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Top Midday Stories: Semiconductor Stocks Down After Trump-Xi Summit; Microsoft Gets Investment From Ackman

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All three major US stock indexes were down while US Treasury yields were up in late-morning trading Friday, as investors consider developments from President Donald Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In company news, major semiconductor shares were down after the US-China summit failed to produce any major semiconductor agreements, Yahoo Finance reported. President Trump said China has not approved purchases of Nvidia's (NVDA) H200 AI microchips yet because "they want to develop their own," Bloomberg reported Friday. Nvidia shares were over 3% lower, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel (INTC) and ASML (ASML) shares were down 3.3%, 6.3% and 4.6%, respectively.

Bill Ackman said Friday on X that his hedge fund, Pershing Square, has made a significant investment in Microsoft (MSFT). Microsoft shares were up 3.5%.

Applied Materials (AMAT) reported fiscal Q2 adjusted earnings late Thursday of $2.86 per diluted share, up from $2.39 a year ago, and above the FactSet consensus estimate of $2.68. Revenue was $7.91 billion, up from $7.10 billion a year ago, and above the FactSet consensus of $7.68 billion. For fiscal Q3, the company said it expects adjusted EPS of $3.16 to $3.56 on revenue of $8.45 billion to $9.45 billion. Analysts expect $2.89 and $8.14 billion, respectively. The firm expects its semiconductor equipment business to grow more than 30% in 2026, up from its previous guidance of over 20%, according to the transcript of the company's earnings call. Applied Materials shares were little changed.

Shares of Cerebras Systems (CBRS) were down 4% Friday after rising over 98% in the previous day following its Nasdaq debut.

Blackstone (BX) and CD&R are in the preliminary stages of exploring offers to acquire Magnum Ice Cream (MICC), Reuters reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Blackstone shares were down 3.0%, while Magnum was up 9%.

Price: $227.99, Change: $-7.75, Percent Change: -3.29%

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