New York, Feb 14, 2026, 12:06 EST — Market closed
- Applied Materials rose sharply on Friday after forecasting above-estimate quarterly results tied to AI chip demand.
- Nvidia and other AI bellwethers lagged even as chip-equipment names held up.
- U.S. markets reopen Tuesday after the Presidents Day holiday; Nvidia’s Feb. 25 results and its March GTC event are the next big sector catalysts.
Applied Materials ended Friday as a rare upside print in a jittery AI trade, after the chipmaking-tools maker pointed to resilient demand tied to data-center buildouts.
The move mattered because it hit a pressure point: investors have been selling “AI losers” — stocks they think could get displaced by automation — while still trying to judge whether AI spending is paying off right now.
With U.S. markets shut for the weekend and Monday’s holiday, the sector goes into next week with mixed signals: orders for the tools that make chips look firm, but the biggest AI names have not been acting well.
Applied Materials (AMAT) finished up about 8% at $354.91 on Friday after earlier trading as high as $376. The company forecast second-quarter revenue of about $7.65 billion, plus or minus $500 million, and adjusted profit of $2.64 per share, plus or minus 20 cents; CEO Gary Dickerson called the outlook “fueled by the acceleration of industry investments in AI computing.” Morningstar analyst William Kerwin said: “We expect a massive wafer fabrication equipment growth cycle over the next three years.” (Reuters)
Other chip-equipment makers moved with it. Lam Research (LRCX) rose 1.8% and KLA (KLAC) gained 0.9%, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF added 0.9%.
The main AI bellwether still slipped. Nvidia (NVDA) fell 2.2% to $182.81 on Friday; Broadcom (AVGO) dropped 1.8%, Meta (META) slid 1.5%, Alphabet (GOOGL) fell 1.1% and Microsoft (MSFT) edged down 0.1%.
In the broader market, the Nasdaq Composite ended Friday down 0.2% while the S&P 500 eked out a gain, capping a weak week for the main U.S. indexes as tech stayed under pressure. (Reuters)
One driver has been what traders on Wall Street have called the “AI scare trade” — a rush to sell stocks seen as vulnerable to automation, from software into other service-heavy pockets of the market. Barclays equity strategist Emmanual Cau said fear had investors in “sell first think later” mode, asking “who is next.” (Reuters)
The next hard checkpoint for AI stocks is Nvidia’s quarterly report on Feb. 25 after the close, when investors will parse demand signals across GPUs and the wider data-center supply chain. (NVIDIA Newsroom)
Beyond earnings, Nvidia’s GTC conference runs March 16–19 in San Jose, a set-piece event that often resets expectations on product roadmaps and the pace of spending across the AI stack. (NVIDIA)
But the upbeat read from chip-equipment orders can flip fast. If big cloud firms pull back on capex, or if Nvidia’s guidance suggests customers are digesting inventory, the recent bid in AI hardware could fade and the rotation out of richly valued tech could extend.
For the near term, the calendar matters too: U.S. markets are closed Monday for Presidents Day and reopen Tuesday, which can thin liquidity and exaggerate moves when trading resumes. (SIFMA)
When trading restarts, investors will be watching whether Friday’s strength in AI infrastructure names holds — and whether Nvidia’s Feb. 25 report and the March 16 GTC keynote put a floor under the sector, or reopen the argument about how long this AI spending wave can run.
