Technology stocks see three-week slump, led by Amazon and Intel

With quarterly results from mega-cap technology firms largely within the rearview mirror, one thing is evident: Wall Street is nervous.

The Nasdaq Composite slumped 3.4% this week, bringing its three-week decline to eight.8%. That's the tech-heavy index's worst performance in that period since September 2022, when the market was in freefall as a result of rising inflation and rates of interest, in accordance with FactSet.

Since the tip of 2022, developments within the technology sector have been predominantly positive: the US economy is recovering from the pandemic and enthusiasm for the expansion opportunities offered by artificial intelligence is growing.

The Nasdaq rose 43 percent last 12 months and stays up 12 percent year-to-date after hitting a record high last month.

But last 12 months's reporting season was disappointing, with some firms pointing to weaker-than-expected growth and others expressing concern that the expansion of AI infrastructure could face obstacles.

Concerns concerning the wider U.S. economy are hanging over the industry. The Labor Department said Friday that job growth slowed rather more than expected in July while unemployment rose barely, a day after economic data showed an unexpected rise in jobless claims and a slowdown within the manufacturing sector.

Josh Koren, founding father of Musketeer Capital Partners, says tech giants with valuations above $1 trillion are increasingly becoming a macro play because they’re so big that weaknesses in the general data will naturally be reflected of their results.

Amazon And Apple each reported their results on Thursday, with Amazon missing revenue and issuing a disappointing forecast and Apple reporting revenue growth of just 5%.

“As the economy slows, the growth of companies like Amazon and Apple will also slow,” Koren told CNBC's “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday. “You can see that in the earnings.”

Amazon plunged 8.8 percent on Friday, bringing its three-week decline to 14 percent. Executives on the earnings call attributed among the sales decline to consumers buying cheaper household goods and cheaper items equivalent to computers and televisions.

“We're seeing many of the same consumer trends we talked about last year: consumers are cautious with their spending and buying cheaper products,” Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said on the conference call. “We're seeing signs that this is continuing in the third quarter.”

Less worrying were Apple's results – the corporate beat earnings and revenue forecasts – and the stock ended Friday and the week barely higher. But that got here after the stock had fallen greater than 5% within the previous two weeks.

Microsoft slipped 4% this week and is down 10% over the past three weeks. The tech giant gave weaker-than-expected guidance for the present quarter and missed growth in its Azure cloud segment. Analysts at Mizuho wrote in a note following the report that Azure core consumption was hurt by capability constraints and weakness in certain European regions.

Shares of alphabet were down barely this week after falling 10% within the previous two weeks. In its earnings report, YouTube's ad revenue missed estimates and only managed 11% overall ad growth, well below its competitors Metawhich expanded by 22%.

Meta was the standout company of the group, with shares up nearly 5% this week after the corporate beat Wall Street estimates and issued an upbeat forecast for the present quarter. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the corporate's heavy investment in AI is paying off by creating more relevant ads and making it easier for marketers to create campaigns.

“The way it improves recommendations and helps people find better content and makes the advertising experiences more effective, I think there's a lot of potential,” Zuckerberg said on the corporate's quarterly earnings call last month. “These are already products that are available at scale. The AI ​​work we're doing will improve that.”

But even after this rally, Meta has been within the red for the last three weeks.

The only mega-tech company that hasn't yet reported results is Nvidia, the most important winner of the AI ​​boom. Its stock fell 17 percent in the course of the three-week slump on the Nasdaq, but continues to be up greater than 110 percent year-to-date.

Nvidia is banking on investments from its top technology rivals because it builds out its AI infrastructure. Given Nvidia's parabolic rise over the past few years, any sign of a possible decline can have a big impact on the stock. The company will report its results on August 28.

On the opposite side of the semiconductor market, Intel.

Intel, once the world's largest chipmaker, has been overtaken by its rivals in recent times and is way behind within the AI ​​race. The stock had its worst day in 50 years on Friday, plunging 26% to levels not seen since 2013.

Intel reported an enormous profit miss and announced a significant restructuring that features shedding 15% of its workforce. CEO Pat Gelsinger told CNBC on Friday that it was Intel's “most extensive restructuring since the shift to memory microprocessors four decades ago.” Investors aren't confident it is going to work.

In a note on Friday, analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets lowered their estimates and maintained their hold suggestion for the stock, as they see a difficult road ahead.

“Given all the challenges INTC faces, such a massive reduction in staff will likely make it more difficult for the company to achieve its goals,” they wrote.