What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after the CPI print of 4.2% annual inflation (the hottest since 2023) revived the rate hike narrative.
Markets began to fully price a December Fed rate hike, and semiconductor stocks, which price on earnings years out, reprice faster than most sectors when discount rates move. The SpaceX IPO added secondary pressure: the company closed investor orders ahead of its debut at a $1.77 trillion valuation, and MSC identified chip names among the holdings facing the largest forced outflows as investors reallocate to fund the listing. Trump's mid-session Iran escalation, pledging to "attack very hard", drove the Dow to session lows, sealing the risk-off tone.
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:
- Analog Semiconductors company onsemi (NASDAQ: ON) fell 6%. Is now the time to buy onsemi? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Teradyne (NASDAQ: TER) fell 5.7%. Is now the time to buy Teradyne? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Processors and Graphics Chips company Penguin Solutions (NASDAQ: PENG) fell 5.8%. Is now the time to buy Penguin Solutions? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On onsemi (ON)
onsemi’s shares are very volatile and have had 27 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 1 day ago when the stock dropped 6.3% after the midday Apache helicopter incident over the Strait of Hormuz removed the stable macro backdrop the semiconductor sector needed to extend its recovery.
US Central Command confirmed an American Apache helicopter had gone down near the coast of Oman, and President Trump said the US "must respond" to what he described as an Iranian attack over the Strait of Hormuz. Chips are acutely sensitive to the inflation and rate environment and any development that re-accelerates oil prices keeps the 10-year yield elevated and compresses the high multiples the sector carries. The 10-year was already at 4.53%, and rate-hike probability for year-end already exceeded 50% before this headline.
The underlying concerns from the previous week's rout including Broadcom's cautious AI guidance, a memory chip glut, and the May jobs report pushing yields higher, hadn't resolved. The helicopter incident renewed geopolitical uncertainty just as the bounce was consolidating, pulling the sector back before the CPI reading later in the week.
onsemi is up 93.9% since the beginning of the year, but at $109.98 per share, it is still trading 17.9% below its 52-week high of $133.93 from June 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of onsemi’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,911.
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