Philadelphia Semiconductor Index Falls Over 6% as Chip and Memory Stock Selloff Intensifies. Micron Drops Below $90, While Samsung’s Mixed Earnings Spread Panic.

TradingKey - On July 7, Eastern Time, the three major stock indexes all fell, as the sell-off in chip and memory stocks continued to intensify, dragging down technology stocks overall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned negative after hitting a historic high, the Nasdaq 100 Index fell 1.29%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index once fell over 6%.

As of press time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.23% to 52,936.30 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.66% to 25,949.21 points; and the S&P 500 Index fell 0.26% to 7,518.04 points.

[Source: FutuBull]

From a sector perspective, chip and memory stocks were the main drivers of this decline; SanDisk ( SNDK) fell over 7%, briefly dropping below $1,600; Micron ( MU) fell over 5%, briefly dropping below $900; Intel ( INTC) fell over 9%, briefly dropping below $110; AMD ( AMD) fell over 5%.

Meanwhile, capital flows simultaneously shifted into defensive mode. The three major defensive sectors—healthcare, real estate, and utilities—rose against the trend, while the industrial and technology sectors led the market down, reflecting a continuous rise in market caution toward high-valuation tech sectors.

The trigger for this round of chip correction was South Korean Samsung Electronics' announcement of lower-than-expected Q2 revenue. The earnings report showed that Samsung Electronics expects Q2 net profit of approximately $58.4 billion, beating market expectations of about $55.7 billion; however, consolidated revenue was approximately $113 billion, missing market expectations of $114.9 billion.

The mixed earnings report sent Samsung Electronics shares tumbling about 7% on the day and caused panic to spread across the entire sector. The DRAM ETF fell over 10% intraday at one point.

On the other hand, there are reports that Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is independently developing an AI inference chip. It is reported that this chip is designed specifically for the inference phase—the process where trained models generate answers for users—rather than for training new models. This positioning targets the fastest-growing area of AI computing demand. As AI applications become more widespread, industry computing power is shifting from model training to model execution, and dedicated inference chips are typically lower in cost and power consumption than general-purpose GPUs.

Notably, geopolitical risks surged again on the commodities front. An attack on an LNG carrier in the Strait of Hormuz instantly shattered the previous loose narrative of continuous supply recovery, causing oil prices to spike rapidly. WTI crude oil rose over 2% on the day to $70, while Brent crude rose to the $74 mark, proving once again that the situation in the Middle East remains the core source of volatility in the crude oil market.