Intel Leads Global Chip Rout as Market Valuation Losses Surpass $3.5 Trillion
Intel shares dropped nearly 9% on November 2, pushing the company’s valuation to less than half of its worth at the end of September and deepening a broader market collapse that has erased roughly $3.5 trillion from chip and memory stocks since October 6, according to Yahoo Finance calculations.
The latest decline follows an 29% plunge on October 30, which marked the company’s worst single-day drop since 1974. Yahoo Finance reported that Intel closed down 8.80% at $59.97 on November 2 before ticking up slightly in after-hours trading.
Memory and Storage Sectors Suffer Heavy Losses
The tech sector sell-off extended well beyond Intel during the Monday session. Micron, Sandisk, Seagate, and Western Digital fell between 6% and 8%. Marvell dropped even further as it agreed to acquire Lumentum in a $115 billion deal, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Nvidia held up better than most major hardware firms, though it remained down about 16% since October 6. Meanwhile, chip stocks declined alongside the broader semiconductor sector, while SpaceX shares ticked higher.
Analyst Perspectives on the Market Bottom
Market observers hold mixed views on whether the semiconductor rout has reached its floor. Adam Johnson, founder of the Bullseye Brief and portfolio manager of the American Ingenuity Fund, argued that the prior week’s heavy selling had already priced in the worst-case scenario. “The market kitchen-sinked it,” Johnson told Yahoo Finance. “They discounted everything that could go wrong. And when you do that, typically that’s when you see a bottom.”
John Chambers, founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures and Cisco’s former CEO, cautioned that the market recovery will not benefit all firms equally. “There will be major train wrecks,” Chambers stated to Yahoo Finance. “And rising tide does not raise all boats. I would not bet against Nvidia.”
Historical Precedents and Upcoming Earnings
Jeff Hirsch, editor of the Stock Trader’s Almanac and creator of the term “Octoberphobia,” purchased shares during the October 30 sell-off. Historical data shows that semiconductor stocks have climbed in all eight midterm cycles since 1994 when measured from the final October close through June, though similar periods in 2002 and 2018 experienced initial drops of approximately 11%.
The market is now looking toward Advanced Micro Devices, which is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results on Tuesday after the market close, coinciding with the midterm voting cycle.
