What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after President Trump threatened a 'massive increase in tariffs' on Chinese imports, reigniting fears of a renewed US-China trade war.
The unexpected comments, made in response to Beijing's plans to tighten export controls on rare-earth minerals, reversed early market gains and sent major indices tumbling. Rare-earth minerals are crucial for components used in the electronics and automotive industries. The tech sector led the losses, with the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite falling 1.7%. The threat jolted Wall Street, sparking concerns that escalating trade tensions could disrupt global supply chains and increase costs for many technology companies that rely on components or manufacturing from China.
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:
- Advertising & Marketing Services company Magnite (NASDAQ:MGNI) fell 2.6%. Is now the time to buy Magnite? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Professional Staffing & HR Solutions company Insperity (NYSE:NSP) fell 3.4%. Is now the time to buy Insperity? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Industrial & Environmental Services company Vestis (NYSE:VSTS) fell 3.4%. Is now the time to buy Vestis? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Data & Business Process Services company Planet Labs (NYSE:PL) fell 4.3%. Is now the time to buy Planet Labs? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
- Hardware & Infrastructure company Super Micro (NASDAQ:SMCI) fell 5.3%. Is now the time to buy Super Micro? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
Zooming In On Super Micro (SMCI)
Super Micro’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 82 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 2 days ago when the stock gained 5.3% on the news that confidence in the artificial intelligence market was renewed, pushing both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new all-time intraday highs.
The rebound was led by chipmaker Nvidia, whose shares rose nearly 2% after its CEO confirmed that demand for computing has "gone up substantially" in recent months. 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.
Super Micro is up 78.8% since the beginning of the year, but at $53.74 per share, it is still trading 11.5% below its 52-week high of $60.71 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Super Micro’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $19,248.
Do you want to know what moves the business you care about? Add them to your StockStory watchlist and every time a stock significantly moves, we provide you with a timely explanation straight to your inbox. It’s free for active Edge members and will only take you a second.