Intel and AMD each dropped 4% while NVIDIA held flat, backed by China's H200 import easing and analyst Vivek Arya's "compelling opportunity" call. Broadcom dropped 5% and SMH slid 1%, with elevated YTD gains across chip names giving traders a natural profit-taking window ahead of NVIDIA's earnings. Don't wait: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just revealed his top 10 AI stocks.
See the full list FREE now. Even with the NASDAQ 100 up slightly on the day, chip stocks remain under pressure Wednesday morning and afternoon. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) stock is down 4% to $93.12 in midday trading, and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) stock is falling 4% to $465.
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) stock is dropping 5% to $361.73, while NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock is unchanged at $219.54. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) is slipping 1.22% to $562.59 as sector-specific selling overwhelms a broader tape that turned green. So, what's going on here?
The Treasury Department said it would increase buybacks of long-dated government debt "by at least double" for securities from the 10-year to 30-year sector. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 5 basis points to 4.65%, and the 30-year yield declined 8 basis points to 5.2% after hitting its highest level since 2007 earlier this week. Falling long-end yields typically relieve pressure on high-multiple growth stocks.
Chip stocks weakening into that relief points to AI-hardware-specific positioning across portfolios. President Trump also paused 50% tariffs on Canadian goods for three days, moving the start date to August 22, citing a deal subject to finalization of documents. NVIDIA has two catalysts working in its favor that the rest of the sector lacks.
The Financial Times reported that China allowed small shipments of NVIDIA's H200 chips into the country, with ByteDance and Tencent each receiving about 10,000 H200 processors in recent weeks. China had curbed H200 imports to promote its domestic chipmakers, and regulators have started easing some restrictions. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) analyst Vivek Arya wrote that NVIDIA stock trades at a 40% to 50% discount to AI compute peers on an enterprise value-to-free-cash-flow basis, and at a 31% to 36% discount to the S&P 500.
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