Intel, Nvidia among chip stocks retreating in Micron's downgrade wake

Semiconductor stocks were bruised Friday as many of the sector's leaders retreated after Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar cut his rating on memory chipmaker Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Prior to the start of trading, Kumar lowered his take on Micron's (MU) stock to underweight--or, the equivalent of sell--from neutral, and also cut his price target on Micron's (MU) stock to $70 a share from $90. Kumar said the main reason for his negative assessment of Micron (MU) was too much exposure to the market for consumer electronics.

Needless to say, investors didn't like Kumar's opinion, and they sent Micron (MU) shares down by 7.5%, to an intra-day low of $69.58 a share. For the year to date, Micron (MU) shares have given up more than 25%.

With Micron (MU) in the spotlight, other bellwether semiconductor companies also found their shares heading toward ending the week in the red.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was off by 2.6%, while Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) was down by 4.5%, Qualcomm (QCOM) shares fell by 3.5% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) gave up 3% as trading progresses.

For its part, AMD (AMD) said on Thursday that it will host its next analyst day on June 9.