Alphabet, Palantir, AMD, Micron, and Other Tech Stocks in Focus Today -- Barrons.com

By Callum Keown

Tech stocks are on track to finish the week as they started it -- badly.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has fallen for five consecutive days, declining more than 5% over that period--its largest five-day drop since December 2022. The streak looks set to extend to six as futures on the Nasdaq 100 were 0.5% lower early Friday amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.

It was another tough start for the U.S. chip sector, after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s cut its growth forecast for the industry leading to losses in the previous session. Advanced Micro Devices stock was 0.8% down, Micron Technology fell 1.4%, Intel declined 0.8%, and Nvidia was 0.8% lower ahead of the open Friday.

TSMC put its reduced outlook primarily down to weakness in the automotive segment. Therefore, those exposed to autos chips were hardest hit -- ON Semiconductor fell 2.7% after catching a downgrade from Exane BNP Paribas, and NXP Semiconductors declined 0.7% in premarket trading.

A broader tech malaise seems to have set in as Palantir Technologies -- on its own five-day losing run -- declined 1.3%, SoFI Technologies dropped 1.3%, Amazon was 0.9% lower, and Microsoft fell 0.4% ahead of the open.

Alphabet stock was also down 0.8%. Google's proposed replacements for cookies need to do more to protect consumer privacy, the U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office wrote in a draft report, according to The Wall Street Journal. The privacy regulator said Google's proposed technology--Privacy Sandbox--leaves gaps that can be exploited by advertisers to identify users.

"Privacy Sandbox technologies are designed to deliver meaningful privacy improvements and provide the industry with privacy-preserving alternatives to cross-site tracking," a Google spokesman told the Journal.

Netflix stock fell more than 6% despite the streaming giant reporting strong subscriber growth in its first-quarter earnings late Thursday. The company's revenue guidance fell short of analysts' estimates.

Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@barrons.com

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April 19, 2024 07:43 ET (11:43 GMT)

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