Applied Materials stock slides 5.6% into February as chip-tool shares crack

1 February 2026

New York, Feb 1, 2026, 14:43 EST — The market has closed.

Applied Materials dropped 5.6% on Friday amid a wider selloff in semiconductor stocks.
Shares of chipmaking equipment firms fell as well, leaving traders on edge ahead of Monday’s open.
Attention shifts to Applied’s earnings report on Feb. 12 for clues on 2026 tool demand and how much China weighs in.

Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) dropped 5.6% to close at $322.32 on Friday, wrapping up a tough week for chip-equipment stocks as selling pressure intensified late January.

This shift is crucial now, since the stock directly reflects confidence in chipmakers continuing to fund new factories and equipment. Investors are zeroing in on “wafer fab equipment,” or WFE — the gear used to produce chips — searching for clues that spending will ramp up again in 2026.

Friday’s sell-off came amid a jittery session after President Donald Trump tapped former Fed governor Kevin Warsh as his pick for Fed chair and a producer-price report came in hotter than anticipated. “You’ve got uncertainty… a new nominated chair,” noted Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management. Reuters

Semiconductor ETFs were hit hard. The iShares Semiconductor ETF plunged 4.1%, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF down 3.4% on Friday. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF edged lower by 0.4%.

Chip tools took a harder hit. KLA Corp dropped 15.2%, Lam Research lost 5.9%, and Dutch lithography giant ASML slipped 2.2%.

KLA topped Wall Street forecasts late Thursday, boosted by strong demand for tools used in advanced chip production. Yet its shares slipped in after-hours trading. Michael Ashley Schulman, CIO at Running Point Capital Advisors, noted the stock had “sprinted into the print,” suggesting limited upside potential. Reuters

Earlier this week, Lam took a more upbeat stance, predicting quarterly revenue would exceed estimates thanks to strong demand for chipmaking tools. CEO Tim Archer highlighted the company’s “expanding product and services portfolio” as key to supporting the industry’s move toward smaller, more intricate devices. Reuters

For Applied, the focus now shifts away from just one quarter to the broader order tone: memory spending, demand for cutting-edge logic, and if service revenue can offset any slowdown in new tool shipments. Traders will be watching closely for clues about lead times and what customers have planned for their near-term budgets.

Still, the risk remains. Applied Materials warned in November that tougher U.S. export rules would curb its access to the China market and predicted chipmaking equipment spending there would drop in 2026.

Applied’s latest SEC proxy filing reveals it will hold its 2026 annual meeting on March 12 in Santa Clara, California.

Applied is gearing up to release its fiscal first-quarter 2026 earnings, with a conference call scheduled for Feb. 12 at 4:30 p.m. ET.

U.S. trading picks up Monday, with investors zeroing in on the chip-equipment sector to steady itself after Friday’s drop. AMAT faces its next major hurdle on Feb. 12.

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Khadija Saeed is a financial markets reporter at TS2.tech. Her coverage ranges from stocks and technology to emerging industries and developments across global markets. She studied economics and finance at the London School of Economics and worked in market research before becoming a financial journalist. Follow Khadija Saeed on Google News.

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