U.S. Stocks Midday: Tesla Drops 8%, Rivian Jumps 8%, Memory Stocks Continue to Slide
N.R. Finch
US stocks split sharply Thursday midday — Tesla fell 8% despite a big delivery beat, the storage ETF is heading for its worst week ever, and money rotated into healthcare and defensives.
Tesla crushed its delivery target — so why is it down?
Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2, far above Wall Street's 406,600 estimate.
The stock still dropped 8%. This means → the market's worry has moved past near-term sales; delivery beats no longer outweigh deeper concerns.
Rivian moved the opposite way, up 8%, after raising its full-year delivery guidance to 65,000–70,000 from 62,000–67,000.
Why are storage stocks in free fall?
The Roundhill storage ETF (DRAM) fell another 8% Thursday after dropping nearly 11% the prior session — on track for its worst week on record.
Sandisk slid 14%, Western Digital and Seagate each fell 10%, Micron dropped over 6%.
In plain terms = the entire storage sector is in a rare, across-the-board panic sell-off with no major name spared.
AI infrastructure names are sliding too — who is hit hardest?
Semiconductor test firm Teradyne fell 13%, the steepest decline in the group.
Corning — specialty glass and fiber optics — dropped 10%; photonics firms Lumentum and Coherent each lost about 9%.
This reflects a cooling of enthusiasm for AI infrastructure plays; capital is pulling back from the "picks-and-shovels" layer across the board.
Why is healthcare rallying against the tape?
CMS proposed raising 2027 hospital and outpatient surgery-center payment rates by 2.4%, lifting healthcare-services stocks directly.
Universal Health Services gained 7%, HCA Healthcare rose 5%, and the S&P 500 healthcare sector added over 2%.
Healthcare payments software firm Waystar jumped 9% after KeyBanc initiated coverage with an overweight rating and a $30 target — roughly 40% above the prior close.
What other single-stock moves stand out?
Defense-tech firm AeroVironment surged 11% on a $500 million U.S. Army contract for counter-drone capabilities.
Blue Owl Capital rose over 4% — Q2 redemption requests in its private-credit fund came in at $4.7 billion, down from $5.4 billion in Q1, easing pressure, though the firm will keep its 5% quarterly redemption cap.
Apple bucked the broader tech sell-off, climbing nearly 5% for a potential third straight gain; Palantir added 3% after DA Davidson upgraded it to buy, with the stock on pace for a 15% weekly gain.
Bitcoin and big tech — heading in opposite directions?
Bitcoin topped $61,000, up over 2%, pulling Strategy up 7% and Coinbase up 3%.
Robinhood rose over 2% after Mizuho raised its target to $130, calling it a potential "hyperscaler" in cross-border online brokerage.
Alphabet fell about 2% after a European court upheld the EU's 2018 antitrust fine of €4.1 billion (roughly $4.67 billion) against Google. Italian tech firm Bending Spoons dropped over 12% on its second day of trading, having surged about 40% on its debut.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.