U.S. Stocks Midday: Micron Drops Over 10% Leading Tech Selloff, AMC Plunges 25%, IBM Bucks Trend With 4% Gain
Taylor Wilson
Semiconductors sold off hard midday — Micron fell over 10% to lead tech lower, AMC plunged 25% on a dilutive stock offering, and IBM bucked the trend with a 4% gain on an upgrade, leaving the market sharply divided.
Why did semiconductors become today's biggest drag?
Micron (MU) dropped over 10%, its worst session since June 5. Memory-chip peers fell in lockstep: Sandisk down 11%, Marvell down 8%.
This means → the selling was not company-specific but a broad de-risking across the entire memory-chip space.
The open question: has this sell-off fully priced in the fundamental pressure, or is there more downside ahead into the close and coming sessions?
What drove IBM's 4% rally against the tide?
IBM rose over 4%, one of the few bright spots in tech. Two catalysts: JPMorgan upgraded the stock to Overweight, and President Trump signed an executive order to fast-track U.S. quantum-computing development.
JPMorgan's core thesis: the software business keeps driving higher-quality recurring revenue, margins, and cash flow.
In plain terms = investors bought IBM during a broad tech rout because its revenue mix is shifting from hardware toward "subscription-style" software — more resilient through cycles.
AMC crashed 25% — what happened?
AMC announced a definitive agreement with institutional investors to sell 95.3 million shares at roughly $200 million, with the stock's last close at just $2.76.
This means → nearly 100 million new shares are hitting the market, sharply diluting existing holders' stakes (dilution — more shares outstanding, less equity per share).
For retail shareholders, the math is blunt: same number of shares in hand, but the pie is now sliced into far more pieces.
What signals are the other fallers sending?
Primoris Services fell 22%: cut full-year guidance on cost overruns and delays in renewable-energy projects, and its COO departed — operations and leadership both under stress simultaneously.
Carnival (CCL) dropped 6%: Q3 guidance came in below consensus — adjusted EPS about $1.35 (vs. $1.42 expected), adjusted EBITDA about $2.88 billion (vs. $3.04 billion expected).
Cerebras Systems slipped ~2% ahead of its first quarterly report since going public; Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore wrote he expects "no major surprises" but sees "significant upside" in its differentiated architecture.
What story are the gainers telling?
Edgewell Personal Care surged over 14%: Bloomberg reported the company rejected a $30-per-share unsolicited bid from PE firm Yellow Wood Partners, with the board deeming the price too low. This reflects a market bet that a higher offer may follow.
Zeta Global rose 7%: announced a partnership with Palantir to rebuild its data cloud on Palantir's Foundry platform; Palantir itself dipped slightly on the day.
SpaceX climbed ~6% intraday, bouncing after three straight sessions of losses — including a 16% single-day drop on Monday — that briefly pushed its price below the $150 IPO-day level.
Accenture gained ~2%, boosting its share-buyback program by $2 billion to a total exceeding $7 billion.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.