AI-spend anxiety hits Thursday premarket: Alphabet sinks 10.5%, Marvell drops 9.4% on Lumentum talks; Nasdaq futures slide
What happened
Thursday premarket trading turned into a stress test for the AI trade after mixed Big Tech earnings. Alphabet (GOOGL) slid 10.5% in premarket trading after reporting disappointing results in its core search advertising business and a massive acceleration in cash burn as it poured resources into AI buildout, wiping nearly $400 billion off its market value and dragging Nasdaq futures down about 1%. Microsoft (MSFT) climbed 3.5% premarket after delivering a cash-flow beat and strong Azure growth (+48%), offering a sharp contrast. Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 9.4% premarket on media reports that it is in advanced talks to buy data-center optics maker Lumentum Holdings (LITE) in a potential megadeal, with Lumentum rising 4.3% premarket after soaring 10% after hours. The broader semiconductor space weakened in sympathy (Nvidia -1%, AMD -3.3%, Intel -3.6%), and software extended Wednesday's post-earnings selloff: ServiceNow dropped 19% premarket and Fortinet 25.4%, with Zscaler and Salesforce among the laggards. Asian shares gave up earlier gains, with the KOSPI down 2.6% after a nearly 7% surge a day earlier.
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Start your free 14-day trialWho’s affected
- GOOGL/GOOG (direct hit: core search/ad miss, cash-burn acceleration, ~$400B market value wiped in premarket)
- MSFT (divergent beneficiary: +3.5% on Azure 48% and cash-flow beat)
- MRVL (-9.4% premarket on reported advanced talks to acquire LITE)
- LITE (+4.3% premarket, +10% after hours as target); semiconductor sector (NVDA -1%, AMD -3.3%, INTC -3.6% premarket)
- SaaS/software complex (NOW -19% premarket, FTNT -25.4%, ZS, CRM, INTU, ADBE, PANW weak on sympathy
- IGV -3% overnight)
- Nasdaq-100 futures (-1.2%) and Asia-Pacific equities (KOSPI -2.6%, MSCI Asia ex-Japan -0.7%).