What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after markets pulled back as a report raised concerns about artificial intelligence demand and profitability.
Oracle shares lost more than 5% following news of its cloud business generating lighter margins than expected. According to internal documents cited in the report, the gross profit margin for this business was only 14%, a figure much lower than what analysts had expected. This suggested that the high costs of running the advanced chip infrastructure were weighing on profitability. Compounding these worries was the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, in its second week, with no clear resolution in sight from Washington. These updates drove investors away from riskier assets and towards safe havens, a trend highlighted by gold futures hitting a record $4,000 per ounce for the first time.
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:
- Communications Platform company Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) fell 4.5%. Is now the time to buy Bandwidth? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Data Infrastructure company C3.ai (NYSE: AI) fell 4%. Is now the time to buy C3.ai? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Advertising Software company LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP) fell 2.9%. Is now the time to buy LiveRamp? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Vulnerability Management company Rapid7 (NASDAQ: RPD) fell 3.7%. Is now the time to buy Rapid7? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- E-commerce Software company Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) fell 4.5%. Is now the time to buy Wix? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
Zooming In On Wix (WIX)
Wix’s shares are very volatile and have had 22 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 14 days ago when the stock dropped 4.1% on the news that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered cautious remarks on the economy, spooking investors and pulling indexes back from record highs.
Speaking for the first time since the central bank's recent interest rate cut, Powell described the current economic landscape as a "challenging situation." He highlighted the difficult task of balancing a weakening labor market against persistent inflation risks. Powell also commented that equity prices appeared "fairly highly valued," adding to investor concerns and prompting profit-taking. The cautious tone from the Fed chair drove declines across major indexes, including the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq, as the market reassessed the path forward for monetary policy.
Wix is down 35.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $138.71 per share, it is trading 43.8% below its 52-week high of $246.76 from January 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Wix’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $492.21.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading close to all-time highs, we prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story.
