Micron (MU 3.21%) stock is getting hit with another round of sell-offs in Friday's trading. The company's share price was down 2.8% as of 12:45 p.m. ET. At the same point in the daily session, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively. The memory-chip leader's stock had been down as much as 5% earlier in the session.
Stocks are falling today as investors react to a weaker-than-expected jobs report and ongoing concerns about the war with Iran. Micron stock may also be under pressure due to a new report suggesting that artificial intelligence (AI) processors from Nvidia and AMD could soon face greater export restrictions.
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Micron falls as investors weigh macroeconomic and geopolitical risks
The Bureau of Labor Statistics published its February jobs report this morning, and the results have sent stocks tumbling. While economists had forecasted that the U.S. economy lost 50,000 nonfarm jobs last month, the actual number of payroll reductions came in at 92,000. The data has raised concerns that the economy is weakening.
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Investors are also continuing to process unfolding developments in the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran. Oil prices have already been rising rapidly, and higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions could lead to a significant uptick for inflation. Growth investors have been hoping that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates multiple times this year, but higher inflation would make rate cuts less likely.
Could Micron soon face higher export hurdles?
News hit yesterday that Nvidia had stopped making its H200 chips designed for the Chinese market. According to a report published by Bloomberg the same day, the U.S. is considering requiring export licenses for the sale of AI processors from Nvidia and AMD to all foreign countries.
Micron's high-bandwidth-memory (HBM) chips are used as components in Nvidia's and AMD's high-end processors, and this category of products has played the driving role in the memory specialist's explosive stock gains over the last year. While it's likely that export licenses would be granted for most countries, the implementation of licensing requirements could result in some sales headwinds for Micron.
