NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 12:56 ET — Regular session
- Lumentum slid about 4% in midday trading, falling more than tech benchmarks and key optical peers.
- The drop came as U.S. stocks eased from record highs, with investors trimming exposure to heavyweight tech and AI-linked names in thin year-end trade.
- Traders are watching this week’s Federal Reserve minutes and jobless-claims data for any shift in the rate outlook ahead of the New Year holiday.
Shares of Lumentum Holdings fell 4.1% to $374.87 by 12:56 p.m. ET, extending a pullback from last week’s highs.
The retreat matters because Lumentum has become a high-beta proxy for investor appetite in AI data-center hardware, after a sharp run that put the stock among the market’s standout gainers this year.
The broader tape was softer. The Nasdaq-100 tracker Invesco QQQ was down about 0.8% and the S&P 500 proxy SPDR SPY slipped roughly 0.6%.
“This is (not) the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust, said in a Reuters interview about Monday’s tech-led pullback. Reuters
Other optical and networking names also traded lower, though by less than Lumentum. Coherent fell 1.9% and Ciena slipped 2.0%.
Lumentum’s shares have been volatile, swinging from an intraday high of $390 to a low of $364.50 on Monday. The stock hit a 52-week high of $401.60 on Dec. 24, according to Yahoo Finance historical data.
Lumentum makes optical and photonic components used in cloud data-center links and communications networks, along with industrial lasers. Its cloud and networking products include components and modules used in AI and machine-learning infrastructure.
The company’s last major update came on Nov. 4, when it reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $533.8 million and pointed to momentum in data-center and long-haul markets. It also highlighted optical circuit switches and co-packaged optics as growth drivers; co-packaged optics puts optical links closer to chips to boost speed and cut power.
Monday’s slide also reflected the calendar. Trading volumes are typically lighter into year-end, and U.S. markets will be shut on Thursday for New Year’s Day, which can magnify moves in fast-rising stocks.
Investors are looking to Fed minutes and weekly jobless claims later this week for clues on whether rate-cut expectations for 2026 are holding up, a key support for high-growth technology valuations.
On the company front, Wall Street will be focused on Lumentum’s next quarterly results for updates on demand for optical transceivers — devices that move data by converting electrical signals to light — and any changes in margins and supply constraints tied to AI-related buildouts. Zacks expects the next report around Feb. 5 based on past reporting patterns.
Even after Monday’s drop, the stock is up about 366% over the past 52 weeks, underscoring how quickly sentiment can swing in the AI-linked hardware trade.
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