Tech tumbles as momentum stocks run into a blowout jobs report and a wave of profit-taking
The AI trade is under some pressure, taking prices back like... a few days. President Donald Trump is not a fan of the price action.
Broadcom threatened to derail the AI trade Wednesday evening. Coming into its earnings on a scorching run, it wasn’t wildly surprising that — on the back of results that were solid but failed to give any real excuses to incrementally bid the stock — the stock shed 13% yesterday, dragging memory stocks down with it.
But there’s more widespread selling in the tech space this morning. Some will blame Broadcom entirely, but at the time of writing, those earnings were more than 40 hours ago. We’ve had plenty of time to freak out by now.
Without knowing why any stock does anything (except that sellers are more motivated than buyers today), it seems more likely to be a combination of factors this morning.
We had a blowout jobs report, which sent yields spiking at 8:30 a.m. ET, slashing the implied odds of a rate cut later this year and potentially weighing on valuations of what are perceived to be riskier assets.
For what it’s worth, President Trump isn’t a fan of the market’s reaction, posting on X:
Pivot!
Perhaps more plausible, however, is that there’s simply a general sense that momentum stocks and winners are a touch overextended. Until very recently, winners like Micron, Sandisk, and Marvell Technology, to name but a few, have been ripping relentlessly higher. As of 10:45 a.m., momentum — by far the best-performing risk factor in equities in 2026 — finds itself at the bottom of the table, while low volatility, which has been crushed year to date, enjoys a rare reprieve.
For the market more generally, the moves put the historic weekly run of gains at risk; the S&P 500 is down 1.05%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is off more than 2.2%. The S&P 500 had been shooting for its 10th straight week of gains.
