Stock market today: Nasdaq plunges, S&P 500 and Dow fall as Amazon, Intel profits fuel tech rout

Intel (INTC) stock was torched in pre-market trading Friday, falling 26%, after the company warned of weak PC sales in the current quarter. At the heart of this warning is consumer resistance to rising PC prices resulting from the memory chip shortage.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan predicts tougher quarters ahead due to memory chip dynamics.

“Our customers have started reporting PC slowdown based on price and memory availability,” Tan said. “Since the start of the year, prices for system terminals have increased significantly, putting additional pressure on already limited IT budgets. The pace of this PC fix has accelerated over the past couple of months as our OEM partners aggressively manage their inventory to match lower sales.

On the other hand, attend memory chip maker Sandisk’s (SNDK) Thursday night earnings call, and you’ll have heard that there is no memory chip shortage. Or, at the very least, things should improve noticeably in the coming months.

“We believe our internal models cover all segments of the NAND market,” said David Goeckeler, CEO of Sandisk. “PCs, smartphones and data centers will all show positive growth next year as content per device continues to increase as part of this mix towards premium.”

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