Stocks were searching for direction on Wednesday, as many high-flying chip names booked significant losses, weighing down the major indexes. Wall Street was digesting a cooler-than-expected producer price index print and another batch of quarterly earnings reports.
Micron Technology sank 11%. The IPO of a Chinese memory-chip rival might be testing the nerves of shareholders. ChangXin Memory Technologies will start taking orders Thursday for a listing on Shanghai's Nasdaq-like STAR Market. CXMT is set to raise $8.55 billion, nearly double its initial target, with an implied market capitalization of around $85.5 billion.
PayPal jumped 16%, paring a big premarket move, after a report said Stripe and Advent International had teamed up on a bid valuing the payments company at more than $53 billion. Advent declined to comment, and PayPal and Stripe declined to comment to Barron's. PayPal was leading the S&P 500.
ASML declined 1.8% after the Dutch chip-equipment maker raised its annual sales guidance again and said it would produce more of its machines as the artificial-intelligence boom boosts demand.
Johnson & Johnson fell 0.8% even after the drugmaker raised its full-year outlook based strength in its oncology business. Investors may have been fretting about weaker sales of Crohn's disease treatment Stelara, which had been a major moneymaker for the company.
BlackRock gained 6.8% after the asset manager's second-quarter earnings and assets under management beat analysts' expectations.
Morgan Stanley moved 1% lower after the bank reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of $3.46 a share, blowing past Wall Street forecasts thanks to a surge in investment banking revenue. Both of Morgan Stanley's primary businesses, investment banking and wealth management, delivered robust results.
SpaceX fell 2.5% to $132.74, dropping below its initial public offering price of $135. Shares, after a great start, have had a tough go over the past few days. Elon Musk's rocket and AI company needs some good news to turn things around. That could come as soon as Thursday, when SpaceX is set to test its huge, fully reusable Starship for the thirteenth time.
SK Hynix dropped 13% to $168.05 as investors locked in profit following Tuesday's 27% surge. The South Korean memory-chip maker's American depositary receipts were falling even after SK Hynix's South Korean stock closed 8.8% higher on Wednesday.
IBM fell 2.3%, having tanked 25% on Tuesday following dismal preliminary results.
Sandisk dropped 15%, making it one of the worst performing S&P 500 components. Western Digital was down 12%, while optical networking names Coherent and Lumentum fell 9.1% and 12%, respectively.
Intel declined 7.8%, Marvell fell 9.4%, and Nvidia was down 2.6%.
Lucid Group jumped 19% after tumbling 16% on Tuesday. Shares of the electric-vehicle maker sank in the previous session after a report suggested the company was considering a bankruptcy filing. Lucid strongly denied the allegation.
Pentair sank 16%, placing it at the bottom of the S&P 500. The global water-treatment company announced a severe cut to full-year guidance and the unexpected resignation of its chief financial officer.
Aehr Test Systems surged 23%. The designer, manufacturer, and seller of equipment used in the semiconductor industry reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue. Management guided fiscal 2027 revenue to $140 million at the midpoint. William Blair analysts expect AI processors to represent roughly 70% of revenue with silicon photonics between 15% to 20% of total revenue.
Conagra Brands added 0.6% after the food-packaging company reduced its annual dividend and issued profit guidance that came in below Wall Street expectations.
United Airlines rose 0.3%. The carrier reports second-quarter earnings after the closing bell. Delta Air Lines failed to inspire the sector when it posted earnings on Friday and rising fuel prices have caused another bout of turbulence for airline stocks.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services declined 1.7%. The logistics company also reports second-quarter financial results late Wednesday.
Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com and Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2026 13:01 ET (17:01 GMT)
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