Intel Stock Plunges 29% in Worst Day in Decades on Weak PC Outlook

Key takeaways

• Intel (INTC) fell 28.58% to $65.76 on Friday, October 30, 2026. CNBC and CBS News said it was the stock's worst day since the 1970s.
• The shares ended the week down 24.4%, from $86.96 to $65.76, and lost about 45% in October.
• Third-quarter results beat estimates, but Intel guided fourth-quarter revenue to $15 billion to $16 billion, well below the roughly $17.1 billion analysts expected, and adjusted EPS to 25 cents versus 43 cents expected.
• Intel blamed a sharper PC slowdown, driven by soaring memory prices, plus a deadly explosion at its fab in Israel. Several analysts downgraded the stock or cut their targets.

Intel had one of the worst weeks in its history. The chipmaker's stock had been one of 2026's big winners, up about 150% for the year before its earnings report, according to CNBC. Then a weak forecast for the holiday quarter wiped out about $140 billion in market value in a single session and dragged the whole chip sector down with it.

Here is what happened, day by day, and why investors reacted so strongly.

Intel stock this week, day by day

Date (2026)	Close	Daily change	Note
Fri, Oct 23	$86.96	+1.72%	Prior week close
Mon, Oct 26	$90.47	+4.04%
Tue, Oct 27	$93.74	+3.61%
Wed, Oct 28	$95.53	+1.91%	High close of the week
Thu, Oct 29	$92.07	-3.62%	Q3 results after the close
Fri, Oct 30	$65.76	-28.58%	Range $63.20 to $68.77; volume 455.5 million
Week		-24.4%	-$21.20 per share

Price data: StockAnalysis (S&P Global Market Intelligence). Weekly and October changes are FSO News calculations from those closes (Sept. 30 close: $120.23).

The stock actually rose for the first three days of the week, climbing to $95.53 on Wednesday. It slipped 3.6% during regular trading on Thursday, a day when Alphabet's record selloff weighed on tech and the Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 1.4%, according to NBC News. Intel then reported results after the bell, and the shares fell more than 20% in extended trading, CNBC reported.

On Friday the stock opened at $68.36, hit a low of $63.20 and closed at $65.76. More than 455 million shares changed hands, over three times Thursday's volume. From Wednesday's close, the stock lost about 31% in two sessions.

Outlets measured the record a little differently. CNBC called it the worst day since the 1970s and CBS News said the biggest single-day drop since 1974. MarketWatch, citing Dow Jones Market Data, said it was the largest one-day drop since at least March 1980 and Intel's biggest one-day loss of market value on record, at about $140 billion.

Why the shares dropped: a weak fourth-quarter forecast

The third quarter itself was solid. In its earnings release on October 29, Intel reported revenue of $16.5 billion, up 21% from $13.7 billion a year earlier. Adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings were 52 cents a share, and GAAP earnings were 60 cents. CNBC said both beat LSEG estimates of $16.5 billion in revenue and 40 cents a share.

The problem was the outlook. Intel's guidance came in far below what Wall Street had modeled:

Q4 2026	Intel guidance	Analyst estimate (LSEG)
Revenue	$15.0 billion to $16.0 billion	$17.1 billion
Adjusted EPS	$0.25	$0.43
GAAP EPS	$0.10	n/a
Adjusted gross margin	38.0%	n/a

Sources: Intel Q3 2026 release (guidance) and CNBC (LSEG estimates). For comparison, Intel's Q3 adjusted gross margin was 44.1%.

The forecast hurt more because the stock had been priced for good news. Goldman Sachs analysts said investor expectations were "skewed positive" going into the report, CNBC reported. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri said Intel "guided well below even the most bearish investor expectations."

What went wrong: PCs, memory prices and an Israel fab shutdown

• A sharper PC slowdown. Revenue in Intel's Client Computing and Physical AI Group, its PC chip unit, fell 5% from a year earlier to $8.1 billion and missed estimates, according to CNBC. "We see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year," chief financial officer David Zinsner said in the release. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya pointed to a "surprisingly sharp drop in PC shipments," which he put at 25% to 30% in the fourth quarter versus the third, with more inventory correction expected in the first half of 2027.
• Memory costs. PC demand is being squeezed by soaring prices for memory chips, as suppliers shift output toward high-bandwidth memory for AI systems, Reuters reported. MarketWatch said Zinsner also pointed to tighter corporate IT budgets on the earnings call.
• The Israel explosion. The guidance includes the impact of an explosion earlier this month at Intel's fab in Israel that killed two workers and seriously injured a third. Zinsner said it will cost about $600 million in lost revenue over two quarters, and CEO Lip-Bu Tan said it caused an "extended shutdown" that is affecting shipments of 10-nanometer chips, per CNBC.
• Not enough server supply. Data center demand is strong, but Intel cannot make enough chips to meet it. Tan said he was "disappointed that we were not able to meet strong customer demand in this quarter," CNBC reported.
• Cash flow. Reuters reported that Intel said it does not expect positive cash flow this year. The company had $21.84 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of September, against $46.32 billion in long-term debt.

The good news in the report

Intel's data center business is booming. Data Center and AI revenue jumped 78% to $7.3 billion, and Zinsner called it the company's "strongest data center revenue growth in 15 years." Intel Foundry revenue rose 58% to $6.7 billion, although the unit still posted an operating loss of about $1.85 billion. The company generated $5.1 billion in cash from operations in the quarter.

On the foundry side, Intel still has no external customers for its newest chips. Tan said on the call, "We're going to have a couple of customers ready to announce the next two quarters," and added that Intel is making "tremendous progress" on its coming 14A process, CNBC reported.

What analysts are saying

At least three firms downgraded the stock, and many more cut their price targets:

• Bank of America: downgraded to Neutral from Buy, target $145 to $100 (CNBC)
• Roth Capital: downgraded to Neutral from Buy, target $120 to $70 (Benzinga)
• D.A. Davidson: downgraded to Neutral from Buy in a note titled "Not fixed yet" (CNBC)
• Jefferies: $120 to $85, Hold (The Fly via TipRanks)
• Wells Fargo: $120 to $80, Equal Weight; Bernstein: $110 to $75, Market Perform; Barclays: $100 to $75, Equal Weight; UBS: $100 to $80, Neutral (CNBC)
• Morgan Stanley: $84 to $75, Equal Weight (The Fly via Business Insider)
• Rosenblatt: $80 to $70, Sell; KeyBanc: $155 to $140, Overweight (Investing.com)

Bernstein's Stacy Rasgon said investors had glossed over "an increasingly negative PC outlook," and that "once again company clearly did not see it coming," CNBC reported. Seaport Research Partners analyst Jay Goldberg told Reuters the selloff reflected "a loss of faith in management's credibility."

Not everyone turned negative. Investing.com reported that Evercore ISI kept an Outperform rating and a $133 target, citing strong server CPU demand. Jefferies said it was a positive that the reset came from PCs rather than a change in the data center business, MarketWatch reported.

How the market and other chip stocks reacted

Intel's warning spread across the sector on Friday. Reuters reported that the chips index fell 7.2%, AMD dropped 10.9%, Nvidia lost 4.2% and server maker Dell fell 10.8%. CNBC said Qualcomm fell 11% and Broadcom more than 5%.

The Nasdaq composite fell 2.86% to 25,437.00, its biggest one-day drop since June, while the S&P 500 lost 1.82% and the Dow fell 1.09%, per Reuters. The selling also hit the U.S. government, which took a 10% stake in Intel last year. CNBC said the value of that stake fell by about $12 billion on Friday. Reuters added that the cost of insuring Intel's debt against default rose to an all-time high.

What to watch next

• Foundry customers: Tan said Intel expects to announce a couple of external customers over the next two quarters.
• Memory prices and PC demand: UBS sees "no relief in sight" for memory pricing and supply, which could keep pressure on PC sales into 2027.
• Server supply: whether Intel can ramp up production fast enough to meet demand for its Xeon data center chips.
• The Israel fab: how quickly the plant returns to full output after the shutdown.
• Chip earnings: AMD reports next week and Nvidia in mid-November, according to CNBC. Their results will show whether the slowdown is limited to PCs.

Sources

• Intel: Intel Reports Third-Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Oct 29, 2026)
• CNBC: Intel stock plunges 21% as chipmaker blames PC slowdown for weak guidance (Oct 29, 2026)
• CNBC: Intel stock has worst day since 1970s, wiping about $12 billion off government's stake (Oct 30, 2026)
• CNBC: Intel issued weaker-than-expected guidance. Analysts are losing confidence in the stock (Oct 30, 2026)
• Reuters via Investing.com: Intel on course for worst day ever, triggers global chip rout (Oct 30, 2026)
• Reuters via StreetInsider: Wall Street closes sharply lower as AI cash burn fears spark tech selloff (Oct 30, 2026)
• MarketWatch via Morningstar: Why Intel's stock saw its worst day in decades, and a $140 billion wipeout (Oct 30, 2026)
• CBS News: Nasdaq sheds more than 700 points as jittery investors pull back from tech stocks (Oct 30, 2026)
• NBC News: Alphabet shares record their worst day ever (Oct 29, 2026)
• Benzinga: These analysts slash their forecasts on Intel after Q3 results (Oct 30, 2026)
• Investing.com: Rosenblatt cuts Intel stock price target to $70 on weak outlook (Oct 30, 2026)
• Business Insider (The Fly): Intel price target lowered to $75 from $84 at Morgan Stanley
• TipRanks (The Fly): Intel price target lowered to $85 from $120 at Jefferies
• StockAnalysis: Intel (INTC) stock price history

This article is news and information only, not investment advice.