What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after worries weighed on memory chipmakers and sparked selling pressure across the broader semiconductor sector, following news of domestic Chinese technological advancements and looming labor strikes in Taiwan.
As detailed by TipRanks, Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) announced significant progress on a next-generation 4F² DRAM server-memory design due by late 2026, launching denser DDR5 enterprise server modules that directly rival architectures currently being developed by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
However, the financial research firm added that CXMT has yet to prove it can manufacture the chips in commercial volumes. Amplifying the negative sentiment, Reuters, via Investing.com, reported that escalating labor tension in Taiwan added direct pressure on Micron, as 1,994 Taoyuan union members—representing 99% of ballots cast—voted to authorize a strike seeking a permanent 15% profit-sharing bonus. Investing.com noted that these Taiwan sites house 15,000 workers and anchor Micron's critical DRAM and high-bandwidth memory output, though no strike date has been set.
Consequently, shares of major memory manufacturers, including Micron, SanDisk, and SK Hynix, pulled back in early trade as these regional supply chain threats rattled investors. According to financial media, the widespread selling also dragged down the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SMH), which declined 1% during premarket activity.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Processors and Graphics Chips company Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ: LSCC) fell 1.9%. Is now the time to buy Lattice Semiconductor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Amkor (NASDAQ: AMKR) fell 2%. Is now the time to buy Amkor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Analog Semiconductors company Himax (NASDAQ: HIMX) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy Himax? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Teradyne (NASDAQ: TER) fell 3.3%. Is now the time to buy Teradyne? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Kulicke and Soffa (NASDAQ: KLIC) fell 2.6%. Is now the time to buy Kulicke and Soffa? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Teradyne (TER)
Teradyne’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 60 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 5 days ago when the stock dropped 5.1% on the news that surging 10-year Treasury yields heightened borrowing cost concerns after the Federal Reserve’s September meeting minutes showed most officials expect another rate increase this year.
CNBC reported that the 10-year Treasury yield climbed back above 5.3% on Wednesday and earlier touched its highest level since 2002. The minutes, released Wednesday, said most participants judged that another increase in the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate by year-end, while stressing that each meeting would depend on incoming data. The September vote to raise the benchmark rate by a quarter point was unanimous.
Officials also discussed the rise in yields and tied it to expectations for higher Fed rates, the build-out in artificial intelligence, and solid economic growth. That mix weighs on semiconductor stocks. Chipmakers fund research and new factories over many years, so a higher Treasury yield increases the discount rate investors apply to those future earnings. The same minutes point to the AI build-out as one reason yields have climbed, which is the demand story these companies are selling into.
Teradyne is up 85.9% since the beginning of the year, but at $385.90 per share, it is still trading 20.2% below its 52-week high of $483.84 from June 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Teradyne’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,595.
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