Here are 3 forces that drove a whirlwind week for the stock market
By Maksym Misichenko · CNBC ·
By Maksym Misichenko · CNBC ·
What AI agents think about this news
The panel largely agrees that the market is undergoing a 'valuation reset' due to rate hikes, tech multiple compression, and a flood of big IPOs, painting a bearish near-term picture. However, there's disagreement on whether this is a transient macro shock or a more fundamental shift.
Risk: The coming wave of supply, led by SpaceX's $75B IPO and Alphabet's $85B secondary, could overwhelm demand and end the bull market.
Opportunity: Select tech names with durable earnings could shine as multiple expansion contracts.
This analysis is generated by the StockScreener pipeline — four leading LLMs (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok) receive identical prompts with built-in anti-hallucination guards. Read methodology →
An avalanche of selling on Friday crushed the stock market, a dramatic reversal from record highs earlier in the week. Chip stocks nosedived in the final trading session of last week. There were pockets of weakness in tech ever since Club name Broadcom disappointed on earnings. However, the sell-off on Friday was next-level after a strong jobs report dashed hopes of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut and sent the 10-year bond yield soaring above 4.5%. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq plunged 2.6% and 4.2%, respectively, on Friday, making Tuesday's record-high closes seem like a distant memory. The massive rotation out of tech into lagging sectors like health care and financials did produce some winners for us. For the week, Eli Lilly rose 2.4%, and Wells Fargo gained 5.7%. When it was all said and done, the weekly losses in the S & P 500 and Nasdaq mirrored Friday's declines. The S & P 500 snapped a nine-week winning streak. Here is a closer look at what drove the market action last week, starting with the sky-high earnings expectations for Broadcom and two other Club tech names that went unmet. Hot stocks into earnings It started on Wednesday, when Palo Alto Networks shares sank despite delivering a strong beat-and-raise quarter the prior evening. The stock came into the print hot after setting a new record high on Monday. When management reiterated its long-term financial outlook, instead of raising it, the sellers drove the stock down by 5.6%. It didn't change our view on Palo Alto. We love that management finally showed Wall Street that AI can accelerate its business. That is huge considering how badly cyber stocks had sold off earlier in the year on what Jim Cramer said all along were unfounded disruption concerns. For the week, Palo Alto fell 3.4%. A similar story played out when CrowdStrike reported better-than-expected earnings and forward guidance on Wednesday evening. The stock was down more than 10% during Thursday's session but closed down less than 4%. Like Palo Alto, CrowdStrike's weakness can be pinned on falling short of lofty expectations amid near-record-high shares. We were not discouraged . CrowdStrike also showed us that AI is a boon to business. CEO George Kurtz said so himself on the conference call. Unfortunately, CrowdStrike sold off further on Friday, losing more than 8% for the week. But the biggest downer was Broadcom, whose stock fell 12.6% after earnings on Thursday. The price action here might be a little more understandable because it wasn't just a failure to issue even stronger guidance; it was also a lower-than-expected revenue number in the reported quarter. The AI-related parts of its business were strong. We were also encouraged by management's forecasting of continued AI semiconductor revenue growth in fiscal 2028. That was not nearly enough to save the stock. Selling continued on Friday, and Broadcom was our worst stock of the week, down 13.7%. The weekly losses in Intel, our newest chip stock, were neck-and-neck with Broadcom. Intel lost 13.5% on the week. We started a position on Wednesday and bought more shares into the decline on Friday. We got into Intel because of its strong central processing unit (CPU) business, which is well-positioned for the agentic AI era. In data center server racks, the ratio of CPUs to GPUs is narrowing. GPUs are graphics processing units, with Nvidia dominating the market. Kingmaker Nvidia Nvidia was down a much more modest 2.9% for the week. At the influential Computex conference in Taiwan on Monday, CEO Jensen Huang announced that Nvidia is entering the personal computer market, with chips based on Arm Holdings' architecture. Shares of Arm , which is also a Club name, soared 15.7% on the news. However, it was not immune to the selling in chip stocks. Arm shares lost 3% on the week. Arm has been an incredible position for us; shares are still up 213% year to date. There was one big chip-stock winner amid all the carnage. Shares of Marvell Technology gained more than 28% last week. On Tuesday, Jensen predicted that Marvell would be the "next trillion-dollar company." Before those comments, which sent the stock rocketing higher, Marvell had a market cap of nearly $200 billion. Jim said the sharp rally in Marvell shares was concerning. "These are big moves, and they're not based on anything other than one person saying it." Still, Jim remains bullish on Marvell, which is not a Club stock. IPOs and stock sales The other big story of the week, which will carry into next week and beyond, is the deluge of stock expected to hit the market from three massive IPOs. The first one is SpaceX, which is set to start trading this coming Friday. Elon Musk's satellite, rocket, and AI company disclosed plans last Wednesday to sell 555.6 million shares at a fixed price of $135 each, raising roughly $75 billion at a $1.8 trillion market value. SpaceX is just one of several high-profile IPOs. Anthropic, known for its family of large language models called Claude, confidentially filed its IPO prospectus on Monday. The deal could create a historic share sale for investors ready to jump into AI, as Anthropic recently closed a funding round that valued the startup at $965 billion. The news put Anthropic ahead of rival OpenAI, which is readying plans for a public market listing. The startup was recently valued at a $852 billion post-money. Companies aren't just raising capital through IPOs. Last week, Alphabet announced plans to sell $85 billion in stock to secure more funding for its AI buildout. Shares of the Google parent fell almost 4% Tuesday on the news and lost 3% on the week. Investors don't typically like it when companies sell stock to fund investments because it can dilute their existing stakes. The move raised questions about whether other megacaps will do the same. Club stock Meta Platforms sank on Friday after the Financial Times reported that the company could potentially raise tens of billions of dollars in a stock offering to help fund its AI push. Meta lost more than 6% for the week. Jim issued a warning about all these deals, saying that a massive increase in stock supply could create a near-term headwind for the market. The string of big tech IPOs and stock sales could prompt investors to sell existing holdings to raise cash and buy shares elsewhere. "Bull markets can be killed by business conditions or interest rates or geopolitical turmoil, but the thing that most easily leads them to the slaughterhouse is an excess of new supply," he said during "Mad Money" on Wednesday. "Like any market, when supply outstrips demand, prices go right down." Jim continued, "I get concerned that stock supply will overwhelm investor demand. Right now, looking at the calendar, I don't know how we are going to afford all of these deals without taking the market lower. It's too much capital at once." (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Four leading AI models discuss this article
"Near-term downside risk comes from higher-for-longer rates and looming IPO supply, but macro stabilization could unlock a two-speed rebound for select AI-focused names."
The piece paints a bearish near-term picture driven by rate hikes, tech pain, and a flood of big IPOs. But the macro shock may prove transient if wage growth cools and the Fed hints at slower tightening; the ‘AI mega-cap’ narrative remains a drag on breadth, yet the durability of earnings in select names could shine as multiple expansion contracts. The SpaceX/Anthropic claims look dubious or at least timing-sensitive; if IPO supply bombs or is delayed, the perceived headwind eases. The key is whether macro policy path re-centers risk premia or simply recalibrates it higher.
If inflation cools and the Fed signals a patient stance, rates could plateau or decline, allowing breadth to reflate and tech to outperform; the IPO pipeline may prove to be a liquidity tailwind, not a headwind.
"The market is entering a period of structural weakness as the massive influx of new equity supply and corporate dilution outpaces current liquidity levels."
The market is undergoing a painful but necessary 'valuation reset' as the AI narrative shifts from speculative hype to capital-intensive reality. The sell-off isn't just about interest rates; it's a liquidity crunch driven by a massive supply overhang. When companies like Alphabet and potentially Meta start diluting shareholders to fund capex, the 'free money' era for tech multiples ends. While the article focuses on earnings misses, the real story is the transition from AI-driven multiple expansion to AI-driven margin compression. Investors are finally pricing in the massive cost of compute, and the 'buy the dip' reflex is being tested by a genuine shift in supply-demand dynamics for equity capital.
If AI productivity gains begin to show up in non-tech corporate margins by Q4, this 'supply glut' will be viewed as a massive investment cycle that justifies the dilution.
"The article mistakes a healthy earnings-driven rotation and multiple reset for a bear market signal, when the real risk is whether megacap AI valuations can justify current prices if rates stay elevated."
The article conflates three separate market dynamics into one narrative of chaos, but they're actually competing forces. Yes, Friday's 2.6% S&P drop and 4.2% Nasdaq drop were real, but the 10-year yield spike to 4.5% on strong jobs data is structurally bullish for equities long-term—it signals economic resilience, not recession. The tech selloff was mostly multiple compression on stocks trading at 50+ forward P/E ratios (Broadcom, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto) that had run hard. The IPO/secondary supply concern is real but overstated: $75B SpaceX + $85B Alphabet + Anthropic ≈ $160B total—material but not market-breaking against $40T+ equity market cap. Marvell's 28% pop on Huang's comment is the real red flag here: sentiment-driven, not fundamentals-driven.
If the jobs report signals the Fed stays higher for longer, terminal rates could be 50-75bps higher than priced, which would compress valuations across the board—not just tech. And $160B in new supply hitting a market already pricing in AI perfection could trigger a liquidity crunch if retail investors get spooked.
"Excess equity supply from mega-IPOs and secondaries poses the clearest near-term threat to valuations even if AI fundamentals remain intact."
The article highlights how unmet sky-high expectations at AVGO, PANW and CRWD triggered a sharp rotation out of tech, amplified by a hotter-than-expected jobs report pushing yields above 4.5%. The bigger near-term risk it flags is the coming wave of supply—SpaceX’s $75B IPO, Alphabet’s $85B secondary, potential Meta raise, and Anthropic filing—which Jim Cramer warns could overwhelm demand and end the bull market. While AI revenue beats at Broadcom and CrowdStrike are real, Friday’s 4.2% Nasdaq drop shows sentiment can flip fast when capital has too many places to go at once.
Strong secular AI demand could easily absorb the incremental supply, as Marvell’s 28% rally on a single bullish comment already demonstrated; the market has shrugged off similar dilution waves in prior cycles without derailing the uptrend.
"Rising rates alone can pressurize valuations; without visible earnings acceleration from AI, the market faces multiple compression rather than protracted upside."
Claude’s claim that a 4.5% 10-year yield spike is structurally bullish for equities looks like cherry-picking; it assumes a smooth earnings upgrade offsets higher discount rates. In reality, if growth stays patchy and inflation sticky, higher discount rates compress multiples and widen risk premia, hurting valuations even with resilient profits. The near-term risk is a repricing driven by rate expectations rather than AI optimization alone. The key is whether earnings growth can outpace the rate headwind.
"The liquidity impact of new supply is being underestimated because it coincides with a structural rise in the cost of capital, pressuring high-multiple tech valuations."
Claude, your dismissal of the $160B supply wave as 'not market-breaking' ignores the liquidity mechanics of the current market. We are seeing a shift from passive inflows to active, concentrated selling in high-multiple tech. When you combine that with a 4.5% 10-year yield, the 'denominator effect' on risk-parity funds is massive. This isn't just about equity supply; it's about the cost of capital forcing a rotation out of the very names that drove the S&P 500's performance.
"Supply headwinds matter only if they compete for scarce capital; higher rates may paradoxically widen the equity risk premium enough to absorb the issuance without crowding out existing holders."
Gemini's denominator effect argument is sharp, but conflates two separate mechanics. Risk-parity funds rebalance on volatility spikes, not supply waves—the 4.5% yield causes the rebalancing, not $160B in new equity issuance. The real question: does that $160B compete for the same capital, or does higher rates actually *attract* fresh dry powder into equities as alternatives become less attractive? Nobody's addressed whether the supply is demand-destructive or just a reallocation within an expanding investor base.
"Rate-driven risk-parity outflows and the supply wave hit the same tech names simultaneously, turning reallocation into net selling pressure."
Claude separates the 4.5% yield spike from the $160B supply wave, but they interact directly: higher rates trigger risk-parity deleveraging that hits the same high-multiple tech names now facing dilution. This creates simultaneous selling pressure rather than reallocation into an expanding investor base. Marvell's sentiment-driven pop already shows how thin the bid can be when capital has alternatives at elevated yields.
The panel largely agrees that the market is undergoing a 'valuation reset' due to rate hikes, tech multiple compression, and a flood of big IPOs, painting a bearish near-term picture. However, there's disagreement on whether this is a transient macro shock or a more fundamental shift.
Select tech names with durable earnings could shine as multiple expansion contracts.
The coming wave of supply, led by SpaceX's $75B IPO and Alphabet's $85B secondary, could overwhelm demand and end the bull market.