Stocks retreat from records as chip stocks fall, core inflation rises

Core inflation (which strips out volatile food and energy prices) rose by more than expected in April.

Your Evening Briefing May 12, 2026 Stocks retreat from records as chip stocks fall, core inflation rises The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 retreated from yesterday’s records as core inflation came in hotter than expected for April. The April reading of the Consumer Price Index showed headline inflation rose 0.6% month on month (as economists expected), with core inflation (which strips out volatile food and energy prices) rising 0.4%, more than the 0.3% economists had anticipated. Consumer discretionary was the worst-performing sector, dragged down by losses in Amazon and Tesla, while information technology was the second-worst as chip stocks pulled back. Healthcare was the best performer. Stocks that moved higher: PACS Group, Inc. soared after beating estimates for Q1 earnings and revenue. BuzzFeed surged after Byron Allen agreed to buy a controlling stake at $3 a share and become CEO. Quantum Computing soared after posting better-than-expected Q1 sales. Stocks that moved lower: Micron, Western Digital, Seagate Technology Holdings, and Sandisk fell after a prominent South Korean policymaker floated a “citizen dividend” funded by AI tax revenues, rattling the memory chip sector. Hims & Hers plunged after taking a $33 million restructuring charge and entering a “strategic pivot” following blowback from its copycat Wegovy pill. Under Armour tumbled after forecasting an annual sales decline, while analysts had anticipated a 2% increase. GitLab fell after announcing a workforce reduction plan tied to the “agentic era”. Tesla slipped as a Reuters report poured water on its Texas robotaxi expansion plans. AST SpaceMobile sank after a big revenue miss, though the company maintained full-year guidance. D-Wave Quantum fell after reporting lower-than-expected Q1 sales, despite a boom in backlog from major deals. Shares of Rigetti Computing fell despite the quantum computing firm reporting Q1 sales that exceeded analysts’ estimates after the bell yesterday. Bitcoin miner and data center operator MARA Holdings dipped after releasing its Q1 earnings report yesterday, missing analysts’ expectations on revenue and earnings per share. T1 Energy dipped despite posting a much-smaller-than-feared quarterly loss this morning. Shares of Power Solutions International extended yesterday’s losses after the engine and power system provider released its Q1 results. Shares of CleanSpark fell after the bitcoin miner and data center developer reported its second-quarter earnings yesterday, missingWall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines. 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