Chip stocks slide on AI capex worries; flash memory names sink

Huo Xing Finance reports: U.S. stocks finished mixed on Monday, July 28. Data from BIT (bit.com) showed the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%, the S&P 500 edged up 0.02%, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.18%. Technology shares were weighed down by a broad selloff in semiconductors, offsetting support from a sharp drop in oil prices. With a heavy slate of earnings due this week, investors stayed cautious, focusing on the logic behind AI-related capital spending and shifting competitive dynamics across the chip industry. In macro headlines, U.S. President Trump said he paused plans for airstrikes on Iran to allow room for negotiations, sending international oil prices sharply lower. WTI crude fell more than 8% on the day, its biggest one-day drop in nearly two months. The major indexes opened higher, with the Nasdaq briefly up nearly 1%, before reversing as renewed semiconductor concerns and AI infrastructure financing risks resurfaced. The Nasdaq 100 was down more than 1% intraday before trimming losses into the close. Semiconductors were the main drag, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down more than 5% at one point. Global chip shares were hit after Chinese companies began mass production of domestically developed DUV (deep ultraviolet) lithography equipment. Separately, NVIDIA's proposed business partnership worth more than $500 billion with SK Group, along with a plan to provide $250 billion in financial guarantees for OpenAI's data center projects, reignited debate over the durability of the AI capex cycle and potential financing risk for suppliers. Major chipmakers fell broadly: ASML dropped 5.80%, AMD fell 5.17%, NVIDIA slid 4.99%, Lam Research (LRCX) declined 4.46%, and Applied Materials (AMAT) lost 3.61%. Memory names also came under pressure after ChangXin Memory Technologies surged 466% in its first day of trading to become China's most valuable A-share-listed company, fueling expectations that China could accelerate self-sufficiency in memory chips. Flash and memory-related stocks retreated: SanDisk (SNDK) tumbled 11.02%, SK Hynix (SKHY) fell 7.47%, Western Digital (WDC) declined 4.21%, Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 4.07%, and Micron Technology (MU) slid 2.25%. Optical communications stocks weakened as well: Lumentum (LITE) fell 6.69%, Coherent (COHR) dropped 3.93%, Ciena (CIEN) declined 3.52%, Astera Labs (ALAB) fell 3.11%, and Marvell Technology (MRVL) slid 2.61%.