Tesla EV sales in Europe fell 22.5% in August, marking eight straight months of declines.
Intel has jumped 36% this month, making it one of the biggest risers on Wall Street in September and putting it on track for its largest monthly gain since 1987, according to data from CNBC.
The rally comes as the company reportedly tries to pull Apple into its comeback effort with a new investment deal. Traders pushed shares higher Thursday on that news, continuing the chipmaker’s unexpected breakout while the rest of the market buckled under pressure.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.5% on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite also fell, and the Dow Jones lost 119 points, or 0.3%. Rising interest rates and weakness in large-cap tech weighed heavily on sentiment. Even as Intel surged, other big names in tech stumbled.
Oracle tumbled 5%, closing out its third day in the red as investors pulled back on artificial intelligence stocks. Questions are growing over whether these companies are chasing hype or delivering real results.
Oracle’s decline followed a new sell rating issued by Rothschild & Co. Redburn. The firm warned that Oracle’s recent AI partnerships won’t deliver as much growth as expected. “The market materially overestimates” the impact of those deals on its core cloud business, Redburn said.
They believe the stock could fall 40% from here. That warning hit hard. By Wednesday’s close, Oracle was already down 10% from its latest high, and Thursday’s dip added to the damage.
The broader tech slide wasn’t limited to Oracle. MicroStrategy, now officially renamed Strategy, also sank, losing 7.6% by the end of Thursday’s trading. Tesla didn’t do much better, as its shares dropped 3.8%, fueled by more bad news out of Europe.
Tesla’s struggles in the European electric vehicle market are getting worse. Data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association showed that Tesla EV registrations in the region fell to 14,831 units in August, a 22.5% year-over-year drop. The region includes the UK and EFTA countries.
And while overall EV sales rose 26.8%, Tesla’s decline stood out. It’s now the eighth straight month of lower Tesla sales in Europe. The August numbers were still better than July, when sales plunged 40.2% to just 8,837 units, but the trend is heading in the wrong direction.
If Congress fails to reach a deal to fund the federal government prior to next week’s deadline, the market could see some turmoil in the near term, according to Louis Navellier, founder and chief investment officer of Navellier & Associates.
“A side risk is that the rating agencies may use it as an opportunity to put the U.S. on credit watch, something they’ve done before, as they are not happy with the soaring debt levels anyway,” he wrote. “If a shutdown happens, it is likely to bring short-term market volatility.”
The market was also hit by rising bond yields, as the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.2% after jobless claims came in below estimates, triggering concerns that the Fed could hold rates higher for longer, as Cryptopolitan previously reported.
Risk assets, especially tech, took the hit. UBS says there’s still room for stocks to move up, even with these bumps. In a note Thursday, Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, a managing director at the firm, said they see the S&P 500 reaching 6,800 by June 2026 in their base case, and up to 7,500 in a bullish scenario.
She added, “Any doubt over the Fed’s future easing path could stoke volatility, but we continue to believe that positive market fundamentals will likely drive equities higher in the coming months.”
Meanwhile, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) surged to 17.02 as all three major stock indexes slipped deeper into the red, with investors now waiting for Friday’s release of the personal consumption expenditures price index, which could swing Fed policy again.
And then there’s Washington. Concerns over a potential government shutdown are heating up. NBC News reported that the Office of Management and Budget has told federal agencies to get ready for “reduction in force” plans if Congress fails to fund the government. That could trigger mass layoffs in the public sector.
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