The Nasdaq Composite traded lower Monday amid chip stock weakness. The S&P 500 was down slightly as the U.S. bond market -- a key driver of stock movement -- was closed in observance of Columbus Day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day higher.
Micron fell 3.9% and SK Hynix declined 4% after rival Chinese memory chip maker CXMT said it had made progress in developing a competing product design that can store more data.
Other memory stocks also struggled. Memory-card maker Sandisk dropped 6%, while hard disk-drive manufacturers Seagate and Western Digital were down 3.8% and 2.6%, respectively.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dropped 15% and 14%, respectively. Mizuho downgraded both stocks and cut their price targets in half, citing higher mortgage rates, Federal Housing Finance Agency balance sheet positions, and credit scoring changes as key headwinds to privatization.
Salesforce advanced 2% to $233.75. Bank of America double upgraded the stock to Buy from Underperform while raising its price target to $285 from $160. The firm said Salesforce's enterprise artificial-intelligence strategy has reduced risks of AI disruption and that large enterprises were unlikely to replace platforms like Salesforce that contain their business logic and data.
IonQ declined 9.1% after the company said it would acquire enterprise security start-up Elisity for as much as $1.3 billion in an all-stock transaction. The stock dropped Monday on potential investor concerns that the company has scaled too quickly.
Iren fell 1.1% after the Information reported that artificial-intelligence company Anthropic has a multiyear cloud computing deal with Iren, citing people familiar with the matter. Anthropic and Iren didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Barron's.
CCC Intelligent Solutions jumped 8.1%. Bloomberg reported that Elliott Investment Management and GTCR were in talks to potentially acquire the car-insurance-software company. The potential takeover could signal to investors that anxiety over AI disruption facing software providers might be waning.
EBay gained 2.2% to $114.65 after Morgan Stanley named the stock a top pick and raised its price target to $132 from $127. The firm wrote that the eBay Live interactive livestreaming platform has already driven an estimated 40% of the company's growth.
Adobe fell 1.7% to $238.14. Wells Fargo downgraded shares to Underweight from Overweight while lowering its price target to $225 from $270. The analyst cited worsening organic growth, executive instability, and a fundamental shift from pricing power to freemium acquisition as reasons for the downgrade.
First Solar rose 1.1% to $179.72 after Truist Securities upgraded the solar panel manufacturer to Buy from Hold, citing a recent valuation reset and signs of rising solar demand through the end of 2030. The firm also raised its price target to $270 from $229.