The Close, July 14: IBM lost a quarter of its value, and SK Hynix's Nasdaq stock jumped 27%

Tuesday was a split-screen day. The inflation report that landed before the open was about as friendly as the market could have hoped for, chip stocks rallied on it, and then IBM walked in and took over the whole session for the wrong reasons. The company put out preliminary numbers that badly missed, and the stock fell about 25% by the close. That is roughly a quarter of a company that has been around for more than a century, gone in one session.

Winners and losers

IBM was the story, and not a good one. The stock closed near $217, down about 25% from Monday's $290. That is a jarring move for a Dow component, the kind of drop you seldom see in a company this size. The trigger was a preliminary results release that came in well under what analysts expected, and investors did not wait around for the full report to sell.

SK Hynix's new Nasdaq stock (SKHY) was the day's biggest gainer, up about 27% to just under $194, on the same day IBM was posting the board's worst loss. That gain comes with an asterisk, because the same company's shares in Seoul rose less than 4% on the day. We got into why that gap exists in a separate piece on the SK Hynix ADR.

AIStockWire's David Han had a theory on why SK Hynix listed in New York in the first place, written the week the stock started trading. His read: Korea's market structure does not let anything stay above Samsung for long, so SK Hynix went to the Nasdaq for room to trade that Seoul was not giving it. Read his full theory here. A 27% jump in New York against a 4% gain in Seoul, roughly seven times the size, is the kind of gap that theory was built to explain.

Past those two, the gainer list was mostly smaller, faster names. AIRO Group (AIRO) climbed about 14%, RoboStrategy (BOT) about 13%, and FuelCell Energy (FCEL) about 12%. CrowdStrike (CRWD) was the odd one out, a large-cap security name up about 12% while the rest of enterprise software sank. Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) and Tower Semiconductor (TSEM) both ran double digits too. You can see the full board on our movers page.

The loser list past IBM was a mix. Ericsson (ERIC) dropped about 14% on the Q2 earnings day we flagged in our earnings preview two weeks ago. Adjusted earnings per share came in roughly 89% below Wall Street's estimate, and free cash flow fell sharply from a year earlier. CEO Borje Ekholm also pointed to rising, AI-driven component costs as a headwind heading into the second half of the year. Past Ericsson, a cluster of robotics and medical names got hit too: Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) fell about 7% and PROCEPT BioRobotics (PRCT) about 9%. Nebius (NBIS) and TeraWulf (WULF) both fell on data center news, which we get to below.

Chips bounced, enterprise software cracked

The cool inflation print gave semiconductors a clear lift. Nvidia (NVDA) and Micron (MU) each closed up around 4 to 5%, Marvell (MRVL) added about 2%, and the smaller optical names ran harder, with Applied Optoelectronics up about 12% and POET Technologies (POET) up about 10%. Arm (ARM) was the exception, down about 6%.

Enterprise software sold off hard, and IBM was the obvious reason. ServiceNow (NOW) fell about 6%, Adobe (ADBE) about 4%, Workday (WDAY) around 4%, and even Microsoft (MSFT) slipped. When a legacy software giant preannounces a bad quarter, traders tend to sell the whole neighborhood first and ask questions later. The AI platform names dodged it though. Alphabet (GOOGL) closed up about 2% and Palantir (PLTR) about 3%.

Data centers, drones, and everything else

Data center stocks had a rough, headline-driven day. New York's governor signed a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, and the names with actual New York exposure took the hit. TeraWulf fell about 7% and Digital Realty (DLR) slid with it. Nebius dropped almost 8% even though its projects have nothing to do with Albany, which is the sort of thing that happens when a sector headline lands and traders sell first.

Drones and defense had a good day. AIRO Group jumped about 14%, Unusual Machines (UMAC) rose about 8%, and Kratos (KTOS) added about 7%. Quantum names drifted higher, with Rigetti (RGTI) up about 5%. Bitcoin miners had a mixed day. CleanSpark (CLSK) moved up about 9% on a big AI data center lease. TeraWulf sank on the New York order instead.

What else happened today

Five pieces went up on the site today. Here they are in one place.

• Inflation fell for the first time since 2020, and IBM still crashed: June CPI dropped 0.4%, chips bounced, and IBM's miss dragged the software group down while CleanSpark rose on a $6.6 billion lease.
• SK Hynix's Nasdaq stock ran far ahead of its Seoul shares: why a brand-new, thinly available ADR can trade so far above the same company's home listing.
• New York froze new data centers, and TeraWulf became the day's biggest loser for it: which names actually have New York exposure, and which got sold anyway.
• Bitcoin miners are becoming AI landlords: how far each of the eight miners has really gotten with its AI pivot, from IREN and TeraWulf to CleanSpark.
• I let Claude AI trade $100 on Robinhood, week 3: the bot cut MicroStrategy right at the low, and it gapped up about 6% the next morning.

All prices and percentages here are as of Tuesday's regular session close, July 14, 2026, and do not include any after-hours trading. Markets keep moving, and this wrap will not be updated after publication. Nothing here is investment advice.