What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after renewed confidence in the artificial intelligence sector fueled a market rally as Nvidia's CEO confirmed that computing demand has "gone up substantially."
These comments helped reassure the market that the AI boom is supported by genuine demand, calming fears that were sparked a day earlier by a report questioning the profitability of Oracle's cloud business. The rally was strong enough to put the information technology sector on pace for a fresh closing high. This upward momentum occurred despite potential headwinds from an ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which entered its second week.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Amkor (NASDAQ:AMKR) jumped 2.7%. Is now the time to buy Amkor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) jumped 3.3%. Is now the time to buy IPG Photonics? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) jumped 3%. Is now the time to buy Applied Materials? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Analog Semiconductors company NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) jumped 3%. Is now the time to buy NXP Semiconductors? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Analog Semiconductors company Universal Display (NASDAQ:OLED) jumped 2.7%. Is now the time to buy Universal Display? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
Zooming In On IPG Photonics (IPGP)
IPG Photonics’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 13 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 1 day ago when the stock dropped 5.9% as reports revealed tech giant Oracle is generating lower-than-expected margins in its cloud business and losing money on Nvidia chip rentals.
The news caused Oracle's shares to tumble over 5% and sparked a wider tech sell-off, pulling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down. Investors are growing concerned about the actual strength and profitability of artificial intelligence demand, which has been a primary driver of the market's recent record-breaking run. Oracle's struggles suggest that the massive capital investments required for AI, such as acquiring expensive chips, may not be translating into immediate or guaranteed profits. This has led to broader anxiety that the AI boom's financial returns might be less certain than previously anticipated, causing traders to pull back from the sector.
Compounding these worries was the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, in its second week, with no clear resolution in sight from Washington. This political uncertainty drove investors away from riskier assets and towards safe havens, a trend highlighted by gold hitting a record $4,000 per ounce for the first time.
IPG Photonics is up 20.8% since the beginning of the year, and at $87.77 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $88.19 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of IPG Photonics’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $488.07.
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