What Happened?

A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after investors grew wary about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence-led boom, leading to a broad market decline. 

Nvidia slid 3% ahead of its earnings report, dragging down fellow "Magnificent Seven" peers despite a major partnership announcement with Anthropic, as investors increasingly question the durability of the AI rally. Market sentiment was further dampened by Bitcoin dropping below $90,000, signaling reduced risk appetite, and growing anxiety that the Federal Reserve may pause rate cuts in December, with the implied probability of a cut falling to roughly 50%. Adding to the weakness, Home Depot shares declined following an earnings miss and a cut to its full-year outlook. This combination of continued de-risking and valuation skepticism put the S&P 500 on pace for its fourth consecutive daily decline.

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:

• Engineered Components and Systems company Mayville Engineering (NYSE: MEC) fell 3%. Is now the time to buy Mayville Engineering? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Construction and Maintenance Services company WillScot Mobile Mini (NASDAQ: WSC) fell 5.8%. Is now the time to buy WillScot Mobile Mini? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Engineered Components and Systems company NN (NASDAQ: NNBR) fell 3.5%. Is now the time to buy NN? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Specialty Equipment Distributors company Herc (NYSE: HRI) fell 3.2%. Is now the time to buy Herc? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Specialty Equipment Distributors company Custom Truck One Source (NYSE: CTOS) fell 2.9%. Is now the time to buy Custom Truck One Source? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.

Zooming In On WillScot Mobile Mini (WSC)

WillScot Mobile Mini’s shares are very volatile and have had 23 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 5 days ago when the stock dropped 5.2% 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.

WillScot Mobile Mini is down 54.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $15.27 per share, it is trading 61.1% below its 52-week high of $39.21 from December 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of WillScot Mobile Mini’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $695.99.

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