Chip Index SOX Posts Longest Losing Streak Since 2008 as AI Worries Deepen

3-line summary

• The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell for an eighth straight trading day Friday, its longest such losing streak since October 2008, dropping 3.83% to 11,137.29 and sliding about 16% since its last gain on October 6; all 30 index constituents fell Friday, with Broadcom, Micron, AMD, Intel, Lam Research and KLA each down roughly 5% and ARM Holdings down about 7%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.1% and the S&P 500 fell 1.1%. The SOX had been up more than 60% for 2026 through early October.
• CoreWeave fell 12% Friday, extending its five-day loss to about 25%, with its bonds yielding above 15% in distressed territory; the company carries roughly $50 billion in debt. Concerns cited include the sustainability of AI investment given rising debt loads for data-center and compute-capacity buildouts, hotter-than-expected US inflation data raising the odds rates stay elevated — pushing up financing costs for AI-infrastructure-heavy companies — and a report that China's CXMT has made progress on advanced memory-chip architecture.
• The article said the weakness first emerged in June and became more pronounced this week; it did not provide further detail comparing magnitude or causes with the 2008 downturn beyond the streak-length comparison.

This summary is our own processing of the source article; see the source link below for full context.