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:

• Electronic Components & Manufacturing company TTM Technologies (NASDAQ: TTMI) fell 8.3%. Is now the time to buy TTM Technologies? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Hardware & Infrastructure company Super Micro (NASDAQ: SMCI) fell 5.2%. Is now the time to buy Super Micro? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Hardware & Infrastructure company IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) fell 12.8%. Is now the time to buy IonQ? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Electronic Components & Manufacturing company Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX) fell 5.6%. Is now the time to buy Flex? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Specialized Technology company Arlo Technologies (NYSE: ARLO) fell 3.3%. Is now the time to buy Arlo Technologies? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.

Zooming In On IonQ (IONQ)

IonQ’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 102 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for IonQ and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 13 days ago when the stock dropped 10.4% on the news that the company reported third-quarter 2025 financial results that showed a substantial net loss, overshadowing strong revenue growth. While revenue grew 221.5% year-over-year to $39.9 million, exceeding the company's guidance, investors focused on the widening losses. IonQ reported a net loss of $1.05 billion for the quarter. This translated to a loss of $3.58 per share, which was significantly wider than the consensus estimate of a 44-cent loss and the prior year's loss of 24 cents per share. The company noted that the majority of the net loss was due to large, non-cash charges. Additionally, core operational performance showed an adjusted EBITDA loss of $48.9 million, and operating expenses increased by 15.1% from the previous quarter to $208.7 million, signaling rising costs.

IonQ is down 4.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $41.24 per share, it is trading 49.8% below its 52-week high of $82.09 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of IonQ’s shares at the IPO in January 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $3,818.

While Wall Street chases Nvidia at all-time highs, an under-the-radar semiconductor supplier is dominating a critical AI component these giants can’t build without. Click here to access our full research report.