Chipmakers and Chinese tech stocks were mostly in the red, Friday, following ongoing reaction to the U.S. government banning the sale of some semiconductor products in China due to national security concerns.
On Thursday, chip-sector leaders such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) disclosed that they had been informed by U.S. officials that certain semiconductor products could no longer be sold in China or Russia due to their potential for being used for military purposes in those countries. Reaction was swift for Nvidia (NVDA), in particular, as its shares fell almost 8% Thursday, while AMD (AMD) gave up 3% on the day.
Losses continued to mount on Friday, as Nvidia (NVDA) fell another 2% in mid-day trading. AMD (AMD) was off by nearly 3%, and Intel (INTC) shares pulled back by almost 2%.
Nvidia (NVDA) was also hit with a rating downgrade by Daiwa Securities analyst Louis Miscioscia lowered his assessment of Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock to neutral from buy on the grounds that the chipmaker is facing “too many uncertainties” at the present time.
Chip companies weren’t alone in getting tripped up by the moves to curtail some sales in China and Russia. Several Chinese tech leaders also retreated due to their connections to the chipmakers that help power their platforms and e-commerce operations.
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) shares slipped by almost 2%, Weibo (WB) dropped by more than 4%, JD.com (JD) gave up almost 3% and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) also fell 3%.
On Thursday, J.P. Morgan analyst Alex Yao raised his rating on Baidu (BIDU) to overweight on the grounds that it is in position to benefit from an improving advertising market through the rest of the year.
Read More: Chips, Chinese tech stocks waver again in wake of U.S. ban on some products in China