the ten-year yield stays below five percent. Third, whether oil keeps climbing toward one hundred dollars for U.S. crude.

That's the midday picture. We'll be back this evening with a company deep dive on the day's biggest stories. Thanks for listening. I'm Trade and Ticker.