S&P 500 falls despite Iran fighting pause as chip stocks tumble: Live updates

The S&P 500 fell Monday as a plunge in chip stocks negated an earlier rally sparked by a decline in global oil prices.

The broad market index was last little changed, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 221 points higher, or roughly 0.4%.

Semiconductor stocks were down broadly. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) traded roughly 3% lower, adding to its Friday losses. AMD and Teradyne dropped 7% and 5%, respectively, to lead the declines. Micron Technology shed about 3%.

Chipmakers rallied earlier in the day after Chinese chipmaker CXMT’s blockbuster IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday. But, “There’s just a lot of uncertainty about what is happening with Chinese companies,” Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager and partner at Globalt Investments, told CNBC. “You have a lot of competition and technological advancement … in product markets that are very tight.”

Equities also came under pressure after The Information reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that China had begun developing deep ultraviolet lithography machines, which are used to build semiconductors, driving down stocks even further.

U.S.-listed shares of ASML, the dominant player in the space, fell more than 7% on the back of the report.

Additionally, traders are reshuffling their investments amid signs of “air being let out” of the artificial intelligence bubble, particularly as stocks remain off their record highs hit in late June, according to Martin.

“There’s just this tremendous uncertainty in technology land,” Martin added. “There’s a lot of uncertainty among investors as to where this shakes out and whether they want to reposition some of their money.”

Cooling of tensions in the Middle East sent international benchmark Brent crude futures for September delivery down 6.8% to around $90.25 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped 6.1% to $83.83 a barrel.

This week will have no shortage of challenges for the major averages. A succession of quarterly reports from Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft will either soothe investor fears of rampant artificial intelligence spending, or add to them, after Alphabet’s disappointing results in the last week. The results could directly affect semiconductor companies that are the chief beneficiaries of the AI spending spree.

The Fed will make its latest decision on interest rates on Wednesday. The consensus view is that the central bank will hike rates in September, but markets are pricing in the meaningful possibility that the Fed will lift its benchmark borrowing rate a quarter percentage point as soon as this week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.