The major averages opened lower Thursday, and a brief midday bounce never repaired the damage in chips and megacap tech. The session finished lower overall, snapping a three-day winning streak.

$SPY fell 1.2%, $QQQ lost 2.9%, and $IWM and $DIA finished roughly flat. The S&P 500 slipped below 7,700. Six of 11 sectors closed green, with Consumer Staples leading at +3.3% and Technology lagging at -3.3%.

Barron’s reported that Lam’s supply constraints, expected decline in China revenue, and guidance below bullish expectations dragged other chip-equipment stocks lower. Reuters reported that broader worries about AI spending also pressured technology. Crude rose 2.2%, bitcoin fell 3.8%, and the 10-year Treasury yield settled at 5.13%.

In healthcare, Moderna’s strong melanoma-vaccine data could not clear expectations built by a 500% rally. Bloom Energy and Western Digital beat estimates, but both entered the reports with demanding setups. Nokia’s AI orders came with weaker cash conversion, while Forgent’s upbeat preannouncement could not quiet concerns over its CFO’s exit. Stocktwits traders remained bullish on Lam despite the selloff.

Today's Briefing: Powered by Stocktwits Community API.

Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine cut the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 42% when paired with Merck’s Keytruda, Reuters reported Thursday. The result was positive. The stock’s reaction was crap: after a 500%+ year and earning the top spot on the S&P 500’s highest gainer list, anything besides a cure to cancer was going to be a disappointment. 🤒

The RIP: $MRNA fell 17.6% to $202.63, then slipped another 2.2% after hours. Shares traded between $180.80 and $241.26 on 49.5M shares, 2.7 times their recent pace.

The Phase 3 trial enrolled more than 1,100 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed. The combination also cut the risk of distant spread or death by 38%, while 82.2% of patients remained cancer-free after two years versus 70% on Keytruda alone. Overall survival data are not mature, but Moderna and Merck said the trend was favorable. 🧬

The companies announced in August that the trial met its main goals, sending Moderna into a run that carried it to a yearly high of $254.48 on Wednesday. Detailed results leaked on an oncology website Thursday before the planned weekend presentation, turning the reveal into a sell-the-news event.

Great data met even greater expectations. The vaccine cleared the 40% benefit threshold analysts wanted, but holders still erased roughly $43 from the share price. Moderna now has to show that the treatment’s personalized manufacturing model can scale and that similar results can travel beyond melanoma. 📉

Bloom Energy’s on-site power business delivered a monster third quarter Thursday, but even a doubled revenue line and raised outlook could not rescue the stock.

The RIP: $BE closed down 8.7% at $217.77, then fell another 4.7% after hours. Adjusted earnings reached $0.94 per share versus $0.69 expected, while revenue jumped 138% to $1.24B versus $1.07B expected.

Bloom swung to a $250.3M quarterly profit from a $23.1M loss one year earlier. Product demand pushed gross margin to 33.8%, and the company raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $4.4B-$4.6B from $3.9B-$4.2B. Full-year adjusted earnings guidance rose to $3.10-$3.40 per share from $2.55-$2.85. ⚡

Those are not small upgrades. The forecast’s low end now sits above the old range’s high end. Bloom said hyperscalers are no longer the only customers looking for reliable on-site generation as grid constraints spread across industries.

The problem was the starting price. Bloom entered Thursday with a roughly $63B market value and had already priced in plenty of data-center electricity demand. A huge beat kept the growth thesis alive, but it did not make the valuation any cheaper. 🔌

Western Digital’s quarterly results arrived after a brutal day for chip and hardware stocks. The hard-drive maker beat estimates, raised its dividend, and forecast another sharp step higher in revenue.

The RIP: $WDC fell 6.4% to $354.19 during Thursday’s session, then recovered 1.1% after hours. Adjusted earnings reached $4.64 per share versus $4.09 expected, while revenue rose 55% to $4.38B versus $4.14B expected.

Demand from cloud providers and AI data centers improved both shipment volumes and pricing. Non-GAAP gross margin expanded 14.2 percentage points from one year earlier to 58.1%, while adjusted operating margin reached 49.1%. That is a lot of profit dropping through on every additional storage dollar. 💾

Management guided the current quarter to $5.0B-$5.2B in revenue and $5.60-$6.00 in adjusted earnings per share. The business accelerated while the stock sold off with the broader chip complex. 🗄️

$WDC traders are debating whether the sector selloff missed the results. ->

Nokia’s AI and cloud business surged during the third quarter, but investors focused on what those orders were doing to cash flow and costs.

The RIP: $NOK fell 14.8% to $7.88 on 205.2M shares, 2.9 times its recent pace. Revenue reached €5.15B, while comparable operating profit jumped 35% to €605M.

Network infrastructure sales rose 17%, and Nokia booked €1.5B of orders from AI and cloud customers. Sales to those customers more than doubled, while management projected 25%-30% growth for its optical and IP networking businesses in 2027. Demand was not the issue. 🌐

The bill for meeting it was. Third-quarter free cash flow was negative €99M, and Nokia cut its 2026 cash-conversion forecast to 35%-55% from 55%-75%. 📡

$NOK traders are buying weakness despite the cash-flow warning. ->

Forgent Power Solutions lost more than one-fifth of its value Thursday after Chief Financial Officer Ryan Fiedler stepped down to spend more time with his family. The data-center electrical equipment maker promoted Executive Vice President of Finance Amy Ard to replace him.

The RIP: $FPS fell 21.5% to $24.92 on 44.2M shares, 5.7 times its recent pace. The stock touched $23.16 before recovering 1.3% after hours.

Investors treated the sudden finance-chief transition as a warning, even though Ard was already inside the company and Forgent reaffirmed its full-year outlook. The shares fell below their IPO price as traders questioned whether the stated explanation covered the whole story. 🔌

Forgent tried to settle those fears after the close. The company said fiscal first-quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA would exceed the high end of guidance and scheduled full results for Nov. 12.

The operating update was good. The timing made it look defensive. A same-day preannouncement could not undo the uncertainty created by Fiedler’s departure, especially for a young public company valued on data-center power demand and clean execution. ⚠️

$FPS traders remain split over whether the CFO exit deserved the drop. ->

EXTREMELY BULLISH · HIGH ACTIVITY
Two days after a blowout quarter with revenue up 161%, a lawsuit alleging SpaceX's xAI data centers run on unpermitted natural gas turbines gave the broad AI selloff a company-specific target.

EXTREMELY BEARISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY
Apple finished green while the Nasdaq sank, trading like the session's safe haven as its first folding phone starts selling Friday with delivery dates already pushed to late January.

22.6K WATCHERS · EXTREMELY BULLISH · HIGH ACTIVITY

Lam sank after record results were overshadowed by supply constraints, falling China revenue, and guidance below bullish expectations; Barron’s reported the warning also pulled Applied Materials and KLA lower.

Bearish 🐻 | Bullish 🐮 | It’s Complicated 😵‍💫

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🪙 The crypto move you missed today, explained before you wake up to it

Want to see some change? Respond to this email and reach me, Kevin Travers, with feedback. Follow me on Stocktwits. Send me charts and ideas! Refer a friend for this quarter’s edition of The RIP Forecast 😎

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