Investing.com - Shares of Tesla fell sharply midday on co-founder Elon Musk’s woes and its meeting with regulators next week. And weakness in semiconductor guidance led to a selloff in technology stocks.
The S&P Information Technology Sector index lost about 0.4% at 11:25 AM ET (15:25 GMT).
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock fell about 8% midday.
Musk and Tesla’s board are set to meet with the Securities and Exchange Commission as early as next week about a tweet from Musk that said funding was secured to take the company private, according to a New York Times report. That could be interpreted by the SEC as an attack on Tesla short-sellers.
Musk told the Times that “this past year has been the most difficult and painful year of my career.” The report also suggested that efforts are underway to find a No. 2 executive to help take some of the pressure off Musk and that the board is concerned about his use of Ambien.
Chip stocks were also lower. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) sank about 4.5% after the company issued softer-than-expected guidance. Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) stock plunged 6.3% after the chipmaker forecast weaker-than-expected earnings per share.
Dow component Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) lost about 0.8% but Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) was up about 1.8%.
Tech selling also hit shares of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), which lost about 2%.
Shares of Netflix are now more than $100 below their all-time closing high of $418.97.