Applied Materials just had its longest losing streak since 2012. Nine sessions in a row, down about 22%. The company held its big investor day, announced a massive new R&D center, and told everyone AI demand is going to be huge through 2030. Then the stock kept falling anyway.
The official explanation is that management didn't give a specific spending forecast for next year. That's it. They said the future looks great but wouldn't put a number on the near term, and the market punished them for it.
But that feels like an excuse. The whole chip equipment sector got hit this week because people are starting to question whether all this AI spending is actually sustainable. CoreWeave's bonds are trading like the company is in trouble, and if the big AI infrastructure borrowers can't get cheap money, they can't keep buying equipment. Applied is right in the middle of that chain.
I hold a small position and I'm not selling. But watching a stock drop for nine days straight while the company says everything is fine is maddening. At some point someone has to explain what the market sees that the earnings report doesn't.