Chips sink about 3% while the average stock edges higher

October producer prices rose 0.3%, a tenth under the 0.4% forecast and far below September's 1.3%, and core prices matched the 0.3% estimate, street-reported. Posts say traders priced in less Fed tightening after the report. Stocks didn't rally on it. The chip ETF fell about 3.0% and the Nasdaq proxy about 1.2%, while the equal-weight S&P rose about 0.2% and the Dow proxy about 0.1%. That gap of more than a point between the Nasdaq and Dow proxies made the close Choppy rather than a broad selloff, and the S&P proxy lost only about 0.4%.

Seven of eleven sector funds rose. Staples led with about 1.4%, communication services added about 1.1% as Meta climbed about 3.0%, and energy, financials, health care and utilities each gained between about 0.5% and 0.9%. Tech lost about 2.0%. Small caps slipped about 0.3%, the vol proxy rose about 2.2%, the dollar and gold edged up, crude slipped about 0.3% and Bitcoin was down about 0.3% on the day by early evening.

Inside chips the selling was wide. AMD gave back Thursday's gain and more, closing down about 8.8% after trading more than 10% lower at its low, Broadcom dropped about 4.9%, and Micron and Applied Materials each lost close to 3%. Cisco fell about 6.2% the day after beating estimates and raising its outlook. The AI cloud renters kept sliding, with Nebius down about 10.0% and CoreWeave about 6.2%. Nvidia had bounced about 2.8% before the open but closed down about 2.0% at 162.82, about 13% below last Friday's close.

Research

Nvidia's board has approached Arm chief executive Rene Haas about the top job, accounts report, citing a press report, and posts say prediction markets now split the race between Haas and Nvidia's Ian Buck. HSBC cut its rating on Nvidia, saying the stock may struggle until a new CEO is named, accounts report. Nvidia's quarterly report lands Tuesday, Nov 17, after the close, with the calendar showing an EPS estimate of 2.49. Long Treasuries slipped about 0.4% to 79.37 even after the softer reading, below Thursday's 79.73 close.

What X is saying

Posts say Cisco fell because its gross margin slipped to 65.6% from 68.1% as lower-margin AI hardware grew, even with revenue up 24%. Accounts report Bitcoin touched a three-month low in the morning and crypto stocks slid with it. Posts call Nvidia's 13% drop its worst week since April 2025.

Insight

The cooler producer price report took a little heat off rates, and the market used the room to sell what had run hardest. Money left chips and the AI cloud names for staples, banks and health care, so most stocks rose while the Nasdaq proxy fell. Tuesday is the test: October retail sales at 8:30 AM ET, then Nvidia's first report without Jensen Huang after the bell.