Dow Tops 52,000 While Chips Get Crushed on Rate-Hike Fears: Stock Market Today

MarketDash

Oct 15, 5:17 PM • 1 hour ago

Dow Tops 52,000 While Chips Get Crushed on Rate-Hike Fears: Stock Market Today

A hot inflation print turned the Fed's next move into a coin flip, sending chip and AI-hardware stocks tumbling while the Dow cruised past 52,000 and gold bounced back.

Key Points

September producer prices rose 6.3% year over year, the biggest gain since 2022 and well above the 5.5% economists expected, turning a Fed rate hike in two weeks into roughly a coin flip.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.9% to 52,080 while the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.6%, as investors rotated out of tech and into defensives like Walmart, Visa and McDonald's.
Global chip stocks got hammered: South Korea's Kospi fell 8%, Samsung dropped 9%, SK Hynix lost 11%, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF headed for its eighth straight down session.
Falling Treasury yields lifted rate-sensitive groups, with homebuilders up 3.6%, retail up 3.3% and gold miners up 2.9% as spot gold rebounded toward $4,141 an ounce.
Penske Automotive led Russell 1000 gainers, up about 8.5% on a $16.3 billion take-private deal, while Vicor plunged 13.8% amid the broader AI-infrastructure selloff.

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U.S. equities split right down the middle Thursday, and the dividing line was simple: anything tied to artificial intelligence got sold, and everything else got bought.

The trigger was Wednesday's inflation data, which landed like a cold shower on the Fed's dovish hopes. September producer prices rose 6.3% year over year, the biggest gain since 2022 and comfortably above the 5.5% economists had penciled in. A Fed hike at the meeting in two weeks is now seen as roughly a coin flip. That is not the backdrop anyone in the chip business wanted heading into the weekend.

AI spending fears rippled through the global chip complex overnight. South Korea's Kospi fell 8%, with Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF) down 9% and SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ: SKHY) 11% lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 5%. Seoul-listed shares of SK Hynix have now lost nearly a third of their value over the past seven sessions, the worst slump since November 2008. That is not a typo, and it is not a small number.

Oil edged lower. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 0.5% to $94.61 a barrel, while Brent crude eased 0.6% to $105.41.

Treasuries rallied as growth fears resumed:

The 10-year Treasury yield fell about 8 basis points to 5.10%
The 2-year yield dipped about 3 basis points to 4.77%, and
The 30-year yield declined about 10 basis points to 5.43%.

By midday Thursday, the divergence across U.S. equity markets was stark: defensives and value held up while technology bore the brunt of the selling.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to around 7,726, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9%, or about 459 points, to 52,080. Walmart Inc. (NASDAQ: WMT) led the Dow strength, up 2.3%, followed by Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), up 2.0%, and McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD), up 2%.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.6% to about 29,783 as chipmakers sold off. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NYSE: SOXX) is on track for its eighth straight session of declines.

Gold rebounded as yields eased. The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) rose 1.1%, with spot gold near $4,141 an ounce, still down about 2.9% for the month.

Thursday's Performance In Major US Indices

According to the market data platform:

The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE: IWM) gained 0.7%.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: VOO) edged up 0.0%.
The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE: DIA) rose 0.9%.
The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) slid 0.6%.

Healthcare And Housing Rally As Chip Rout Drags Tech

Among S&P 500 sectors:
The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLV) led with a 2.6% gain
Followed by the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLB) (+1.4%)
The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLY) (+1.4%)
The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLP) (+1.2%) and
The Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLC) (+1.2%).

The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLRE) added 0.9% and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLF) gained 0.8%.

On the downside, the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLE) fell 1.3% as crude slipped, and the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLK) lost 1.3%.

The Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLI) declined 0.4% and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLU) slipped 0.4%.

Falling Yields Lift Rate-Sensitive Industries

The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (BATS: ITB) jumped 3.6% and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSE: XRT) gained 3.3%.

The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) climbed 2.9% alongside bullion, and the iShares Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ: IBB) rose 2.7%.

Among individual movers, Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: PAG) led the Russell 1000 gainers with a rise of about 8.5% after agreeing a deal with its two largest shareholders to go private at a $16.3 billion enterprise value.

Quantinuum Inc. (NASDAQ: QNT) jumped 10.3%, Karman Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KRMN) rose 10.0%, TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) gained 9.0% and Etsy, Inc. (NYSE: ETSY) added 7.8%.

On the losing side, Rocket Lab Corporation (NASDAQ: RKLB) sank 10.6% after delaying the debut of its medium-lift rocket.

Vicor Corporation (NASDAQ: VICR) plunged 13.8%, the biggest Russell 1000 decliner, while Sanmina Corporation (NASDAQ: SANM) fell 8.2%, Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: AEIS) dropped 7.9% and MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTSI) lost 7.6%.

They fell with the broader AI-infrastructure and chip sell-off. Vicor is due to report third-quarter results on Oct. 20.

Elsewhere in AI hardware, Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) slid 7.4%.

Thursday's Russell 1000 Top Gainers

Thursday's Russell 1000 Top Losers

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