Chip rout drags Nasdaq-100 into correction ahead of earnings season

Chip and memory stocks led a broad sell-off that pushed the Nasdaq-100 briefly into correction territory (about a 10% drop from its high) as Sandisk, Western Digital, Seagate, Micron and AMD fell roughly 10% and Dell slid ~13%; Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix retreated more than 15% in Asia, with equipment makers like ASML down after a report—unverified—that a Chinese state-backed firm began mass-producing domestic chip tools. The move occurs ahead of key earnings reports from Meta, Amazon and Microsoft and amid ongoing AI-related capex, with JPMorgan forecasting AI spending near $870 billion by 2026. Apple rose, helping buoy large indices as the broader market remained resilient.