What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after markets faded the Nvidia rally in the morning session, as investors remained uncertain about future rate cuts.
While the trading day began with significant enthusiasm, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 700 points and the Nasdaq Composite up 2.6%, momentum quickly evaporated as the session wore on. The primary catalyst for this sharp reversal was a stronger-than-expected jobs report, which reduced the implied odds of a December interest rate cut to less than 40%. This macroeconomic anxiety overshadowed stellar corporate performance. Nvidia initially surged 5% on blockbuster earnings and CEO Jensen Huang's bullish outlook on "off the charts" demand for Blackwell chips. However, the stock eventually turned negative, acting as a heavy weight that dragged the broader indices into the red. The sell-off partly reflects a deepening caution regarding high-flying tech valuations in a "higher-for-longer" rate environment.
Consequently, investors appeared to rotate capital away from volatile growth sectors and toward defensive staples, evidenced by Walmart's 6% gain following its own earnings beat. Ultimately, the market could not sustain the morning's euphoria, as traders prioritized rate realities over AI potential.
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:
- Construction and Maintenance Services company Orion (NYSE:ORN) fell 3.3%. Is now the time to buy Orion? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Aerospace company Astronics (NASDAQ:ATRO) fell 3.6%. Is now the time to buy Astronics? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Electronic Components company Corning (NYSE:GLW) fell 4.3%. Is now the time to buy Corning? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Heavy Transportation Equipment company Commercial Vehicle Group (NASDAQ:CVGI) fell 2.5%. Is now the time to buy Commercial Vehicle Group? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Electrical Systems company Verra Mobility (NASDAQ:VRRM) fell 4.2%. Is now the time to buy Verra Mobility? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
Zooming In On Corning (GLW)
Corning’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 6 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 7 days ago when the stock dropped 8.3% on the news that the broader U.S. stock market declined amid investor caution and a pullback in technology stocks.
The main story? Investors are cashing in on a good run and feeling a bit cautious. After a fantastic run, many of those high-flying AI and technology stocks saw investors take profits: selling shares to lock in their gains. This is often called a "market rotation." Money is moving out of the red-hot tech sector (which some worry has become too expensive) and into other parts of the market that investors may currently deem more stable or reasonably-priced. There's a secondary reason for the cautious mood: The long government shutdown came to an end. Though it's typically interpreted as good news, it also means a flood of delayed economic reports will be released. For weeks, investors were "flying blind" without key updates on the economy's health, like inflation data and the jobs report. In typical "sell the news" fashion, investors may also be taking profits and selling in anticipation that the new data would potentially give the Federal Reserve reasons to slow or even pause future rate cuts.
Corning is up 67.3% since the beginning of the year, but at $78.13 per share, it is still trading 13.5% below its 52-week high of $90.29 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Corning’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,152.
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