Wednesday's Qualcomm-triggered chip rout, which dragged the S&P 500 down 4.3% as dealers' short gamma positioning amplified the selling, extended into the after-hours session even as individual names diverged sharply on earnings.

Taiwan Semiconductor fell further after hours, underscoring that the semiconductor stress from Qualcomm and Arm's cautious guidance has not stabilized. Microchip Technology dropped 3.8% despite beating estimates, while Solventum fell 3.9% even after raising full-year EPS guidance, a sign that the market is punishing anything tied to hardware and industrial demand regardless of the underlying numbers. Lam Research bucked the trend, rising 6.2% after its board approved a $25bn buyback, among the largest repurchase authorizations of the year.

Consumer names split just as sharply. Airbnb jumped 11.3% after beating revenue estimates, raising full-year growth guidance and authorizing a new $12bn buyback. Lyft fell 8.3% despite forecasting fourth-quarter bookings growth of 13% to 17%, as investors focused on a revenue miss. Axon Enterprise dropped 7.9% even as it disclosed a $1.2bn additional investment in Skydio that lifts its stake to roughly 37%, suggesting the market read the deal as capital-intensive rather than accretive. Monster Beverage slipped 4.7% despite an EPS miss of just a penny. NOV and News Corp each rose 4.7%, and Astera Labs added 4.7%, two of the few chip-adjacent names holding up.

Behind the equity moves, the macro backdrop stayed unsettled. Gold's earlier 2.1% advance faded to a 0.9% gain as investors sold the metal to raise cash, a classic signal of forced deleveraging rather than a genuine risk-off bid. Bitcoin fell 5.4% in the same risk-reduction move.

On the geopolitical front, a mediators' draft reported by Axios would have the US lift its naval blockade of Iran on day one in exchange for Tehran inviting IAEA inspectors to bombed nuclear sites, with the Strait of Hormuz reopening by day two. Separately, reports suggested the Trump administration is stepping back from plans to resume military operations against Iran, even as Marco Rubio defended the war's political costs, including higher gasoline prices, as necessary.

Domestically, the White House's warning to conservative groups after the midterm defeat, with Republicans blaming tariffs and the Iran war for lost congressional control, adds a political layer to a selloff that Trump himself blamed on the election outcome.

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