The broader market continued its retreat this week, as the S&P 500 (SP500) fell 2.5% for the week, with losses in three out of five sessions. This marks the first three-week losing streak for the benchmark index since April.
Big tech names continued to trend this week, but mostly not for positive reasons. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) had a bigger decline of 4.3% as many companies released their Q2 reports that disappointed investors.
Here were some of the trending stocks this week:
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) was down nearly 7% at the end of this week after the company released mixed Q2 results and an outlook for Q3 that fell short of analyst expectations. Still, Amazon Web Services was a pleasant surprise with better-than-expected revenue growth and should be a key margin driver for the rest of the year.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) plummeted nearly 32% in the week after the chipmaker reported weaker-than-expected Q2 earnings, suspended its dividend starting Q4, slashed capital expenditures and said it would lay off over 15% of its workforce under a $10B cost reduction plan. The company also released a disappointing Q3 outlook with both top and bottom lines significantly lower than the consensus.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) kicked off a week of Big Tech earnings reports from the Magnificent 7, but ended the five-day trading period down 5.4%. The tech giant reported fiscal Q4 results that topped expectations, but Azure growth was weaker-than-expected. Its Q1 revenue projections also fell short of consensus estimates, but Microsoft (MSFT) expects Azure growth to accelerate in the second half.
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) fell 6.2% this week, erasing gains seen after a better-than-expected Q2 show and Q3 outlook. Following the results, many analysts expressed caution over whether the chipmaker’s stock can return to growth after spending most of July in the red. Concerns over the state of the PC CPU channel and AMD’s ability to compete with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Intel (INTC) in AI also loom high.
Nvidia (NVDA) was down nearly 6% in the week after it became the target of a U.S. Department of Justice probe into anti-competitive practices. The DoJ was reacting to complaints from rivals that Nvidia (NVDA) allegedly abused its market dominance in selling chips that power AI products. It has reached out to multiple competitors, including AMD and AI chip startups.