Stock Market Today: Nasdaq Composite Sinks & NVIDIA (NVDA) Down On New Regulations

At 12:40 p.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite is down a little more than 1%, which is off its lows it tested near the open and at noon.

NVIDIA remains the biggest story today, but not all semiconductor stocks are down. Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO) is up .83%, for example.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (Nasdaq: SOXX) is down .84% today, which is lower than the Nasdaq itself.

Other large cap technology stocks are down today as well. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is down 1.86%, Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) is down 1.8%, and Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) is down 1.14%.

Let’s examine the ‘Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion’ rule that’s sinking AI chip stocks across the market today.

• NVIDIA has released a statement criticizing the rule. They call the rule a “200+ page regulatory morass” that was “drafted in secret” without legislative review.
• One area of criticism is added layers of bureaucracy as the Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) would need to approve purchases from a wide list of countries and set allocations for many countries.

The rules don’t go into effect for 120 days and it’s unclear how it will impact many companies across the semiconductor industry. Many details have yet to be revealed. For example, the allocations across countries the BIS would set are still not revealed.

NVIDIA itself may be falling for multiple reasons today. Beyond the new export restrictions from the Biden Administration, there are also reports of continuing issues with Blackwell production that could lead to a shortfall in revenue in the first half of 2025. Finally, rising interest rates continue to be a headwind to NVIDIA and other technology stocks.

After becoming one of the stock market’s most successful investments during Covid, Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) has had a very difficult run. The company was recently removed from the Nasdaq-100 and has seen its share price fall from a peak of around $450 per share to less than $35 in premarket trading.

The latest pain for Moderna shareholders is another reduction to revenue guidance. The company now expects yearly revenue to land between $1.5 and $2.5 billion, with most that coming in the back half of the year.

Previously, Moderna had forecast sales of $2.5 to $3.5 billion. As you can see, this is a massive reduction in guidance. Moderna has a long runway to getting back to profitability, so this guidance reduction raises more questions how long that timeframe could take.