Chip Stocks Rebound Friday, Index Rises 4.2% After Sharp Thursday Losses

Key Facts

Shares of major chipmakers, including Micron, rose in trading on Friday, November 6, with the broader semiconductor index climbing 4.2% after losing more than 12% in the previous session, according to Reuters. The report said Micron, AMD and Intel shares posted gains ranging from 6% to 10%, without specifying a separate percentage for Micron. The recovery followed a sharp selloff in technology and artificial intelligence stocks on Thursday. That day, the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.56%, its biggest daily decline in 19 months, according to Reuters. Market pressure coincided with the U.S. midterm election results and concerns about potential regulatory fallout for the expansion of AI infrastructure.

Micron's financial results showed revenue of $54.229 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, ended September 3, 2026, up from $41.456 billion in the previous quarter and $11.315 billion in the year-earlier period. The company reported GAAP net income of $37.70 billion, or $32.87 per diluted share. It also posted full-year fiscal 2026 revenue of $133.188 billion, compared with $37.378 billion in fiscal 2025. The results put quarterly and annual revenue growth at the forefront of the company's performance, even as a wave of selling swept the sector after they were released. Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said Micron delivered record results in fiscal 2026 and expects an even stronger fiscal 2027.

Micron forecast revenue of $61.5 billion, plus or minus $1.5 billion, for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. The guidance follows fourth-quarter revenue of $54.229 billion, putting the forecast range above the revenue level achieved in the previous period. The company's first-quarter outlook included a non-GAAP gross margin of about 86.25% and operating expenses of about $2.06 billion. The company provided these figures in its official financial outlook for the coming period. Mehrotra linked the stronger fiscal-year outlook to AI-driven demand growth and strategic customer agreements.

Micron's Core Data Center unit stood out in the results, with fourth-quarter fiscal revenue of $18.002 billion, versus $11.524 billion in the previous quarter and $1.577 billion in the year-earlier period. Its Cloud Memory unit posted revenue of $16.283 billion, compared with $13.769 billion in the third quarter and $4.543 billion a year earlier. The two units' figures show quarterly and annual revenue growth in the period in which the company reported record results. On products, Micron said it had begun shipping high-performance SSDs to customers for use in KV-cache applications. It added that revenue from its LPDDR SOCAMM server portfolio more than doubled from the previous quarter.

Reuters linked Thursday's selloff to investor concerns that Democrats could use their gains in state legislatures and Congress to impose new rules that might slow the expansion of AI infrastructure. The Associated Press said Democrats flipped at least five governorships and won full control of five other state governments in the 2026 midterm elections. Locally, restrictions on data centers passed in 44 of 45 ballot measures with completed counts, according to Redbud Consulting data cited by AP. These results highlight one aspect of the political and regulatory concerns surrounding sector stocks, without explaining Friday's price moves on their own. AP said power in Washington would remain divided between a Democratic Congress and a Republican White House, which could limit the federal government's ability to impose restrictions on the AI sector.

Chip stocks also gained Friday as markets assessed U.S. jobs data for October. Reuters said nonfarm payrolls increased by more than expected and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, pointing to continued resilience in the labor market. The report said this backdrop kept interest-rate hike concerns alive despite the recovery in chip stocks. At the index level, a separate Reuters report said the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 4% on Friday after recording its biggest daily drop since April 2025 in the previous session. Micron shares closed at $656.39 on November 5, according to available EL7 data; that data did not include Friday's closing price.