The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 3.8 per cent on Friday 16 October to close at 11,137.29, its eighth straight losing session. By this publication's count from daily closing data, the index last fell eight sessions in a row in October 2008, which makes this its longest losing run since then, as 24/7 Wall St. reported. The index is 15.7 per cent below its 6 October close of 13,217.82. The Nasdaq 100 fell 2.5 per cent on Friday.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF, which tracks a similar basket, closed at $493.39, down 4.1 per cent on the day and 16.3 per cent from its 6 October close of $589.45. It is about 25 per cent below its intraday high of $655.95, set on 22 June, and still up about 64 per cent for 2026. A fund up by nearly two-thirds can lose a sixth of its value in eight sessions and still be well ahead.
Who fell most
On Friday AMD fell 5.95 per cent, Intel 5.79, Micron 5.63, Marvell 5.56, KLA 5.00, Lam Research 4.87, Applied Materials 4.82 and Broadcom 4.52. Nvidia fell 1.43 per cent. AMD is the clearest case: its $528.75 close is 18.6 per cent below its 6 October record close of $649.42, yet the stock is still up about 147 per cent this year. 24/7 Wall St. puts it at 199 times trailing earnings.
The equipment makers fell hard across the run. Applied Materials closed 22.8 per cent below its 6 October level, and Lam Research and KLA were each about 16 to 21 per cent lower, by this publication's arithmetic. 24/7 Wall St. calls equipment makers "the most exposed part of the chain," because chipmakers can quickly delay factory builds when their own customers slow orders. That is consistent with the caution in ASML's results this week, though one company's order book does not settle the sector's.
The explanations on offer
Three are cited. The first is oil and rates. U.S. crude futures closed at $99.02 a barrel on Friday, up from $89.44 on 6 October, and the 10-year Treasury yield closed at 5.10 per cent. The argument is that dearer oil raises inflation and the odds of another Federal Reserve rate increase, which hurts richly valued growth stocks. Yahoo Finance reported on 15 October that semiconductor shares fell further on Wednesday after a hotter-than-expected September inflation reading.
The second is a financing worry. The same Yahoo report says memory makers Micron and SK Hynix dropped earlier in the week on worries over Chinese competition, and that CoreWeave fell more than 16 per cent after a chart of neocloud providers' bond yields circulated on social media, which highlighted concern about its debt-heavy balance sheet.
The third is the size of the bet on AI spending. Bank of America's Sebastian Raedler is quoted by 24/7 Wall St. as saying consensus forecasts for hyperscaler capital spending have risen "from $330 billion in early 2025 to $1 trillion," and warning that "most major capital cycles of the past have ended in disappointment."
Why 2008 is the wrong comparison, probably
A streak last seen in 2008 invites the comparison, and 24/7 Wall St. rejects it: the 2008 selling was tied to a credit crisis, while this one it attributes to oil, rates and doubts about AI spending. The data are only partly reassuring. The VIX, a gauge of expected volatility, closed at 16.46 on Thursday, well below the level of 20 often read as high fear, but it jumped 21 per cent on Friday to 19.99. Calm on Thursday was not calm on Friday.
The ETF was also already off its peak before the run began. Its 6 October close was about 10 per cent below the June high, so the slide since then is a second leg, not the first.
What to watch
The streak ends with one up day, so the first test is Monday's session. The more consequential one is the next round of hyperscaler earnings, which 24/7 Wall St. says will show whether the largest buyers' spending plans hold. A cut would hit the equipment makers first. A rise would not by itself fix the rate and oil problem behind the selling.
Sources
- 24/7 Wall St., Omor Ibne Ehsan, "Chip Stocks Just Fell 8 Days in a Row, Their Longest Losing Streak Since 2008," 17 October 2026: https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/17/chip-stocks-just-fell-8-days-in-a-row-their-longest-losing-streak-since-2008/
- Yahoo Finance, Ines Ferré, "Nvidia stock sinks as chip sell-off deepens on hot inflation data," 15 October 2026: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/nvidia-stock-sinks-as-chip-sell-off-deepens-on-hot-inflation-data-203235137.html
- Yahoo Finance daily closing data for the PHLX Semiconductor Index (^SOX), the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), the Nasdaq 100, the VIX, the 10-year Treasury yield, WTI crude futures and the named stocks, read 18 October 2026: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ESOX/history/
Index, ETF and share closing prices, the daily changes, the length of the streak, the 2008 comparison, the 52-week high and its date, the oil, Treasury-yield and VIX levels, and the year-to-date changes are this publication's calculations from daily closing data published by Yahoo Finance, checked against the figures in 24/7 Wall St., 17 October 2026. The drivers cited by the outlet, its comments on equipment makers and the Raedler remarks come from 24/7 Wall St. The inflation, Micron, SK Hynix and CoreWeave background comes from Yahoo Finance, 15 October 2026. The analysis is our own.
Topics marketssemiconductorsNvidiaMicronAI spendingTreasury yieldsoil
