- Even with the Dow up more than 140 points Monday, CNBC’s tally shows how deep the tech pullback runs: the Nasdaq-100 is off 6.66% from the high it hit earlier this month, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF is down 20% from its June high, the iShares Semiconductor ETF is 25% below its high and the Roundhill Memory ETF is off 41% from its June high.
- Among the leaders, AMD is almost 20% below its Oct. 6 high, Nvidia is down 11% from its Oct. 6 high and Amazon is 13% under its Aug. 3 high. Communication services hit lows not seen since June 2025, sitting 15.5% below its May high and flat over the past year, with AppLovin and T-Mobile at 52-week lows.
- Energy is moving the other way: Chevron and ExxonMobil both hit all-time highs on Monday. Abroad, the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF fell almost 20% on the first trading day after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won re-election and is now 30% below its 52-week high.
- CNBC flagged a Goldman Sachs note saying the share of US firms that have adopted AI in regular business functions now shows a statistically significant negative correlation with employment growth and a positive correlation with unemployment, a theme to watch in Tuesday’s earnings from Coca-Cola and Royal Caribbean.
What Happened?
CNBC’s Stocks @ Night preview laid out Tuesday’s key market stories after Monday’s session. Coca-Cola reports in the morning after rising almost 13% in three months and hitting a new high last week, while Royal Caribbean reports with its stock down 4% in three months and 21% below its February high. Hormel Foods shares are down 17% in three months and 21% off their June high, and its CEO John Ghingo is set to appear on CNBC. Jim Cramer also warned on “Mad Money” that “the debt and equity markets are running out of money,” citing Amazon’s bond offerings, Meta’s stock offering, SK Hynix, Oracle, Intel and Alphabet, though he stressed, “I’m not calling a top.”
Why It Matters?
The numbers show the AI unwind has been far harsher in chips and memory than in the broad indexes, with the memory ETF’s 41% drop more than six times the Nasdaq-100’s 6.66% pullback (Lumida calculation). Meanwhile, record highs for Chevron and Exxon show energy leading the market while tech pulls back. The Goldman finding linking AI adoption to weaker employment growth adds a macro angle: if AI is displacing jobs, it could weigh on consumer spending, which this week’s consumer earnings will help test.
What’s Next?
Investors will watch Coca-Cola, Royal Caribbean and Hormel for a read on how the American consumer is eating, drinking and cruising, and whether job concerns tied to AI come up on the calls. In tech, the key question is whether Monday’s revived AI enthusiasm can lift chip and memory stocks off their deep drawdowns, while Cramer flagged rising rates as a risk that would make capital even scarcer for companies raising money for AI.
Affected Tickers and Coins: NVDA, AMD, AMZN, CVX, XOM, KO, RCL, SMH, SOXX
Source: CNBC
