Trending stocks this week as Wall Street ends sharply lower

The U.S. stock market was marked this week by a historical midterm election result as Democrats took control of House and Senate.

In the immediate aftermath of the midterms, concerns about elevated AI valuations and heavy technology-sector spending triggered a sharp sell-off, particularly in semiconductor stocks.

Technology stocks rebounded on the last day of trade, but not enough to erase the week's losses. The major indices still ended the week in red. The S&P 500 was down around 3%, Nasdaq Composite declined 4% and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.7%.

In economy-related news, the October U.S. jobs report showed stronger-than-expected job growth, raising expectations of a Fed rate hike in December, adding another source of uncertainty for equities.

Amid a turbulent week for Wall Street, here were some of the stocks that caught the attention of investors:

Tesla TSLA and SpaceX SPCX dropped soon after the elections as Elon Musk's $500M bet on Republican campaigns proved unsuccessful. Both stocks rebounded somewhat on Friday but still ended in the red. Tesla was down 11.3% and SpaceX declined 2%. Musk also said on Friday that Tesla would wind down Cybertruck production in 2027 because of underwhelming sales.

AI and semiconductor stocks tumbled on Thursday as investors pulled back from technology stocks amid concerns over the outlook for data center spending following the U.S. midterm elections. The selloff came a day after Democrats secured a majority in Congress. Chipmakers bore the brunt of the declines. Advanced Micro Devices AMD fell 17%, Intel INTC lost 10.3%, Broadcom AVGO declined 10.4%, Nvidia NVDA dropped 9.2%, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing TSM fell 10.7%.

Marvell MRVL announced a definitive agreement to acquire Lumentum LITE, an optical components manufacturer, in an all-stock transaction with an implied enterprise value of $115B. Lumentum shareholders will receive 4.5 shares of Marvell common stock for each Lumentum share they own. The acquisition is intended to strengthen Marvell's position in AI data center connectivity and optical technologies.

AppLovin APP shares surged more than 31% following its third-quarter earnings announcement. Revenue increased 55% year over year to $2.185B, while net income climbed 72% to $1.44B. The strong results were driven in part by improvements to its AI-powered advertising technology.

Qualcomm's QCOM shares fell nearly 10% on Thursday after its smartphone chip revenue tumbled 26% in the fourth quarter as rising memory prices weighed on handset demand. Overall, Qualcomm said it earned an adjusted $2.17 per share in the quarter as revenue fell 7% year-over-year to come in at $10.44B.

Apple AAPL reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street's estimates. For the period ending Sept. 26, Apple said it earned $2.10 per share as revenue rose 12% year-over-year to come in at $114.48B. However, shares slipped as Apple forecast gross margins of 45%–46% for the December quarter, down from 47.9% in the September quarter. Following the report, CEO John Ternus warned that memory-chip prices were rising at an unprecedented rate.

Palantir Technologies PLTR shares fell even as the company reported strong third-quarter results and issued an upward revision to its full-year outlook, as investors focused on a slowdown in U.S. commercial bookings. U.S. commercial revenue surged 148% Y/Y to $984M in Q3, while U.S. government revenue jumped 96% to $953M.

Oracle ORCL priced a combined $20B stock and bond offering, including a $10B common stock sale at an 11.2% discount to its last closing price, as the company raises fresh capital amid its expanding AI infrastructure investments. The company priced 86.2M shares at $116 a piece, compared with its October 30 closing price of $130.67. The equity offering is expected to generate ~$9.9B in net proceeds. Separately, Oracle (ORCL) priced $10B of senior notes across five tranches.

AMD AMD reported third-quarter results and guidance that topped Wall Street's forecast. For the period ending Sept. 26, AMD said it earned an adjusted $2.09 per share as revenue rose 45% year-over-year to come in at $13.38B. Data Center revenue rose 97% year-over-year to $8.55B, aided by its MI-series AI accelerators and its Instinct and EPYC processors.

Novo NVO) raised its outlook for the year once again, driven by continued demand for its Wegovy weight-loss pill, and its older shot Ozempic. The Danish drugmaker now expects sales and operating profit to either decline by 2% or increase by as much as 2% this year at constant exchange rates. The revised forecast compares with its previous outlook, which had projected declines of up to 6%.