What Happened?

Shares of 3D printing company 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) fell 25.8% in the afternoon session after the company reported disappointing first quarter 2025 results: its revenue, EPS, and EBITDA missed Wall Street's estimates significantly. Revenue declined, largely tied to a drop in materials sales in the dental market, where customers cut orders to manage inventory. Looking ahead, management pulled full-year guidance, citing uncertainty in customer budgets and global tariff risks. Overall, this was a weaker quarter.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

3D Systems’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 77 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for 3D Systems and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 27 days ago when the stock dropped 5.7% on the news that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled a cautious stance on future monetary policy decisions during a speech in Chicago, emphasizing that trade tariffs could add upward pressure to inflation in the short term and complicate the Fed's efforts to stabilize the economy. He warned that such trade measures are "likely to move us further away from our goals," referring to the Fed's dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment. 

The comments did little to improve sentiment, as major indices were already in the negative territory in the morning session after Nvidia announced it might be unable to sell some high-end chips (including the H20 chips) to China due to export controls and requirements from the Trump administration. As a result, the company planned to take a $5.5 billion charge due to inventory writedowns and canceled sales. 

Adding to the sector's pressure, chip tool maker ASML posted weak bookings (a key demand indicator) which fell below Wall Street's expectations, noting that tariffs had made the industry's outlook more uncertain. Taken together, these updates likely fueled investor anxiety, amplifying concerns about global trade tensions, tech sector vulnerability, and the Fed's limited room to maneuver in an increasingly uncertain macro environment.

3D Systems is down 40.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $1.90 per share, it is trading 59.7% below its 52-week high of $4.72 from February 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of 3D Systems’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $272.60.

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